The new chaos of buying. Branding in the age of too much

When Decision-Making Gets Messy: the Messy Middle

For decades, marketing treated consumer behavior as a predictable funnel. Trigger, consideration, decision. Neat. Linear. Rational.

But real life doesn’t work like that. It never did.

Today’s consumer journey is anything but linear. We live in an age of endless choice, constant distraction, and invisible algorithms shaping what we want before we even know we want it. Google gave this reality a name: the messy middle.

ZWOT Changed Everything

Back in 2011, Google coined the Zero Moment of Truth (ZWOT). It described the moment when a consumer, prompted by a stimulus, searched for information before making a purchase.

That moment is no longer a point. It’s a labyrinth.

Consumers don’t click once. They scroll, compare, save, abandon, hesitate, restart.
our brand must appear more than once and when it does, it must show up with clarity, consistency and relevance.

What is the Messy Middle?

It’s the space between first interest and final decision. Where consumers hesitate and where many brands disappear.

Consumers don’t go from A to B. They loop.

They explore. They expand their options. They browse, compare and discover new brands.
They evaluate. They narrow choices, eliminate alternatives, weigh pros and cons.

This can take minutes or weeks, it’s not linear. Not predictable. And rarely rational.

Everything matters: reviews, pricing, delivery time, familiarity, what friends say, how they feel that day.

And in this chaos, branding becomes the difference.

A strong brand simplifies the journey, creates trust and makes the decision feel easy.

The 4S behaviours: navigating the messy middle in real time

The messy middle isn’t a place. It’s a pattern, shaped by how people behave across platforms and screens. To understand it, we need to observe what people actually do:

Streaming is no longer just entertainment. It’s discovery in motion. Consumers are immersed in personalised content across YouTube, podcasts and connected TV. Watching becomes learning. Learning becomes shopping. The journey flows, not in steps, but in signals.

Scrolling is the new window shopping. Whether on social feeds or inspiration platforms, people are always scanning. A single post, image or influencer mention can flip a moment of distraction into a decision to buy.

Searching is no longer just typed input. It’s voice, image, chat and video. People use Lens to identify what they see. Gemini to explore with conversation. YouTube to watch reviews. Search is multimodal, instant and smarter than ever.

Shopping is seamless and everywhere. In a swipe. In a story. In a click. The traditional path to purchase has shattered into micro-moments. Each one a chance to convert — or be forgotten.

These 4 behaviours prove what the messy middle already tells us: there’s no funnel, no straight line, no clear step-by-step.

To win, brands need to meet people in the flow, not force them into a path.

Streaming as discovery: 62% of Gen Z discovers products through streaming platforms, where passive watching becomes active shopping.

Scrolling as action: Mobile impulse purchases surged 40%+ YoY . One thumb swipe can convert distraction to decision. A single scroll can flip distraction into decision.

Searching as instant intent: 50% of purchases complete within 1 hour of search. The window for conversion has never been shorter.

Shopping anywhere: 63% of shoppers blend 3+ channels. from TikTok clicks to in-store scans to ‘buy now’ buttons in podcasts.

Evoked set and consideration set

Before consumers search, they remember. They carry mental shortlists. That’s the evoked set, the brands that come to mind effortlessly.

Then comes the consideration set , the brands they are actually willing to explore in that specific buying moment.

The two sets overlap, but they’re not the same. The evoked set is memory. The consideration set is intention. You can be remembered but not considered. Or considered without being remembered until now.

Strong branding helps you exist in both. It creates familiarity that gets you recalled, and relevance that gets you chosen.

Because in a noisy market, being visible is not enough. You need to be mentally available before the search and emotionally credible during the decision.

If your brand isn’t in the evoked set, you’re not remembered. If it’s not in the consideration set, you’re not chosen. And if you’re in neither, you don’t exist in that decision.

So visibility is not enough. You can’t just show up. You have to stick.

That stickiness comes from branding that is:

• Consistent across platforms and time

• Distinctive in its look, tone, and point of view

• Meaningful in the context of the consumer’s life

Think of Nike.
People don’t always look for sportswear. But when they do, Nike is already there, in top of mind, trusted, loaded with meaning. Same with Apple, IKEA, Sephora, Airbnb.

Being in the evoked set is about preference before presence.
It’s branding that does the heavy lifting before performance marketing even enters the scene.

Because if your brand only lives in paid results, you’ll always be paying to be remembered.

Choice overload and feature fatigue: a modern paralysis

In theory, more choice empowers, but in practice, it paralyses.

Choice overload happens when everything looks like a good option.
Too many options. Too many comparisons. Too many "just in case" tabs. We freeze. Or fall back on what we know.

Ask yourself:
How many apps do you have on your phone?
How many do you actually use in a day?
How many browser tabs do you open to read “later” and never go back to?

Exactly.

The mental cost of choice is real. So we defer decisions. Abandon carts. Default to trusted brands, not because they’re better, but because they’re easier to process.

Then comes feature fatigue. Brands add more buttons. More plans. More technical jargon.
It’s meant to impress, but in reality it overwhelms.

People don’t want to study to make a purchase, they want to feel like they already understand it.

In a world full of noise, clarity becomes a competitive advantage and people crave simplicity, not minimalism, simplicity that makes them feel in control

With:

• 59% discovering brands accidentally via streaming

• 43% more impulse buys on mobile

• 50% converting within 60 minutes of search

...consumers face decision paralysis. They default to familiar brands not because they're better – but because they're biologically easier to process (Journal of Consumer Psychology, 2022).

