Marketers say that consumers now have more power than ever because of technology, but where does that power actually come from?

It doesn't come from consumers' ability to make a big fuss out of some issue over the Internet, marketing guru Seth Godin told The Atlantic's Jeff Howe.

Instead, it's derived from "simple competition," said Godin. 

Consumers have more choices than ever because of the availability of products and information online, and this vast increase in choices has given them leverage over the big corporations. 

"Mob rule isn't nearly as important as the leveling and competitive impact of online choice," said Godin, who referenced services like Yelp and TripAdvisor which help consumers compare goods.

The power doesn't come from collective uprisings with catchy hashtags and slogans like what recently happened to Bank of America and Netflix. Those are just "slacktivist tantrums" which are incapable of resolving any complicated issues in the long-term, he said.

On the companies' side, technology has made it much easier for the ones with good products and marketing to become winners.

"If you can make it clear to consumers that you have a better offer, it's infinitely easier to acquire a million consumers than ever before," he said.

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