I was thinking about how traditional consumer marketing has an information asymmetry: the producer of the product always knows more about their product that the customer. They are able, through marketing and branding, to emphasise particular elements and de-emphasise others. Sure, there may be requirements to provide technical specifications or even an ingredients list but, for many valid (and sometimes not so valid) reasons, not every little detail is available to the customer...or to other competitors.
Think the recipe for Coca-Cola or the Colonel's herbs and spices (that last one might have been leaked though?)
But it isn't entirely unfair, because the customer also has information asymmetry on their side: they always knows more about themselves than the producer/seller. We could have a good discussion about how true this is in the sense that there seems to be ample evidence that sometimes suppliers of a good might know our wants and needs better than we do, but that's at an aggregate level. The desire to understand individual customers and to know more about them is why market research surveys and customer profiles on websites exist, right?
How many companies know my date of birth because I've told them what it is?
So, we've operated under this system for as long as there has been a retail market of millions of semi-anonymous consumers demanding products where the production methods have been beyond the ability for the average punter to figure out. Was this the case 'back in the day' when shopping in the local village meant engaging with traders who really did know you as a person because they also played in the same football team as you and went to church with you, and where their goods were things which you knew exactly how they were constructed, baked or prepared? Probably not. But at least in the latter part of the 20th century through to today, I think this has been the norm.
Competing asymmetries.
But I wonder if this is changing – at least on one side of the equation – as we augment some of our capabilities with AI? And, if so, what does this mean for established norms of marketing and advertising?
If I can now send semi-autonomous agents off to research every aspect of a product I am looking at buying: tirelessly exploring ingredient provenance (blockchained or not), manufacturing methods, patent filings, legal cases, chemical analyses, YouTube videos of people breaking the product down, competitor analyses, 3D models and testing simulations – and then delivering a summary report in minutes, can manufacturers and suppliers still hide the details?
At the same time, can that agentic augmentation of commerce only further enrich the customer asymmetry side of the equation? Do cookies and IP address tracking and other methods work when it isn't me at my web browser asking the questions, but rather hundreds of my agents asking different questions and poking and prodding from different angles? Maybe I never even search or ask any questions myself at all? Or I do, but to my staff of agents who know my preferences and also know how to evade being detected?
It is something I am definitely thinking about and researching further because I think the potential implications for those involved in commerce and trade could be big.