On May 15, 2012, The New York Times published an article by Adam Davidson, co-founder of NPR’s Planet Money, titled Making Choices In the Age of Information Overload.
Mr. Davidson meshes together brand information overload or, if you prefer, signaling on one hand and product information/review overload on the other. He thinks that we, as consumers, are better off in an information-rich world. I would go the extra mile and call it an information-obese one.
At one point he quotes a business professor from the University of California, Davis: “If there is a critical-enough mass of informed buyers, that is sufficient” to pressure manufacturers to make better-quality goods, Bhargava says. “That group of informed consumers creates a force. It doesn’t have to be everybody.”
There are two problems here. First, what is a critical-enough mass? 100, 200, 1000 buyers? More?
Second, how do you know that you are dealing with informed buyers and not a company’s employees or software comment bots? And what’s an informed buyer? Somebody who has been using the product for two days and claiming it’s a sturdy, very solid unit or one who has been using it for 2 years?
Some solid, peer-verified scientific ground is more than welcome to back this kind of marketoid statement. I would have preferred it if Mr. Davidson interviewed a psychologist/sociologist instead of a business professor.
