A fascinating—and surprisingly fun—wide-angle look at advertising.
A comprehensive look at the nature and practice of branding.
Once upon a time, companies developed their brands solely for recognition purposes and distributed them through limited and well-worn channels, as Probst makes clear in the groundwork for his impressive new book. A farmer or a small-town shop owner might respond to a particular brand by buying a product, but the relationship usually went no further than that. But now, as Probst asserts, “We consume all these goods because marketing convinces us they make us happy, loved, and esteemed, but too many products make us feel happy one moment and miserable the next.” The author begins by noting what most consumers already understand: Brands “can foster meaningful relationships with their customers by being more empathetic and delivering a personalized experience.” But he quickly expands his discussion to include far more cultural and psychological elements. He contends that the advent of the internet has split most of us into three people—the real, digital, and virtual selves—which sometimes makes it difficult to remember who we really are. This conflux of identity and advertising is a note struck throughout the book, which repeatedly cites the ubiquity of a new mode of advertising. “People who want to express their ‘real me’ are more engaged with brands online and are motivated to co-create brand value,” he explains. “They become brand advocates.” All of this is in service to what Probst calls “contextual commerce,” the modern phenomenon of instant gratification that consumers expect—being able to “buy anything at any time without interrupting their lives.”
Readers of Probst’s Brand Hacks (2019) will remember his snappy prose style and quick pacing, but nothing in that earlier book will prepare them for the manic, thrilling sweep of this new book, which begins as a discussion of the ways branding must adapt to the demands of the present moment and steadily expands into nothing less than a penetrating portrait of an entire culture. Indeed, one of the most interesting and challenging main takeaways of the book is the extent to which branding has become the entire culture, for good or ill. “Consumers no longer expect brands to merely market their products,” he writes, “but to provide reliable and accurate information, take a stance on social issues, and make a positive contribution to society and the community.” In these pages, Probst takes the inner workings of consumer marketing and transforms them into an utterly fascinating snapshot of the way we live now. As Probst notes, the playing field has never been broader. “Small brands used to be hindered by few retailers carrying a limited number of brands along with their private labels. E-commerce has solved this by giving anyone access to an audience,” he writes. “Amazon shelf space is unlimited.” The author touches on everything from recycling and “green” initiatives to amateur-dominated social media platforms like YouTube or Instagram to the “woke” movement, and he illustrates his points by referencing TikTok trends and celebrity endorsements. Probst’s combination of agile writing and insightful observations makes most other books on modern branding look both overly circumspect and woefully incomplete.
A fascinating—and surprisingly fun—wide-angle look at advertising.Pub Date: Jan. 24, 2023
ISBN: 978-1646871254
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Ideapress Publishing
Review Posted Online: Nov. 8, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Striking research showing the immense complexity of ordinary thought and revealing the identities of the gatekeepers in our...
A psychologist and Nobel Prize winner summarizes and synthesizes the recent decades of research on intuition and systematic thinking.
The author of several scholarly texts, Kahneman (Emeritus Psychology and Public Affairs/Princeton Univ.) now offers general readers not just the findings of psychological research but also a better understanding of how research questions arise and how scholars systematically frame and answer them. He begins with the distinction between System 1 and System 2 mental operations, the former referring to quick, automatic thought, the latter to more effortful, overt thinking. We rely heavily, writes, on System 1, resorting to the higher-energy System 2 only when we need or want to. Kahneman continually refers to System 2 as “lazy”: We don’t want to think rigorously about something. The author then explores the nuances of our two-system minds, showing how they perform in various situations. Psychological experiments have repeatedly revealed that our intuitions are generally wrong, that our assessments are based on biases and that our System 1 hates doubt and despises ambiguity. Kahneman largely avoids jargon; when he does use some (“heuristics,” for example), he argues that such terms really ought to join our everyday vocabulary. He reviews many fundamental concepts in psychology and statistics (regression to the mean, the narrative fallacy, the optimistic bias), showing how they relate to his overall concerns about how we think and why we make the decisions that we do. Some of the later chapters (dealing with risk-taking and statistics and probabilities) are denser than others (some readers may resent such demands on System 2!), but the passages that deal with the economic and political implications of the research are gripping.
Striking research showing the immense complexity of ordinary thought and revealing the identities of the gatekeepers in our minds.Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-374-27563-1
Page Count: 512
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: Sept. 3, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
IN THE NEWS
These are not hard and fast rules, but Meyer delivers important reading for those engaged in international business.
A helpful guide to working effectively with people from other cultures.
“The sad truth is that the vast majority of managers who conduct business internationally have little understanding about how culture is impacting their work,” writes Meyer, a professor at INSEAD, an international business school. Yet they face a wider array of work styles than ever before in dealing with clients, suppliers and colleagues from around the world. When is it best to speak or stay quiet? What is the role of the leader in the room? When working with foreign business people, failing to take cultural differences into account can lead to frustration, misunderstanding or worse. Based on research and her experiences teaching cross-cultural behaviors to executive students, the author examines a handful of key areas. Among others, they include communicating (Anglo-Saxons are explicit; Asians communicate implicitly, requiring listeners to read between the lines), developing a sense of trust (Brazilians do it over long lunches), and decision-making (Germans rely on consensus, Americans on one decider). In each area, the author provides a “culture map scale” that positions behaviors in more than 20 countries along a continuum, allowing readers to anticipate the preferences of individuals from a particular country: Do they like direct or indirect negative feedback? Are they rigid or flexible regarding deadlines? Do they favor verbal or written commitments? And so on. Meyer discusses managers who have faced perplexing situations, such as knowledgeable team members who fail to speak up in meetings or Indians who offer a puzzling half-shake, half-nod of the head. Cultural differences—not personality quirks—are the motivating factors behind many behavioral styles. Depending on our cultures, we understand the world in a particular way, find certain arguments persuasive or lacking merit, and consider some ways of making decisions or measuring time natural and others quite strange.
These are not hard and fast rules, but Meyer delivers important reading for those engaged in international business.Pub Date: May 27, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-61039-250-1
Page Count: 288
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Review Posted Online: April 15, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2014
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