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Author : Martin Lindstrom
Number of Pages : 256
Release Date : 2008-10-21
Publisher : Broadway Books
List Price : $24.95
Amazon Price : $13.95
Used Price : $11.99 |
Product Description How much do we know about why we buy? What truly influences our decisions in today’s message-cluttered world? An eye-grabbing advertisement, a catchy slogan, an infectious jingle? Or do our buying decisions take place below the surface, so deep within our subconscious minds, we’re barely aware of them? In BUYOLOGY, Lindstrom presents the astonishing findings from his groundbreaking, three-year, seven-million-dollar neuromarketing study, a cutting-edge experiment that peered inside the brains of 2,000 volunteers from all around the world as they encountered various ads, logos, commercials, brands, and products. His startling results shatter much of what we have long believed about what seduces our interest and drives us to buy. Among his finding: Gruesome health warnings on cigarette packages not only fail to discourage smoking, they actually make smokers want to light up.
Despite government bans, subliminal advertising still surrounds us – from bars to highway billboards to supermarket shelves. "Cool” brands, like iPods trigger our mating instincts. Other senses – smell, touch, and sound - are so powerful, they physically arouse us when we see a product. Sex doesn't sell. In many cases, people in skimpy clothing and suggestive poses not only fail to persuade us to buy products - they often turn us away . Companies routinetly copy from the world of religion and create rituals – like drinking a Corona with a lime – to capture our hard-earned dollars. Filled with entertaining inside stories about how we respond to such well-known brands as Marlboro, Nokia, Calvin Klein, Ford, and American Idol, BUYOLOGY is a fascinating and shocking journey into the mind of today’s consumer that will captivate anyone who’s been seduced – or turned off – by marketers’ relentless attempts to win our loyalty, our money, and our minds. Includes a foreword by Paco Underhill. Customer reviews A compelling read, soon to be a business classic by .. Rebecca Clement (Philadelphia, PA)
What are the real motivators that fuel the limitless number of purchases the average person makes in a year? Are consumers really telling the truth when they claim to buy a product for its quality and not for the status that it may afford them?
Marketing guru Martin Lindstrom devoted three years and seven million dollars in research to discover that when it comes to buying, the mind tells truths while the mouth lies. His research involves the use of a functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) scanner to study the amount of oxygenated blood in areas of the brain. His goal was to study the areas that showed increased response in relation to purchasing and compare that to the answers study participants gave when asked about why they buy.
The findings of his groundbreaking research are compiled into the must-read book, Buyology. Full of compelling and captivating case/brand studies, it's a rare and refreshing "page-turner" in the business book category. Even more important, the book is smart and innovative on how the latest in brain science effects business, and it promises to up-the-bar on books on neuromarketing.
Buy the book. But when you buy it, think twice about why.
Bland with an Egotistical Author  by .. Quasi (New York, NY)
This is a lame book. I found myself skipping paragraphs at first, pages after a while, and then the last third of the book entirely. Three problems:
1) There's not much new here.
2) The author can't shut up about how awesome he is.
3) Padding padding padding.
Insights Into Marketing and the Human Brain  by .. Gregg Eldred (Avon Lake, OH USA)
Three years and millions of dollars later, Martin Lindstrom presents you with a book on neuromarketing, a technique using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and steady-state typography (SST) which measures conscience and subconscious reactions to marketing, advertising, products and brands. SST provides real-time information from the brain, while fMRI maps the areas of the brain that are active at the time of the stimulation. Together, these techniques provide insight into the motivation for items that we buy. Neuromarketing goes beyond the simple interview process, focus groups, and the like, and determines the actual triggers in the brain that cause us to feel the way we do toward brands, advertisements, and marketing.
Contents:
A Rush of Blood to the Brain: The Largest Neuromarketing Study Ever Conducted
This Must Be The Place: Product Placement, American Idol, and Ford's Multimillion-Dollar Mistake
I'll Have What She's Having: Mirror Neurons at Work
I Can't See Clearly Now: Subliminal Messaging, Alive and Well
Do You Believe in Magic?: Ritual, Superstition, and Why We Buy
I Say A Little Prayer: Faith, Religion, and Brands
Why Did I Choose You?: The Power of Somatic Markers
A Sense of Wonder: Selling to Our Senses
And the Answer Is . . . : Neuromarketing and Predicting the Future
Let's Spend the Night Together: Sex in Advertising
Conclusion: Brand New Day
Appendix
Acknowledgements
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Martin Lindstrom, the author of Buyology: Truth and Lies About Why We Buy, reports on the results of his study of brands, advertising, and marketing using a combination of fMRI and SST. This new technique, neuromarketing, delves in the mind of the consumer to determine which areas of the brain are affected and then to develop a campaign that leverages the real reasons why a person chooses a particular brand over another. In Lindstrom's study, he used his volunteers to examine some very popular brands, discovered why warnings on cigarettes are actually contributing to a rise in smoking, and looked at subliminal advertising (it is alive and well), among other things. The result is an incredibly interesting look at the base reasons why we buy; the subconscious is making the decision for you even before you have time to recognize that you are looking at competing brands of soda. Further, Lindstrom shows that combining smell, touch, and sound has an effect on our purchasing patterns.
This is more than a simple marketing or business book. Lindstrom shows how advances in technology are allowing companies to leverage specific feelings toward products and people to separate you from your hard earned dollars. While some of the results are startling, such as the rise in smoking due to warnings on the packages, others reveal a lot about the way people think and remember, and how that affects our buying patterns. Lindstrom also shows how YouTube is changing the way that companies market, specifically by allowing fans of a product to produce their own advertisements. This is a powerful new medium, as it allows people to connect with similar individuals, which helps the brands and products. But the most fascinating aspect is when he goes into the lab to see how brands affect specific areas of the brain. This book is all about the results of the lab work, very little time is dedicated to the actual data or the science. For those that need additional information, Lindstrom provides very good Notes (all accessible on the internet) and a Bibliography. Both are excellent resources for those that need more of the science involved.
