TY - JOUR AB - Purpose The contemporary organizations invest a lot of funds to gain a better understanding of the emerging needs of customers in near future. However, customers sometimes do not appreciate these hard efforts which lead to some unanticipated results for the firm. The purpose of this paper is to identify the customers’ perceptions about the future anticipatory measures done by a company.Design/methodology/approach The authors employed triangulation of methods to develop credibility of techniques and the findings of this qualitative research study. A semi-structured interview with six participants is used to explore the phenomena. After the authors gained a better understanding about the phenomena, a focus group discussion with eight participants was held to gain a better understanding of perceptions of future. Finally, the digital ethnography was employed to better explore customer behavior.Findings The results show that future anticipatory efforts conducted by a company are highly appreciated by the customers. This, in turn, builds a positive autobiographical memory for customers that lead to the development of a brand relationship.Originality/value The application of futurology to study within a marketing context and the employment of autobiographical memory are unique products of this study. VL - 29 IS - 3 SN - 1355-5855 DO - 10.1108/APJML-01-2016-0010 UR - https://doi.org/10.1108/APJML-01-2016-0010 AU - Haryanto Jony AU - Kashif Muhammad AU - Moutinho Luiz AU - Pasharibu Yusepaldo PY - 2017 Y1 - 2017/01/01 TI - What if the future never comes? Understanding consumer perceptions of future anticipatory efforts of brands T2 - Asia Pacific Journal of Marketing and Logistics PB - Emerald Publishing Limited SP - 669 EP - 685 Y2 - 2024/04/16 ER -