The Intention Economy: Huge Opportunity for the Future

By Bill Cherry

Over the last 10 years, various economic trends have emerged and faded away. The concept of the Intention Economy has surfaced again and it appears that it is here to stay. The Intention Economy is illustrated by the buyer notifying the market of the intent to buy something at a certain price, and then sellers compete for the buyer’s purchase. Priceline.com is an example. Buyers list a predetermined price they will pay for certain travel services such as airfare, hotels, and rental cars, and when a seller like Southwest Airlines is  willing to sell for that price they make the deal. This kind of model is not new, but it is most often set up in specific product/service categories such as travel.

The new twist with Intention Marketing is that buyers are increasingly wanting a service where they can post different items/services they want at a certain price, and then an “information broker’s database searches and finds the different business sellers willing to match the price asked. For example, An 18 year old male may post information wanting a specific skateboard for $55, an Ipod for $39, and a boxed CD set of Pink Floyd for $29. An information broker will then scan the web and submit different seller’s offers to meet the requested prices. It’s another convenience for the customer.
Intention Marketing can also generate commercially fueled “Crowd Clout� to persuade manufacturers and suppliers to pay attention to the group’s wants, or to force them to sell to the crowd at deep discounts when the group orders products in bulk, kind of like a shopping club like Cosco.

Another model is an information broker signs up as many people as possible that want the same things, and then negotiate group discounts with suppliers. Members then decide if they want to accept an offer. One website example is www.unitedconsumers.com. They negotiate group discounts on insurance, gasoline, and electricity for its 250,000 members.

One of the great opportunities for new businesses in the near future is with social networking sites like My Space, creating the marketing model and setup for intention marketing and facilitates the process. These social networking websites have large crowd clout with MySpace having 150 million, Facebook 18  million, and Bebo 8 million members. The business community needs to keep their eyes out for the intention marketing opportunities and for other emerging trends.