Attention economy is a phrase that many probably are still unfamiliar with, even though it directly affects their daily activities like decision-making and the fact that it revolves around us all the time. Information consumes the attention of its recipients; hence the huge amount of information causes attention poverty (Simon, n.d. cited in Davenport & Beck, 2002, p. 49). With the help of technology, there are about unlimited amount of information available for people to see. People as the receivers consume the information produced through various media. With the almost limitless information, however, comes the problem of attention deficit. In today’s digital age, people living in an attention economy with a large numbers of information available as well as the number of people, capital, and labor, face lack of attention problem (Davenport & Beck, 2001, p. 2).

Businesses need to promote its product and service to the consumers. How they manage to capture their attention is crucial to their business. What can be a problem is the fact that winning consumers’ attention is not easy especially due to the attention scarce. That’s not all, after they get the consumers’ attention, they need to ensure it sustains and results in customers’ loyalty. It is also important to note that a business needs to hold its own attention so they can focus on picking the right strategy. As stated by Davenport & Beck (2001, p. 3), it is very critical to have proper understanding of the concept of gaining and managing attention since it has now become ‘the most important determinant success of a business’. When a business successfully handles both the consumers’ attention and their own attention, it will lead to a positive result.

As stated in Fairchild (2007, p. 359), attention economy has encouraged business with new ways to generate and maintain long-term relationship with customers. Supported by technology and wide choices of strategy, allocating resources and deciding the most effective strategy such as branding or advertising for their product or service will reflect positively on consumers and result in grabbing consumers’ attention. The effective attention management practice emphasizes not only gaining but also maintaining the audience’s attention.

Due to the fierce competition in the business and the consumers having many choices, companies must realize the need to differentiate itself and determine and focus on a segment that will potentially profit them most (Kotler, 2002, p. 184). Once they have decided on the targeted segment, they can start establishing strategies to achieve their goal. One way to do it is product branding or advertising. An effective branding can help a product or service to put its mark out there, give positive, relatable image, and hold consumer’s attention.

Kapferer (2008, p. 11) stated that brand is a powerful tool to influence audience because a good, well-established brand will draw audience attention. When branding strategy is done well and the brand is desirable and reflects positively, it would lead to buying decision and even repeat buying when the product or service successfully fills the target consumers’ need and want, combined with solid customer relationship. Thus, maintaining the brand image is as important. If the product or service fails to keep the desired image, the consumers would move on to other choices available.

Strategic brand management also gives a business advantage and differentiates them from the other competitors (Wood, 2000, p. 667) so they can win the audience’s attention. It is important that a business carefully carves and manages the brand, putting their attention towards it in order to ensure the strategy will be able to set them apart from others in order to gain the competitive advantage. Once the competitive advantage is gained, the result will be favorable for the business. Furthermore, Spence and Essoussi (2010, p. 1038) mentioned that having brand strength could help a product or service obtain positive response or reaction from the consumers and initiate customers’ attachment and loyalty.

In conclusion, the success of a business cannot be separated from the concept of attention economy. The development of technology and the growing competition have forced businesses to think beyond in order to make the product or service offered stands out among the rest. Branding and advertising are some ways they can utilize to achieve the objective. Having the right image and message for the audience is a major element in being able to grab their attention. Additionally, how a business manages its attention in distributing and managing its resources to pick and execute the best strategy to grab audience’s attention is as important as maintaining it, which would be the key to their success in the middle of growing competition in their respective industry.

Sources:

Davenport, T. H., & Beck, J. C., 2001, The Attention Economy: Understanding the New Currency of Business, Harvard Business School Press, Boston.

Davenport, T. H., & Beck, J. C., 2002, ‘The Strategy and Structure of Firms in the Attention Economy’, Ivey Business Journal.

Fairchild, C., 2007, ‘Building the Authentic Celebrity: The “Idol” Phenomenon in the Attention Economy’, Popular Music and Society, vol. 30(3), pp. 355-375.

Kapferer, J. N., 2008, The New Strategic Brand Management: Creating and Sustaining Brand Equity Long Term, 4th ed., Kogan Page, London.

Kotler, P., 2002, Marketing Management, Millenium ed., Pearson, Boston.

Spence, M. & Essousi L. H., 2008, ‘SME brand building and management: an exploratory study’, European Journal of Marketing, 44 (7/8), pp. 1037-1054.

Wood, L., 2000,’ Brands and brand equity: definition and management’, Management Decision, 38 (9), pp. 662-669.