While this book may frighten you, as it reveals new methods of marketing and advertising, it also provides you with the tools to recognize neuromarketing and allows you to gain some insight into how your brain works. You may not be able to combat neuromarketing, but you may be able to distinguish it and curb some of its effects. After reading this book, I have a new appreciation for the shopping experience as well as a better understanding of the advertisements I see on television and in print. I also know why there is major brand placement in movies and television shows. Buyology has provided valuable insights into the mind and marketing.
All Sizzle, No Steak by .. Dugan (Chicago)
This book discusses a few interesting ideas, but did very little to actually substantiate the claims. It's full of anecdotal evidence with no time spent on correlation.
As a magician's trick: entertaining but fake  by .. Philip Spriet (Belgium)
For sure, a good read, a real page turner.
But a complete waist of paper if you want to know something about neuromarketing, above the simple fact that it is a fascinating idea. The book is full of contradictions, makes the one unfunded statement after the other, and even in a mercifull moment you cannot call this science or even a scientific approach. Any experiment, oh wonder, confirms the hypothesis, there is no noise in the data, no false positives, no biased observations, no neuromarketing is doing research in paradise. It reminded me of Rorsach observations: you read in it what you want to hear.
And is not because Lindstrom is stating his "facts" with a lot of aplomb, that we should believe him. HIs book and its content have someting of the act of a magician: entertaining, but fake, shallow and an empty box. The subject deserves better. But we should have known: marketeers that write books seldon do better than car sales men, they promise and overpromise, and you leave them with a worhless car.
Related Search : lies buy , buyology truth  |
Author : Paco Underhill
Number of Pages : 256
Publisher : Simon & Schuster
List Price : $15.00
Amazon Price : $5.83
Used Price : $4.74 |
Product Description Is there a method to our madness when it comes to shopping? Hailed by the San Francisco Chronicle as "a Sherlock Holmes for retailers," author and research company CEO Paco Underhill answers with a definitive "yes" in this witty, eye-opening report on our ever-evolving consumer culture. Why We Buy is based on hard data gleaned from thousands of hours of field research -- in shopping malls, department stores, and supermarkets across America. With his team of sleuths tracking our every move, from sweater displays at the mall to the beverage cooler at the drugstore, Paco Underhill lays bare the struggle among merchants, marketers, and increasingly knowledgeable consumers for control. In his quest to discover what makes the contemporary consumer tick, Underhill explains the shopping phenomena that often go unnoticed by retailers and shoppers alike, including: How a well-placed shopping basket can turn a small purchase into a significant sale
What the "butt-brush factor" is and how it can make sales plummet
How working women have altered the way supermarkets are designed
How the "boomerang effect" makes product placement ever more challenging
What kinds of signage and packaging turn browsers into buyers For those in retailing and marketing, Why We Buy is a remarkably fresh guide, offering creative and insightful tips on how to adapt to the changing customer. For the general public, Why We Buy is a funny and sometimes disconcerting look at our favorite pastime. Customer reviews Applied common sense by .. Erika Mitchell (E. Calais, VT USA)
This book is an exploration into the common sense of retail marketing. Underhill, an anthropologist turned marketing consultant, presents many of his observations concerning the arrangement of retail store displays and their effect on sales. He was the first to apply techniques from anthropology for studying spaces and how humans use them to retail stores to determine how space usage affects sales. He founded a company that collects such data and makes consequent recommendations to retail stores. Indeed, some of the book reads like a marketing brochure for his company, Envirosell. Nevertheless, general readers as well as store owners may find interesting points to ponder in the book.
The title of the book "Why We Buy: The Science of Shopping" in itself is a bit of a marketing ploy. Such a title suggests "consumerism," and investigations of what makes people choose individual items or shop as a hobby, or how people go about the shopping task. Instead, the book addresses questions of store layout and physical product placement in stores, bringing to bear observational data that explain the impact of such choices regarding layout and placement on sales. For instance, Linklater points out the obvious yet so-often-overlooked fact that products must be placed within reach of the most likely customers. Thus, a layout with pants with short lengths on bottom shelves and long lengths on top shelves may generate more sales and fewer complaints than the reverse order, however more organized the reverse order may feel to the person doing layout in the stores. He notes the importance of finding out who the customers are before one tries to attempt such placement details, pointing out that, for instance, an observational study showed that dog treats are most often selected by children or elderly customers, so putting them in reach of specifically these customers may increase sales.
Although Underhill and his company emphasize observational research for making their recommendations, in this book, Underhill doesn't always provide the data to back up his claims. For instance, he argues that it was the growing interest of women in home repairs and do-it-yourself that led to the growth of hardware box stores and the decline of small hardware stores. That's an interesting hypothesis, but Underhill provides no observational data in this book to support such claims. It's hard to tell whether this was an editorial oversight or a glimpse at some personal opinions that may be coloring the interpretation of the data that was collected. Underhill includes a chapter on Internet marketing written before the topic got truly popular. Not surprisingly, in trying to predict the future, he completely missed one of the main factors that would come to affect Internet sales: reliability, and how having a reputation for reliable sales and customer service will far outweigh most other factors. Overall, the book makes some interesting points and may be worth reading for those involved in retail sales. However, it doesn't actually provide much information about "Why we buy".
Great Insights by .. Jos Pols ()
Nutshell review - This is a very interesting look into the psychology of why we buy (or not) by one of the original researchers into this field. A great book for the layman and will help you become more aware of the various ways in which we are being influenced to spend! A great read, well written and really fascinating.
Good book by .. Grammy (McLean, VA USA)
I haven't finished reading this book, but have picked up some good ideas so far.
An eye-opening read for this consumer by .. Kristina , the fashion maven neurologist who cooks (Viroqua, WI)
I would think that most retailers could learn a huge amount about maximizing profits from this book. It was an eye-opening read for me. I am almost sorry that I am not a retailer so that I can't use this information. I wonder if the author has done any writing for professional journals. As others have noted, there isn't enough information on technique for anyone to really critique his methods. Still, though, that would be important mainly for an academician. The ideas themselves are what would be important to a retailer.
