The world of marketing and branding is in the midst of a series of transformations. A key skill now is knowing which elements of the old marketing model to discard and which to embrace - and when. Business as we know it is run by sellers for sellers. Marketing as we know it is the product of this seller-centric business system. Now, with the arrival of the information age, this familiar seller-centric world is being turned upside down. Get ready for a new era of buyer-centric business and marketing: where the organized consumer wrests control from organized capital; where helping buyers buy takes precedence over helping sellers sell. Amidst a tidal wave of hype surrounding the Internet and e-commerce, this fundamentally important shift has been overlooked. In this book leading marketing journalist, Alan Mitchell, rectifies the omission. It analyzes the emergence of the consumer agent - a new breed of business, which organizes and represents consumers within the market place and acts as the catalyst of change.