OP ED: Does 'Push' Media Live Up To The Hype?

Push media is a hot topic right now. While browser technology enables individuals to "pull" information into their world, "push" media is all about pushing information into their worlds--that is, into their e-mail boxes. Examples of push media pioneers are Pointcast and Netscape's In Box Direct. Because travel is one of the hottest content areas for the Web, how will travel management be affected as pull moves to push?

The answer to this question can be contemplated by considering three areas: one, what the Internet is and what it isn't; two, privacy issues; and three, cognitive limitations.

What is the Internet and what is it not? In a word, the Internet is infrastructure. The Internet simply is a new, faster infrastructure for communication and interaction--from an economic standpoint, although not necessarily from a bandwidth standpoint. The Internet doesn't change any participants' economic motivations, although it might reduce either sellers' distribution costs or buyers' search-for-goods costs. It doesn't make sellers want to make less money and it doesn't make buyers more or less price elastic.

So, if the Internet is simply a new form of infrastructure, then for all of the same reasons that a particular product or service was outsourced or required an intermediary before, the product or service still will require the same arrangement (assuming, of course, that the intermediary added value to the interaction beyond simple communication). Therefore, the fact that some people liked the pull approach while some folks liked the push approach should not change significantly just because the infrastructure has changed. For example, in the travel arena, travelers who liked to shop around still will like to pull their information, and shoppers who love looking at brochures enclosed in their bank statements will love their e-mail box filling up with bargains on travel packages.

So, ultimately, nothing really changes in travel management. Unless, of course, one argues that solicitations would be more welcome because they would be better targeted through Internet database marketing advances--which leads us to the second area of consideration, privacy.

Because the Internet is a less expensive distribution channel, many more advertisers will begin to push their way into consumers' worlds. And, unlike a shopper's stroll around the Mall, a surf over the Internet is tracked. An individual's "cookie file" is keeping track of everything they look at--not just where they buy, but where they window shop. Marketers' subsequent push advertisements and sales pitches have the potential to quickly invade a surfer's privacy. Unless this scenario is changed with safeguards, consumers may begin to view the Web negatively.

Finally, cognitive limitations will have an effect on how push media affects travel management. We only have so much time in the day to make decisions. As push media proliferates, overload occurs. Until "intelligent agents" are sophisticated enough to filter out, summarize and make decisions on a lot of the results from push media, there is a limit to how successful it can be.

<I>Dana Michele O'Brien is director of corporate marketing for Rosenbluth International.