The Ultimate Guide to Understanding for Retailers Who Want to Better Understand In-Store Consumer Behavior by .. David Carleton (San Diego, CA USA)
From store layout and design to how and why your customers behave the way they do in your store, this book reveals a ton of information that you can use to increase your sales.
It also gives you advice on what changes you can make to help you make the buying experience easier and faster for your customers.
In my marketing consulting practice I concentrate on "guerrilla marketing" strategies that retailers can use to quickly, easily and inexpensively increase their sales and reading this book is one of the ways. I recommend it to all my clients.
Related Search : buy science , shopping  |
Author : Jonathan Gould
Edition : Reprint
Number of Pages : 672
Release Date : 2008-11-04
Publisher : Three Rivers Press
List Price : $15.95
Amazon Price : $9.69
Used Price : $9.85 |
Product Description Nearly twenty years in the making, Can’t Buy Me Love is a masterful work of group biography, cultural history, and musical criticism. That the Beatles were an unprecedented phenomenon is a given. In Can’t Buy Me Love, Jonathan Gould seeks to explain why, placing the Fab Four in the broad and tumultuous panorama of their time and place, rooting their story in the social context that girded both their rise and their demise. Beginning with their adolescence in Liverpool, Gould describes the seminal influences––from Elvis Presley and Chuck Berry to The Goon Show and Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland––that shaped the Beatles both as individuals and as a group. In addition to chronicling their growth as singers, songwriters, and instrumentalists, he highlights the advances in recording technology that made their sound both possible and unique, as well as the developments in television and radio that lent an explosive force to their popular success. With a musician’s ear, Gould sensitively evokes the timeless appeal of the Lennon-McCartney collaboration and their emergence as one of the most creative and significant songwriting teams in history. And he sheds new light on the significance of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band as rock’s first concept album, down to its memorable cover art. Behind the scenes Gould explores the pivotal roles played by manager Brian Epstein and producer George Martin, credits the influence on the Beatles’ music of contemporaries like Bob Dylan, Brian Wilson, and Ravi Shankar, and traces the gradual escalation of the fractious internal rivalries that led to the group’s breakup after their final masterpiece, Abbey Road. Most significantly, by chronicling their revolutionary impact on popular culture during the 1960s, Can’t Buy Me Love illuminates the Beatles as a charismatic phenomenon of international proportions, whose anarchic energy and unexpected import was derived from the historic shifts in fortune that transformed the relationship between Britain and America in the decades after World War II. From the Beats in America and the Angry Young Men in England to the shadow of the Profumo Affair and JFK’s assassination, Gould captures the pulse of a time that made the Beatles possible—and even necessary. As seen through the prism of the Beatles and their music, an entire generation’s experience comes astonishingly to life. Beautifully written, consistently insightful, and utterly original, Can’t Buy Me Love is a landmark work about the Beatles, Britain, and America. From the Hardcover edition.Customer reviews Best Beatles Bio Yet by .. rhawk (Washington, USA)
Wow.
Of the literally thousands of Beatles books published, this must rank as one of the best yet.
Unlike most books on the Fab Four, this isn't a hagiography extolling the greatness of the group. Instead it's a mix of journalism, cultural history, musical criticism, and a dash of sociology (ala Max Weber) that places the Beatles into the context of their times and shows how they were both musical and cultural innovators and also how they were influenced by the upheavals of the 1960's.
More than just a re-hash of the now very familar Beatles saga, Gould offers very interesting analysis of the music itself and explains why the Beatles were as influential as they were.
Very readable. I couldn't put it down. Recommended for any Beatles fan.
CAN'T BUY ME LOVE by Jonathan Gould by .. S. Walker ()
I am currently still in the middle of this book. I think it is well written and presented. It is very familiar to me being a huge fan of the Beatles! A wonderful read for all ages! FANTASTIC!
SW
The Best Book on the Beatles by .. S. A. Eliot ()
Gould's book sets a new standard for serious works on the Beatles. It is meticulously researched and documented, well-structured, and written with admirable clarity combined with the author's enjoyment of his subject. This is the most ambitious book about the Beatles and their cultural and historical context, and its success is attributable to Gould's determination, thoroughness, mature perspective, and accessible writing style. But perhaps I am biased. Darn it, this is the book that I have been meaning to write for the last 38 years.
Pretty Good by .. B. Levine (Newton)
The sentence structure is great and the narrative seamlessly flows. However, he is a music historian and hence goes into long detours when applying context. I would have greatly preferred if he had spent less time on these subjects and more on the actual Beatles themselves. A paragraph would suffice but I find myself skipping several pages. When I skip pages and scan for Beatles or Jon or McCartney, etc. I don't see anything on the Beatles for pages. I know that these long passages are unneeded because even after skipping pages I still understand the context just fine.
Nonetheless, I still give it four stars because it ignores rumors, is rich with language, fills the holes of knowledge that I did not know as someone who grew up in the nineties, and the in depth analysis of songs. A glossary with vocabulary words would be great because he is a musician and as such thinks that all these words are common knowledge.
Required Reading by .. Girl ()
I found this book completely satisfying and facinating from an historical as well as musical standpoint. Gould has taken the Beatles as a musical and cultural force and woven the last 60 years around them to create a complete understanding of the group's impact on 20th-21st century culture and music. This is one of the top 10 must reads for any serious scholar of the Beatles and it's a great read for people who just want to be well informed fans. He also manages to write in an interesting way that keeps you turning pages. One of the best books ever written about the fabs and well worth the 20 odd years he spent researching. A winner all the way.
