Which of the following are supporting reasons provided in the paragraph above? Check all that apply. The proliferation of advertising platforms and the rediscovery of techniques such as product placement have coincided with one of the longest periods of low inflation in modern history, with real prices (dollars per unit of consumer value) actually dropping substantially for many goods and services such as automobiles, clothes, and electronic equipment. At the same time, ads generally reduce prices rather than increase them. Having a wide variety of such tools allows firms to be more effective competitors and innovators, an effect already being demonstrated by the rising productivity of marketing expenditures in the new era of mass customization