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…under certain conditions people can be overwhelmed by too many disorganized options, [but] in most real-world buying situations, options are already well sorted.

While emotional response is often very important, for products and services that have specs quality is usually regarded by consumers as the most important consideration that should guide choices.

Buyers are mainly sensitive to relative differences, not absolute price.

…a massive increase in price buys only an incremental increase in cachet.

In the absence of market values, selling prices are typically twice as much as buying prices (above and beyond any strategic exaggeration for the sake of bargaining).

Upper-middle-class consumers are angry because they can’t afford the gear featured in the store and worn by celebrities. The knee-jerk reaction is to get happy by buying something else.

…consumers pay too much attention to prices and not enough to the buying power that those prices represent. The signifier becomes more important than the signified.

When buyers can know more than sellers, sellers are no longer protectors and purveyors of information.

When sellers and buyers are evenly matched, pushing for win-lose rarely leads to a win for anyone – and often ends in lose-lose.

Channeling an industry’s conventional wisdom about which buyer group to target can lead to the discovery of new blue oceans.