Related Search : britain america , t buy , love beatles  |
Author : Paco Underhill
Edition : Upd Rev
Number of Pages : 320
Publisher : Simon & Schuster
List Price : $16.00
Amazon Price : $5.95
Used Price : $9.19 |
Product Description Revolutionary retail guru Paco Underhill is back with a completely revised edition of his classic, witty bestselling book on our ever-evolving consumer culture -- full of fresh observations and important lessons from the cutting edge of retail, which is taking place in the world's emerging markets. New material includes: • The latest trends in online retail -- what retailers are doing right and what they're doing wrong -- and how nearly every Internet retailer from iTunes to Amazon can drastically improve how it serves its customers. • A guided tour of the most innovative stores, malls and retail environments around the world -- almost all of which are springing up in countries where prosperity is new. An enormous indoor ski slope attracts shoppers to a mall in Dubai; an uber luxurious Sao Paolo department store provides its customers with personal shoppers; a mall in South Africa has a wave pool for surfing. The new Why We Buy is an essential guide -- it offers advice on how to keep your changing customers and entice new and eager ones. Customer reviews Fascinating, though it ends badly by .. sizer99 (San Diego, CA United States)
The first four parts of this book are absolutely fascinating. It's an in depth look at the psychology of shopping and it is exactly what the title promises. Underhill's company gets paid to spy on people in stores and see what they're doing wrong and right. The gems in this book are the anecdotes and the specific revelations about how any obstacle you put in the way of a shopper drops your sales figures. Any way you can make life easier raises your sales. This all seems sort of obvious, but most people running the businesses don't think it through.
One example is the entry zone at the front of the store - you'd think that's a prime location for signage, deals, brochures, etc. But when you're headed through the door into the store you see almost nothing and stop for almost nothing, and then (in America) you tend to drift to the right and then you're 'in' the store. If you put a store directory just inside the door, nobody uses it. Move it back a bit so you can find it once you're into the store and suddenly it's heavily utilized. He has hard observational data for all these, so they're compelling in addition to being fascinating.
And of course all the bad examples are great fun to read (seniors crawling along floors trying to read labels on badly shelved medicine), as are the descriptions of how different groups shop (male vs female, old vs young, parents vs. single, etc.) The whole book is pretty much a commercial for Underhill's company, but it's still informative and fun reading.
Where the book falls down is at the end, where a chapter on the Internet is shoehorned in and a perfunctory shout out to each of Envirosell's worldwide branches is included.
Even though I think he's more right than wrong, the whole Internet chapter comes across as a confused old guy muttering about how he doesn't get that new fangled rock music. He complains about how many review sites there are, for instance, and has no idea how much it can transform the shopping experience (and not just be a poor supplement). Worse, the book's entire premise is mostly about how you need observational data of real customers because they'll always do things you don't expect (can't argue there), but he HAS no data on this topic, so it's just not compelling. I can't help but think the whole chapter is just in there because 'we need something about teh intertubes'.
The 'Come Fly With Me' chapter must be in here because he needs to professionally backscratch all his international partners. It's pretty much useless and turns a mild commercial into an infomercial.
If I sound too negative, please don't take it that way - I'm just trying to tell you why this isn't a five star book. You have 220 pages of 'awesome and can't put it down' book followed by 40 pages of 'what the hell am I doing reading this' slog, then another 30 pages of fairly decent reading. If you don't read those two chapters, it's a five star book!
Related Search : revised internet , global consumer , buy science  |
Author : April Benson
Number of Pages : 288
Release Date : 2008-12-30
Publisher : Trumpeter
List Price : $16.95
Amazon Price : $9.98
Used Price : $12.01 |
Product Description According to a recent study, it is estimated that more than 10 million Americans are unable to stop themselves from frequent shopping binges that lead to debt, damaged relationships, and depression. In this book, April Lane Benson draws on decades of clinical experience and on recent research to offer information, insights, and practical strategies for overcoming compulsive buying. The cardinal signs of compulsive buying are:Frequent purchases of unneeded or unaffordable itemsIntrusive or uncontrollable impulses to buyEmotional let-down or feelings of guilt after shopping In plain and encouraging language, Dr. Benson helps readers to identify their “overshopping sequence”—the pattern of triggers, actions, and aftershocks (or negative consequences) that plague compulsive buyers. With this awareness of the dynamics of their shopping problem, readers gain the ability to address the root causes. Dr. Benson demonstrates how unaddressed emotional pain can drive us to overshop, as can limited and unrealistic concepts about what will make us truly happy in life. To promote recovery, she offers readers an integrated approach that enlists the mind, the heart, and even the body to develop a mindful awareness around shopping and take back control over buying and spending. Includes patient stories, practical strategies, exercises, and information on financial planning. Customer reviews Help For Affluenza by .. Morris B. Holbrook (NYC)
Excellent book It is quite impressive in every way - especially its balance of helpful therapeutic programs, careful organization, and deep thinking.
Prof. Morris B. Holbrook, Columbia Business School
One of the best books on the growing problem on compulsive shopping and spending! by .. Terrence Shulman (Southfield, Michigan)
I am enthusiastically endorsing this new book from Dr. April Benson, one of the pioneers in the research, study, and treatment of compulsive shopping and spending. There may be other books out there on this topic but Dr. Benson culls together stories, exercises, theory, and statistics in a way that is easy to read and use and which powerfully impacts our emotions to break through denial but also empower us with hope and commitment to change. In a time where compulsive shopping and spending has reached its pinnacle (or nadir), this book comes not a moment too soon! I can also say, as a colleague of Dr. Benson, that her commitment to helping others is unparalleled. Her voice is a clarion call through the din of insanity which offers a clear path toward wholeness and a healthy relationship to things, money, shopping and spending. Read this book now--for yourself or someone you love!
