Path Dependency Precedes Brand Choice

"What those people weren’t realising was path dependency, which is about how I want a book or I hear about a book or someone mentions a book or I read about a book or I think about a book or my course professor tells me I need a book. The next decision is which channel I should buy it in — shall I go to a shop or shall I go online? And then the third decision is, in that channel, which branch shall I go to? Now, within the bookshop channel, Barnes & Noble were strong, but once you’ve made the decision that you’re buying that book online the strongest brand in the online channel was Amazon."

"In path dependency terms your channel choice may precede your brand choice."

"I’ll give you an example of this. You probably prefer Pizza Express to Domino’s, okay? But then sometimes you’re sitting at home and you decide “I’m not going to go out for a pizza, I’m not going to collect a pizza, I want one delivered,” and then when you make the delivery decision, your whole brand repertoire changes, and actually Pizza Express don’t deliver. Don’t you think someone should start a business where they collect from Pizza Express and take it to your house? Like Ocado? Yeah, like Ocado. Anyway, what will happen is your frame of reference will go to Domino’s. If I was going out for a pizza or going to collect a pizza, Domino’s may not even feature, but once you switch mode then actually your whole repertoire completely changes."