Marketing Management When Facing Forward-Looking Consumers

As information technology improves rapidly and becomes more accessible, it becomes much easier for consumers to gather product in-formation and spend more time thinking about how to get the most out of their budget constraints. This means that consumers are getting “smarter” and more forward-looking, as well as acting more strategically. Recent academic research has substantially improved our understanding of how forward-looking consumers make decisions. In this chapter, I will discuss some of the research in this area and the challenges a manager faces when customers are forward-looking and strategic.