Related Search : buy or , stop , buy overshop  |
Author : Rob Walker
Number of Pages : 320
Release Date : 2008-06-03
Publisher : Random House
List Price : $25.00
Amazon Price : $14.75
Used Price : $15.81 |
Product Description “Fascinating … A compelling blend of cultural anthropology and business journalism.” — Andrea Sachs, Time Magazine
“An often startling tour of new cultural terrain.” — Laura Miller, Salon
“Marked by meticulous research and careful conclusions, this superbly readable book confirms New York Times journalist Walker as an expert on consumerism. … [A] thoughtful and unhurried investigation into consumerism that pushes the analysis to the maximum…” — Publisher’s Weekly (starred review)
Brands are dead. Advertising no longer works. Weaned on TiVo, the Internet, and other emerging technologies, the short-attention-span generation has become immune to marketing. Consumers are “in control.” Or so we’re told. In Buying In, New York Times Magazine “Consumed” columnist Rob Walker argues that this accepted wisdom misses a much more important and lasting cultural shift. As technology has created avenues for advertising anywhere and everywhere, people are embracing brands more than ever before–creating brands of their own and participating in marketing campaigns for their favorite brands in unprecedented ways. Increasingly, motivated consumers are pitching in to spread the gospel virally, whether by creating Internet video ads for Converse All Stars or becoming word-of-mouth “agents” touting products to friends and family on behalf of huge corporations. In the process, they–we–have begun to funnel cultural, political, and community activities through connections with brands. Walker explores this changing cultural landscape–including a practice he calls “murketing,” blending the terms murky and marketing–by introducing us to the creative marketers, entrepreneurs, artists, and community organizers who have found a way to thrive within it. Using profiles of brands old and new, including Timberland, American Apparel, Pabst Blue Ribbon, Red Bull, iPod, and Livestrong, Walker demonstrates the ways in which buyers adopt products, not just as consumer choices, but as conscious expressions of their identities. Part marketing primer, part work of cultural anthropology, Buying In reveals why now, more than ever, we are what we buy–and vice versa. Praise for Buying In
“Walker … makes a startling claim: Far from being immune to advertising, as many people think, American consumers are increasingly active participants in the marketing process. … [He] leads readers through a series of lucid case studies to demonstrate that, in many cases, consumers actively participate in infusing a brand with meaning. … Convincing.” — Jay Dixit, The Washington Post
“Walker lays out his theory in well-written, entertaining detail.” — Seth Stevenson, Slate
“ Buying In delves into the attitudes of the global consumer in the age of plenty, and, well, we aren’t too pretty. Walker carries the reader on a frenetically paced tour of senseless consumption spanning from Viking ranges to custom high-tops.” — Robert Blinn, Core77
“Rob Walker is one smart shopper.” — Jen Trolio, ReadyMade
“The most trenchant psychoanalyst of our consumer selves is Rob Walker. This is a fresh and fascinating exploration of the places where material culture and identity intersect.” –Michael Pollan, author of In Defense of Food “This book has vast social implications, far beyond the fields of marketing and branding. It obliterates our old paradigm of companies (the bad guys) corrupting our children (the innocents) via commercials. In this new world, media-literate young people freely and willingly co-opt the brands, and most companies are clueless bystanders desperate to keep up. I really don't know if this is good news or bad news, but I can say, with certainty, that this book is a must-read.” –Po Bronson, author of What Should I Do with My Life? “Rob Walker is a gift. He shows that in our shattered, scattered world, powerful brands are existential, insinuating themselves into the human questions ‘What am I about?’ and ‘How do I connect?’ His insight that brand influence is becoming both more pervasive and more hidden–that we are not so self-defined as we like to think–should make us disturbed, and vigilant.” –Jim Collins, author of Good to Great“Rob Walker is a terrific writer who understands both human nature and the business world. His book is highly entertaining, but it’s also a deeply thoughtful look at the ways in which marketing meets the modern psyche.” –Bethany McLean, editor at large, Fortune, and co-author of The Smartest Guys in the Room“Are we living in an era of YouTube-empowered, brand-rejecting consumers? Rob Walker has the surprising answers, and you won’t want to miss this joyride through the front lines of consumer culture. A marketing must-read.” –Chip Heath and Dan Heath, authors of Made to Stick
“Rob Walker brilliantly deconstructs the religion of consumption. Love his column, couldn’t put his book down.” –Paco Underhill, author of Why We BuyCustomer reviews Insightful Brand Awareness by .. DL Byron (Seattle, Wa)
In my line of work (blogging, social media), I often here lots of brand ideas, theories, urban legends, and just people that don't really get brand. Buying In: The Secret Dialogue Between What We Buy and Who We Are offers insightful analysis and critical thinking on what brand is and how it works for the modern consumer.
Chuck D of Public Enemy on branding by .. afinanceguy (Mishawaka, IN)
Rob Walker's book, Buying In, looks at the interplay between our personal identity and our consumer culture. Walker takes the reader to places as far ranging as behind the scenes at Apple HQ for a chat with an annoyed Steve Jobs, a bicycle messenger polo match sponsored by Pabst Blue Ribbon in a field outside of Portland, and to a Miami beach for a Red Bull-fueled kite-boarding trip to Cuba. Walker effectively debunks many of the popular stories that are used to explain consumer behavior and dives deeper. He also challenges the reader to understand their own behavior and the forces that create our attitudes and actions. Walker concludes his book by contrasting mainstream "terminal materialism" with his vision for a consumption that flows from an individual's true identity. I didn't expect that a book about marketing could delve so deep into the individual's psyche and still be so fascinating--but Walker pulls it off.
Walker  by .. Moira E. Mccaffrey ()
This book details various unorthodox marketing campaigns and how/why they have succeeded in creating a consumer following. He deconstructs the wild success of brands like Red Bull, Hello Kitty, iPod and Pabst Blue Ribbon. I think most people would enjoy this book regardless of whether they're in the marketing field. It reads like a series of intriguing marketing case studies, some amusing and some fascinating.
Does what we buy define who we are? by .. Todd Stockslager (Raleigh, NC)
Does what we buy define who we are? I won't tell you the punch line, you'll have to read to the last line of Walker's book to find the answer.
This is a popular study of marketing and consumers--why we buy, and how marketing affects what and how we choose to buy. Walker considers and rejects the two extremes often supposed to be true today:
--consumers (especially younger ones) are cynical and way too smart to buy the marketing hype.
--marketing is so smart and pervasive that nothing we buy is "authentic" (whatever that means; Walker spends some interesting time thinking about this) or meets an authentic need.
Consumers are smart today, no question, says Walker, and they understand marketing and hype--and buy anyway, sometimes even turning branding into an act of individualism or rebellion. In fact, Walker gives the example of Timberland boots, originally designed by manual laborers who needed tough waterproof boots, but were adopted by hip-hop artists and fans who drove sales to record levels and essentially co-opted the brand.
