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| Brand Hijack - Alex Wipperfurth - Portfolio Books "It was not enough to produce satisfactory soap, it was also necessary to induce people to wash" -Joseph Schumpeter, 1939 from Brand Hijack Brand Hijack is one of those scary books for marketers to read. It relates dozens of spectacular marketing achievements where consumer communities "hijacked" a brand into tremendous popularly. The problem for marketers is that this type of "tipping" is not only difficult to produce, but involvement by typical marketing strategies will almost always produce the wrong result. This is a book about the sophistication of the consumer, and their deep reservations about marketers. The failure of surveys and focus groups, the way "cool" ads turn off the targeted audience. Yet brands can be nurtured to grow in almost subliminal ways, it take patience and sensitivity, two qualities that marketers are alien to. This is a book will terrific charts, quotes, and anecdotes that is a must read for anyone in the marketing segment. |
| Freakonomics Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner William Morrow "How is the Ku Klux Klan like a group of real estate agents..?" These and other ponderables are considered in the much talked-about Freakonomics. This is a short, interesting book by an economist and a writer who ask themselves why we act the way that we do. Unlike classical economics books, this is a group of stories about why we turn out the way that we do, and how people get what they want. Subjects covered are what really causes crime, how some teachers cheat, and why realtors don't really work for you. The stories (and data that backs them up) are fascinating. The revelations about the things that motivate us are often surprising, and contrary to their favorite subject; conventional wisdom. |
| Brand Sense - Martin Lindstrom, Free Press NY "Carrots once came in every color but orange. There were red, black, green, white and purple varieties. Then sometime in the sixteenth century Dutch growers decided to give this root vegetable a patriotic edge. Using a mutant seed from North Africa, breeders began developing an orange variety in honor of...William I, the Prince of Orange...A country with an orange flag now had an orange carrot.." So begins one of the great chapters in Brand Sense - a book that argues the need to look at your brand from more than one sense only. Oder, sounds, touch, each have compelling emotional elements for the consumer, not just sight and sound. If you smash a coke bottle, observes Lindstrom, you will still recognize it as a coke bottle. How many brands could survive "smashing" and still be identifiable? |
| Blink - Malcolm Gladwell Little, Brown What happens in a few seconds?According to Malcolm Gladwell in Blink, everything. Art experts know that an ancient sculpture is a fake - a scientist know if a couple will divorce, policemen see guns that don't exist. Blink, from the author of The Tipping Point, covers fascinating concepts. Among them are: Too much information usually leads to worse, not better decisions. In moments of high stress, we become temporarily autistic. You can be trained to see almost anything in a half-second of expression. Malcolm discusses what he calls "thin slicing" - the ability to extract information from tiny slivers of events. See Read for book details. |
| Unstuck Keith Yamashita and Sandra Spataro Portfolio Books "A decision today is often twice as worthy as a decision tomorrow" Businesses like to employ teams in decision making because a variety of expertise and views will likely produce creative results. But even groups of people can become static and stale. This small volume is an unusual reference book with pictures and diagrams to suggest how to identify the reasons for getting stuck, and dispelling the logjam. Not only does this book offer many creative suggestions to improving team effectiveness, bu it does it in a way that is visually exciting. The writing is concise and fun, and the advice is appropriate for any work teams. |
| Retro Ranch This quarterly magazine seems to have a genuine adoration of post-war ranch homes and decorations. It features furnishings and fixtures of the late 40s and 50s, including automobiles and other design elements of tract home living. It is amazing to see how many people have restored these homes to mint condition, and also how many suppliers are offering furnishings appropriate to the period. The 50s were one thought to be among the design-challenged period in , and American life. Yet it did advance the use of certain styles, like Streamlining and minimalism, as well as the widest use of plastics yet conceived. Available on newsstands. |
| Zerospace - Moving Beyond Organizational Limits Frank Deprez and Rene Tissen Berrett-Koehler Books These researchers recognize that business is moving into a new, exiting phase - one that is faster moving than ever imagined. In this book, Zero represents the number of rules you must have, the space you maintain, the physical assets required, the amount of time you have, and the degree of resistance you can afford to do business now. Not tomorrow. Now. "All your real assets go home at night" Core Competencies is now a myth. "...heat shield...dampen, deflect, or moderate the demands coming from inside and outside the organization, telling the company that it has to change....the company's staunchest defenders become the company's worst enemies..." |
| Out of Time - Norman Brosterman Abrams Books Ever wonder what life will be like in the year 2000? I sure do, and all is revealed in this collection of popular imaginings of the turn of the century. Most images are from the 30's - 60's, and are grouped in sections of architecture, travel, and vehicles. Illustrations of 6 mile tall buildings, undersea cities, air ship parades, and bubble-dome cars with telephones while you drive abound. Cities Under the Ice are reportedly "closer than we think!" Not only amusing, this book gives some insight in our we imagine and design our future, and reminds us that most product designers work, at best, a few months into the future. Real ideas often come from imagining how to meet our needs years or decades in advance. |