Here is how I combat marketing to extract the most consumer surplus.

I try to research the item I am going to buy and find out what I should look for and why I should buy one product vs. another, assuming they are not presented as homogonous goods. I will say that I spend too much time researching a good and create diminishing returns. I have found that if I use the formula of utility = 1/X. {X = price}. This is a loose guideline and is affected by my passion for the good and the goods durability.

Some good web sites for this quick research are:
Consumer reports is good but it costs, therefore libraries can be helpful
http://www.consumersearch.com/
www.epinions.com can be good
www.amazon seems to be decent
just google/yahoo with the key words: review, ratings,…

we all know this philosophy but I wanted to reiterate how much it forces market equilibrium. It is a shame we have become such easy targets for cheaply made products.