And marketing has gotten smarter too in the age of "clicks" (the mouse, the remote control, the DVR fast forward that bypasses marketing that doesn't hit home immediately). Walker references icons such as Apple and the iPod, stressing that the iPod was not first, cheapest, or necessarily technically superior to other MP3 players when introduced, although he misses a key point in the technical and marketing success of the iPod--iTunes, which both explains the iPods success, and adds another layer of mystery to Apple's business model for the iPod. An iPod, and any MP3 player, is really just a portable storage drive (either a rotating hard drive or a flash memory drive); people buy iPods (we own four of them in our family of five!) because of the utility value of the iTunes software, which is available for free download and is in fact of such utility that I (like many other iTunes users) had downloaded it and started using it to rip and listen to my music before I got my first iPod. I've always been fascinated by a business model that bases sales of an expensive product on a component of even higher utility--that is given away! It would be interesting to hear Walker's take on this.
Walker coined the term "Murketing" (murky + marketing) for the successful use of stealth marketing concepts that promote brands and brand loyalty without rising to the level of hard-core selling. In fact, murketing is successful only up to a level that is still under the consumer's radar--a level Walker calls the "murkiest common denominator."
But this book is not as dry or textbook as my review may be making it sound. Walker's interviews, writing style and examples are fascinating (we all are consumers and most of us enjoy doing it, after all) and his conclusion (you'll have to read to the end of the book) is interesting. I will say that along the way he considers consumer responses such as ethical consumerism (whatever THAT means, and again he has some ideas) and handcrafted production, and even references Rick Warren's immensely popular book The Purpose-Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here For? and his Saddleback Church as positive examples of why and how we relate to each other and our beliefs (or the products we buy). And its not about materialistic Christianity, quite the opposite.
I decide what I buy.....or do I? Be in on the secret. by .. Mary Longorio (Eagle Mountain, UT)
Where did Red Bull come from? December 2001, Rob Walker joined a growing group of onlookers on a Miami beach to watch as a group of kite boarders set off to cross the eighty eight miles of water between Key West and Varadero, Cuba. Not only did the event highlight the emerging sport of kite boarding, its participants were sponsored by Red Bull energy drink. At the time Red Bull was not widely marketed and didn't have much of a niche in the US, though well known in its home country of Austria. The event also was a perfect example of the new type of marketing, or murketing (a combination of the words marketing and murkey that best describes the new advertising techniques) employed in the highly competitive advertising business. Relatively unknown at the time of the kite board launch, Red Bull has employed innovative and personal approaches, such as sponsoring small groups of extreme athletes, to gain a market and a brand loyalty. Now Red Bull is everywhere and has a firm hold of the top spot in the energy drink market.
In the search for the new or repeat consumer brands have begun to use anti advertising. Relying on guerrilla marketing tactics, trend spotters, and actively seeking the anti brand or new consumer niche market for its products. From finding new groups to co-op a product (Timberland boots and hip hop) while retaining its original core, tracking an unexpected growth in sales of a product and trying to catch that lightning in a bottle or marketing a new product and coolhunters or buzz marketers tout the aspects of their products. . Consultants evaluate the variables of brand identification, price, target market, market saturation and how it will present their product. A whole branch of advertising has evolved around the idea of not looking as if you are trying to market your product. "Coolness" has become a much valued trait.
Rob Walker has written the weekly "Consumed" column for The New York Times Magazine as well as contributing to Slate and various print publications. Buying In is an incredibly readable account of the ever evolving dialog between what we buy, what we own, and who we are or what we may want our purchases to say we are. I was completely enthralled and often was nodding my head with recognition or reading something to my coworkers that was too cool to keep to myself. A very readable look into how our consumer habits have changed and the forces that compete constantly to sway our choices.
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Author : S. McGuire
Number of Pages : 224
Publisher : Wiley
List Price : $34.95
Amazon Price : $19.29
Used Price : $18.48 |
Product Description Masterfully researched, and written in a straightforward style, Buy Gold Now makes a case for buying gold as protection against the rising risks of an unprecedented global currency crisis and as a profitable investment vehicle. Divided into five comprehensive parts, this reliable resource examines our country’s current financial situation from a historical perspective and addresses some of the alarming issues that many economists are currently pointing to with concern. Customer reviews good explanation of the current world economy by .. J Bone (Maryland)
Whether you are interested in buying gold or not, this book is of value for its general explanation of the world economy. If you are interested in such things as the housing market crash, dollar devaluation, trade deficits and the role of the American consumer in the world economy, you will enjoy this book. It explains and ties all these things together in clear and easy to understand reading.
Good book by .. Bhavesh Gandhi (Mumbai, India)
It was a good, balanced book. Most of what I have read on gold is generally over-the-top doomsday type....more about dire predictions then about actual facts. This one was a refreshing change.
The only slight negative about the book was the author's writing style...which was a little bit of drag at times. Long sentences, with more than one point stressed in them.
But overall, I would recommend this book to everyone. Pls insure your future against the excesses of US paper currency. The situation is far worse than what we think it is, not only for US citizens, but for the entire world. This book will help you plan for your and your family's safety in such extreme times.
Excellent! by .. Greg (Washington State)
I'm a mainstream investor who has a solid diversification of investments, including a little gold purchased in 2006. However, my understanding of economics and the global economy is sketchy and never quite fit together in my mind. At a minimum, this book will create an outstanding base of knowledge in this arena in an easy-to-read format, and give solid guidance towards investing in gold. I appreciate his balanced approach to the possible economic outcomes ahead, presented as possibilities for the reader to weigh and make a judgement on. This isn't "the world is falling", but you will take serious stock of the current trends in our economy as it fits into the global picture. Highly recommended for anyone wanting to see these aspects and grasp the value of gold investments in your portfolio.
