Mostly true, but #1 is still necessary. You just made a cool thing. You want people to know about it. How do you tell the world? Ideally, it'd be nice to have

Mostly true, but #1 is still necessary. You just made a cool thing. You want people to know about it. How do you tell the world? Ideally, it'd be nice to have a thriving community of independent journalists and reviewers covering just about every topic and using their experience to evaluate new things. Consumers would know where to go to get the information they need. But reality is so much messier. It's February 2013 and I want to buy an X that does Y and Z. How do I truly make an informed decision to buy the absolute best product that meets my needs? Who the hell knows. The resources just aren't there, at least not in a convenient, comprehensive, and objective form. Consumer Reports does some of that, but they're limited in scope. Therefore, advertising and branding.