Significance

Until recently, most companies, especially well-established ones, served their customers in predictable ways and could largely take their customers for granted. Most product segments had a few established brands and the customer did not have much to choose from. High entry barriers were a huge deterrent for new players, which meant that for most products and services, enterprises were in a market-driving position. Consumers made their buying decisions based on a sequential "funnel" model of awareness-interest-desire-action. The consumer had no other source of information about the products than what was provided by the marketers and, more importantly, the engagement with the consumer was extremely minimal until the "action," that is, ready to buy stage was reached.

Contrast this with today's environment, where the customer has plenty of choice, a new player can suddenly crop up and disrupt the market with a unique offering, there is plenty of independent information available...