Another book on gold investments, this one worth reading by .. promethian Daniel (Naples, FL United States)
I liked this book. The author is not too opinionated and not dogmatic. He acknowledges that historically gold has NOT been a good investment over the long run, but makes a compelling case why he thinks it is a good investment now. He is also not emotionally attached to gold, and in fact hopes to sell it someday; he proffers that it could peak at ten thousand an ounce, which would be ten times its current price or about a 90 percent devaluation of the dollar. I think he offers a balanced analysis from a backround as a professional money manager. There are a number of books like this currently for sale, however I think this one is particularly thoughtful and worth reading, even though I have read several others on the subject. However, one complaint I do have is that book would have been much better if it had been published 2 to 5 years ago. At this point, gold is already up to four fold in that period of time. Several of the other books on this subject were more prescient and timely in their release. If one already has had gold investments, this books reinforces your strategy, however recommending investing in sectors that have already risen substantially lends less credibility and profit not to mention risk. Had he written the book when gold was $300, that would be a 33 fold profit if it goes to ten thousand. Gold at $1,000 is a ten fold profit, considerably less.
Right conclusions for the wrong reason, dangerous book by .. Smiling Zee (somewhere USA)
Bought this book because of all-5-star reviews. It turns out this book is not worth the money.
The book is VERY dangerous, because it reaches right conclusion (buy gold) for all the wrong reasoning. Author either has no clear understanding of the processes that are going on around money, credit and debt, or believe what he's read in multiple economics schoolbooks on subject. He bases his analysis on Government-supplied economic numbers and NEVER QUESTIONS THEM (we all know there's lies, damn lies and Government statistics, especially since 1980th). He doesn't understand that the Federal Reserve is a privately owned enterprise, and that The Federal Reserve and Government together are responsible for inflation and other economic turmoil United States has found herself today.
If you want to stay in the bubble media, economists and politicians have created for you, this is "your" book - lots of graphs and statistics based on false or fake economics. Ironically, author still reaches right conclusion - BUY GOLD. For the rest of us who want to REALLY UNDERSTAND what is going on behind the scenes - don't buy it, there are much better books out there.
I would recommend starting with "The Revolution Manufesto" by Ron Paul and many other Gold books, for example "The Collapse of the Dollar and How to Profif from It"
Related Search : bust bulging , buy gold , national debt  |
Author : Juliet B. Schor
Number of Pages : 304
Publisher : Scribner
List Price : $16.00
Amazon Price : $3.50
Used Price : $3.50 |
Product Description Marketing targeted at kids is virtually everywhere -- in classrooms and textbooks, on the Internet, even at Girl Scout meetings, slumber parties, and the playground. Product placement and other innovations have introduced more subtle advertising to movies and television. Drawing on her own survey research and unprecedented access to the advertising industry, Juliet B. Schor, New York Times bestselling author of The Overworked American, examines how marketing efforts of vast size, scope, and effectiveness have created "commercialized children." Ads and their messages about sex, drugs, and food affect not just what children want to buy, but who they think they are. In this groundbreaking and crucial book, Schor looks at the consequences of the commercialization of childhood and provides guidelines for parents and teachers. What is at stake is the emotional and social well-being of our children. Like Barbara Ehrenreich's Nickel and Dimed, Mary Pipher's Reviving Ophelia, and Malcolm Gladwell's The Tipping Point, Born to Buy is a major contribution to our understanding of a contemporary trend and its effects on the culture. Customer reviews An inconvenient truth... by .. Alyss (New York)
Well researched and horrifying, it's all true. You may want to pick up a book on homeschooling your children along side this book, as you will undoubtably want to purchase one afterwards, and if you purchase both at once, you will qualify for free super savings shipping.
Very interesting by .. M. Wood ()
As a new parent this book opened by eyes to a lot of things I would never have recognized as "marketing" and would not have occurred to me how potentially harmful this culture is the psyche of a child. The data gets a little cumbersome at times, and I skimmed over some of the detail so that I didn't get bogged down in it, but lots of great information along the way.
Great analysis of a creepy industry by .. Clay ()
Advertising is creepy, advertising to children even creepier. This is not news. But a detailed study of the overall effects is. The bulk of this book presents the results of in-depth study of the industry, both through statistical study of two sample groups of children, and through study of the work environments of the advertisers themselves, with interviews of marketers, parents, teachers, and kids. The author takes into account the history of moral panics, the party line of the industry that "kids are savvy," and the specific work that has been done around small aspects of this issue, such as fast food and violent video games (which I love). The author takes an unusually balanced, non-partisan view, sympathizing with the easily-vilified advertisers she worked closely with as well as kids and parents. Her policy recommendations are unlikely to be implemented, but her analysis of the issue is extremely sharp.
What Every Parent Needs to Know by .. Carol Fitzgerald (San Francisco, CA USA)
This is a book every parent (and teacher like myself)must read. It cuts to the heart of the exploitation of children that is tearing kids away from parents, family and culture. There is no way to protect children from the devious assault of advertising (you may be shocked at the tactics!) unless we are armed with the facts, and this book tells it like it is.
Solid argument against the commercially constructed childhood by .. S. (Honolulu, HI)
There's not doubt that corporations, advertisers and marketers do not have your child's best interest at heart. Schor provides a comprehensive account of the what, why and how marketers are targeting your children.
Reading "Born to Buy" will make you want to throw out the TV, disconnect from the Internet, run to the country and home-school your children. Simply put, there's no way to avoid marketing techniques, and your child will succumb to the corporate-commercially constructed childhood. With all the doom and gloom in this book, Schor offers little hope of avoidance...in the end, she does provide a few solutions.
All in all, "Born to Buy" was very informative and an easy, entertaining read. However, some of Schor's original research and statistics caused me to get bogged down. I wasn't looking for scholarly research and did not need to see these statistics. Additionally, Schor seemed to use this book as a chance to take shots at the Bush administration. Although I'm not a fan of this administration and some of the criticism is valid, I do not think Bush started this problem...he's just done nothing to fix it.
All in all, this is well worth the read, especially if you have small children...just skip over the stats near the end, and forgive Schor's attempts at making this political.
Related Search : commercialized child , culture , born buy  |
Author : Jean Kilbourne
Edition : 1
Number of Pages : 368
Publisher : Free Press
List Price : $16.00
Amazon Price : $4.77
Used Price : $2.99 |
Product Description "When was the last time you felt this comfortable in a relationship?"
-- An ad for sneakers "You can love it without getting your heart broken."
