Abstract:

In the emerging network economy, attention will be an increasingly scarce commodity. Firms will have think of themselves as operating both in an Attention Market and their core market. Attention will be hard to earn, but if it is viewed as a reciprocal flow, firms can use information about consumers and customers to stand out in a sea of content to increase profitability: pay attention to them and they pay attention to you. Relationships are likely to encompass attention transactions. As customers realise the value of their attention and their information needed to get it, we show that they may require payment of some kind for both. The provision of supporting customers overload of information and its management through Relationship Technologies that provide intelligent sensitive support will be a highly valuable means of putting your brand to the fore in the competition for attention.