Michael Willmott, William Nelson
ISBN: 0-470-01263-3
Paper
246 pages
August 2005

No matter what your age or occupation, life is complicated. If someone arrived from the 1950s, today's range of goods, gadgets, brands, sub-brands, own brands and varieties would seem unimaginable and unmanageable. Yet retail complexity is just one example of a developing range of choices that permeate our lives. Other factors include cultural and commercial globalisation, a proliferation of new channels, the decline in deference to traditional institutions such as the church and family and the rise of the 'anxiety society'. Now, more than ever before, life is complicated. Drawing on a three-year project carried out with the Abbey National, this book is about such complexity and the challenges that it presents to companies and organisations seeking to be consumer-led. Exploring the issues themselves alongside a range of viable responses (from the development of choice-simplifying brands to radical new segmentation techniques), Michael Willmott and William Nelson illustrate why coming to terms with complexity is the first step on the road to future profitability - and the unique oppo rtunities that are available to companies that can achieve it.