Absolute Value - What Really Influences Customers in the Age of (Nearly) Perfect Information

INTRODUCTION

HERE ARE FIVE widely held beliefs about marketing and decision making that we collected from recent publications. This book explains why these (and other) statements are becoming less true today, and why they are likely to be even less true in the future:

“A company’s brand is more important today than it has ever been.”

“Nurturing loyalty should be the marketer’s primary, day-to-day concern.”

“All customers are irrational.”

“An overload of options may actually paralyze people.”

“Positioning is the most important part of the marketing game.” 1

Why do we think that these mantras will become less relevant? Our answer is rooted in a fundamental shift in consumer decision making: Consumers used to make decisions relative to other things—a ...