-- An ad for a car "Until I find a real man, I'll settle for a real smoke."
-- A woman in a cigarette ad Many advertisements these days make us feel as if we have an intimate, even passionate relationship with a product. But as Jean Kilbourne points out in this fascinating and shocking exposé, the dreamlike promise of advertising always leaves us hungry for more. We can never be satisfied, because the products we love cannot love us back. Drawing upon her knowledge of psychology, media, and women's issues, Kilbourne offers nothing less than a new understanding of a ubiquitous phenomenon in our culture. The average American is exposed to over 3,000 advertisements a day and watches three years' worth of television ads over the course of a lifetime. Kilbourne paints a gripping portrait of how this barrage of advertising drastically affects young people, especially girls, by offering false promises of rebellion, connection, and control. She also offers a surprising analysis of the way advertising creates and then feeds an addictive mentality that often continues throughout adulthood. Customer reviews Can't Buy My Love by .. William M. Cross (Jacksonville, IL, USA)
This book is a critical review of the approach advertisers use to promote their products. The author presents the attractive messages provided, and then goes on to describe the intended and actual effect of product use. A crucial conclusion provided in each chapter is the potential addiction of adopting the various services offered with the purchase of each product. This book is of great value to the individual reader as well as to college-level students, in that it provides a healthy approach to critically reviewing items considered for purchase. Readers are thus enabled to make consumer expenditures in terms of informed judgments, rather than from momentary impulses.
EVERYONE SHOULD READ THIS BOOK by .. N. Mills ()
My title says it all. It's very informative and allows the reader to understand why she/he thinks about and responds to american culture in certain ways. Very eye opening.
Also see the DVD with Jean Kilbourne by .. Preston C. Enright (Denver, CO United States)
This book's ideas need to reach more people. It seems we're inundated with stories of child molesters, drug pushers, and other threats to us and our children; but the 200 billion dollars spent by the junk food makers, pharmaceutical pushers, military recruiters and others to colonize the hearts and minds of our kids is often overlooked. Sadly, many of those who are learning to look critically at the commercial media are often more privileged economically. Maybe we can find ways to reach out to other sectors of our society through letters to editors, calls to talk radio, writing on message boards and so forth. Also, there are additional resources that we can use to share perspectives to help protect people (kids and adults) from the psychological warfare of Big Business. I'd recommend DVDs like "Deadly Persuasion" from the Media Education Foundation, which is an expose of tobacco and alcohol advertising presented by Jean Kilbourne. There is also the award-winning film called "The Corporation" available from Amazon. Subscriptions to "Adbusters" and "New Moon" are also very helpful outreach tools.
An Absolute Must Read!! by .. Jeanette ()
Can't Buy My Love is an extraordinary book, insightful, critical, and without a doubt, an eye-opener. This book should be required reading by all Americans! Personally, it has played a pivotal role in my life. I would say I'm your average American citizen. I grew up in New York, immersed in the typical American culture. I watched plenty of television and movies and thus was exposed to an endless array of advertisements. As most people, I didn't think that my thoughts and actions were influenced by these advertisements. But after reading this book, I clearly saw how the messages and images of the media had a huge impact in my life. Until I read this book, I was sort of unconscious of this influence. I just went shopping as though it was a ritual and followed the mainstream culture. I went out drinking and pretended to have a good time while engaged in superficial conversations in loud smoky bars. Essentially, this book brought me to many realizations and my mentality started to shift for the better. I started to see things for what they are. Jean Kilbourne does an excellent job of analyzing numerous ads and clearly demonstrates the manipulation and false promises imbedded within these cleverly designed ads. Corporations spend millions of dollars on advertising and psychological research. As the targets of these ads, we as citizens need to be critical thinkers and media literate. In this day and age, we need to have an understanding of how the media industry works and in particular, the advertising industry, which constantly bombards us with messages on how we should live our lives and what is considered "normal." I highly, highly recommend this book. It's clear, concise, understandable, and will definitely have a positive impact in your life. I especially recommend this book to teenagers, who unfortunately have become the victims of massive amounts of advertisements. Profit-driven corporations have taken advantage of young impressionable minds and for that reason, I urge you to pick up a copy of this book for yourself and someone you care about! This one book was able to jump start a transformation in my life. I promise you won't regret reading it!
A fantastic and important book by .. Audrey D. Brashich ()
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In our culture of product placements, "ambient" advertising (ie sticker ads on fruit peels, cars wrapped in company logos) and "tie ins" between just about every form of entertainment and commerce, this book does an amazing job of looking at how commercial forces shape definitions of 'normal', 'beautiful' etc.
I found Can't Buy My Love (which is written by Jean Kilbourne, NOT Mary Pipher) packed with interesting, relevant, easy-to-digest content that was both fascinating (companies spend over a half a million dollars to produce commercials aired during the Superbowl?!) and maddening (the real reason some companies seem suddenly to support a minority group, ie teens, the gay community etc, is that they seem them as an emerging market)--but I guess the maddening part is good because it lays bare how the media operate and how we're subjected to their sophisticated selling strategies whether we want to be or not .
I had no idea how much I *didn't* know about media and marketing until I read this book.... and having read some of the other titles mentioned by other reviewes, I think Kilbourne's book does a superior job explaining how the media (and manufacturers who hire them) affect nearly every aspect of our daily lives...and what we can do about it..
Related Search : t buy , think feel , changes way  |
Author : John Wild
Edition : 19
Publisher : McGraw-Hill/Irwin
Amazon Price : $160.00
Used Price : $323.63 |
Product Description With 50 years of success in the principles of accounting market, Fundamental Accounting Principles, 18e has endured and adapted to changes in accounting, technology, and student learning styles. Its innovation is reflected in its extensive use of small business examples, the integration of new computerized learning tools, superior end-of-chapter material, and a highly engaging, pedagogical design. Inclusion of Homework Manager, Homework Mananger Plus, and Carol Yacht's General Ledger and Peachtree application software provides students every advantage as they strive to understand the key concepts of accounting and their role in business. Related Search : mp fundamental , report , with best |
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