Strong brands cut through complexity and focus, prioritise and say just enough and well.

Because when the brain is tired, and the options are too many, we don’t pick the best option. We pick the clearest.

62% Gen Z discovers via streaming

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Over 40% mobile impulse growth

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63% use 3+ channels

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50% buy within 1h of search

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62% Gen Z discovers via streaming 〰️ Over 40% mobile impulse growth 〰️ 63% use 3+ channels 〰️ 50% buy within 1h of search 〰️

Digital or physical? The messy middle doesn’t care

People don’t separate online from offline. We do. As marketers. They don’t.

They scroll through Instagram, walk into a store, try the product, leave. Days later, they buy it online. Or the other way around. Sometimes they click "Buy Now" without ever touching the product. Other times, they won’t buy until they’ve held it in their hands.

It’s not a linear funnel. It’s not a battle of channels. It’s one experience, fragmented by devices but unified by expectation.

Showrooming. Webrooming. Cart abandonment. Retargeting. It’s all part of the same journey.

That’s why branding must be channel-agnostic but experience-consistent.
What people see on screen must match what they feel in real life. Same tone. Same trust. Same promise. Same visual.

The physical store is no longer just a point of sale. It’s where emotion gets validated. Where people check if the brand lives up to its image. Where branding becomes physical, sensory, real, even if the actual transaction happens somewhere else.

And here’s the strategic truth: You can’t depend on one channel.
Not in a world where algorithms shift, platforms crash, and digital rules change overnight.
You wouldn’t put all your eggs in one basket, so don’t build your brand in only one dimension.

Because the brand that survives is not the loudest on one platform. It’s the one that feels familiar, trusted and recognisable, everywhere.

Not all purchases are equal

Not every decision follows the same logic. Some are instant, others take time.
And the type of investment — emotional, financial, functional — shapes the path.

In low-investment purchases, like snacks, skincare or mobile apps, the sequence is often:

Emotion first. Something catches the eye, sparks curiosity, triggers desire.
Action next. The click, the add-to-cart, the tap to download.
Justification last. “It was cheap.” “I’ve seen it before.” “Why not?”

Here, branding acts as a shortcut.
It drives impulse. Reduces hesitation. Makes it feel safe to say yes.

In high-investment decisions, like buying a house, a car, a course, or switching careers , the path flips.

Logic leads. People search, compare, analyse, take notes.
Desire builds. A preference starts forming.
Emotion seals it. Trust in the brand becomes the deciding factor.

These are not quick choices. They are commitments in those moments, branding isn’t there to seduce, it’s there to reassure, to give credibility, to act as a stamp of trust.

Across both extremes, branding matters, it either pushes the button fast, or it holds the consumer steady through uncertainty.

Because whether it’s a lipstick or a life decision, brands shape how decisions feel, not just what they are.

And what sets winning brands apart?

Winning brands don’t just show up, they stand out, and they stay.

They don’t rely on noise, they build clarity in a world that confuses, build consistency in a world that distracts, build credibility in a world that doubts and they build context in a world that moves too fast.

Here’s what they do differently:

• They’re clear. Because confusion kills confidence. If people don’t get it fast, they move on.

• They’re consistent. Because scattered messages break trust. Every touchpoint says the same thing, in the same voice.

• They’re credible. Because people don’t buy what you say. They buy what they believe.

• They’re contextual. Because the right message in the wrong moment is the same as no message at all.

Presence is not power. Relevance is.

And that’s what separates brands people scroll past…from the ones they come back to, again and again.

Who’s Winning the Messy Middle?

Some brands don’t just survive the chaos. They master it.

Apple sells high-investment products, but the decision feels easy. Everything — the store, the packaging, the interface — whispers clarity and control. You don’t buy a product. You buy into the brand.

Nike sells identity. Not shoes. You’re not buying cushioning. You’re buying purpose. Belonging. Energy. Their branding is emotion, in motion.

Patagonia wins by standing for something. Every touchpoint reflects its values — transparency, sustainability, anti-consumerism. That clarity of purpose builds loyalty deeper than price.

Glossier and Rhode are born of the algorithm. Built for the feed. They speak the native language of aspiration and belonging. Everything from packaging to community feels personal — like you discovered them before everyone else.

Glossier leveraged these behaviors:

• 68% of their customers discover products through social scrolling

• Their checkout flow takes <90 seconds (vs. industry avg. 3 min)
  Proving: speed + discovery = conversion in the messy middle."

These brands don’t compete on features. They build emotional shortcuts. They live rent-free in your mind. Long before you search. Long after you buy.

The new advantage is more and more about branding

ZWOT taught us to show up. The messy middle teaches us to matter. Consumers are tired. Distracted. Overstimulated. If your brand makes life easier, it wins.

These numbers reveal the new math of branding:
59% discovery + 43% impulse + 50% instant intent = 100% need for always-on brand presence.

The win goes to the brand that gets chosen when the consumer no longer wants to choose.

“Consumers don’t choose brands. They live with them.”
— Gerald Zaltman, Harvard Business School

And that’s the point…We’re not building brands to be picked, really, we’re building brands to be lived with.

Data sources: GWI (2023), Google Commerce Insights (2022), Google/Material (2021), Salesforce (2023)