Unless you are in the advertising business or were involved in the debates about the future of Facebook you may not know that the future of advertising on your smart phone is looking pretty grim right now.
Dish network is joining the world of TiVo in recognizing the need to skip over TV advertising. The reason is simple. As more people get their TV over the Internet there are fewer people who are willing to tolerate advertising.
Since I wrote a book (with Salli Rasberry) in 1984 called Marketing Without Advertising I am certainly the living expert on this issue. People almost invariably do not like advertising especially since broadcast advertising is irrelevant to their needs or interests.
There is a new problem for advertising. It is the very small screen on the smart phone. The smart phone has become a major source of Internet information for nearly everyone but especially people under 35. The richest advertising market.
The small screen is simply too small for advertising to be readable and not interfere with the rest of the relevant useful information on the screen.
Yes, it is obvious that advertising usage has been decreasing rapidly thanks to Google and Craigslist for the past decade. It will decrease even more rapidly in the coming decade.(Neither of these are advertising, they are 'listing' a place you go to look for information.)
So how do customers find businesses and vice versa? You will have to read Marketing Without Advertising which is already de facto the primary book in marketing in English.
The simple answer is: that good businesses are promoted by their customers.