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Hardcover
Publisher: Random House
ISBN13: 9781400063918
Condition: NEW
Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
“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 Buy
| Customer Reviews: |
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| Marketing bookshelf essential |
| Customer Rating: 5 out of 5 |
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I really enjoyed the way Rob Walker takes us deep under the skin of what a brand really means rather than what a marketing manager thinks that their brand is in the book Buying In. Walker decodes one of marketings great mysteries: what is it about Red Bull's marketing that makes it so successful.
Probably the most interesting part of the book however is the amount of time that Walker spends on the concept of authenticity. Authenticity partly comes from the attributes of the business, rather than just the marketing of the business and part of it comes from the way that the consumer interacts with the brand: what values and attributes that they put on it. It is this complex brew that gives a brand authenticity and engenders trust.
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| Have You Bought In? |
| Customer Rating: 4 out of 5 |
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Buying In is an overview of branding and the evolving relationship between brands and the consumer. As a result of this evolving relationship, branding, and the industry as a whole, marketing professionals must adapt to these changes, and the author provides many successful case studies on companies who have done so successfully. My only complaint is that the presentation of ideas is a bit bland without any color or illustrations, which seems to be the norm for many books, however I believe that marketers would be more aware of this aspect. Overall this is a well written book which provides excellent references to back up the author's ideas and I highly recommend this book to marketing professionals or small businesses wishing to increase their marketing capability in a changing environment.
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| Not light and fluffy but definitely a "must read" |
| Customer Rating: 5 out of 5 |
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In "Buying In", Rob Walker explores how modern consumers interact with brands and why you are less in control of what your brand means than ever before.
Consumers understand marketing because marketing has been coming at them from just about every direction since the day they were born. Much "stealth" marketing, manufactured or fertilized word-of-mouth marketing and sponsorships are easily spotted and identified by consumers as exactly what they are. Nobody is fooling anybody anymore. That's OK Walker tells us because consumers will willingly become part of the process if you allow them in the right way. Welcome to the world of "murketing."
This book has lengthy case studies that sometimes seem to ramble off-point but hang in there because they all make a larger point.
The big point is this:
The art of modern commercial persuasion allows people to become part of your branding process and allows them to co-opt your brand in order to enable them to weave and express their own personal narrative through their individual expression of your brand and others'.
You might not always understand how they are defining your brand and personally identifying with it, but if you leave enough of your brand open to interpretation then you should allow high reach influencers to co-opt your brand and then watch what they do with it and where they go with it. Then strive to embrace it and build upon how they define it because ultimately consumers define your brand, not you.
Consumers reflect and project themselves through brands. You must allow them to do this by not tightly and narrowly defining your brand. Leave enough open to interpretation so that people have some flexibility for personal interpretation. This is a very important concept and Walker strongly supports it with research and case studies.
I highly recommend this book.
~~ Review by the author of the e-book, "How to Build and Manage Your Brand (in sickness and in health)."
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| Erudite work that belongs on every adman's shelf |
| Customer Rating: 5 out of 5 |
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The challenge with people writing marketing books these days is that readers want some snappy concept or bullet-point list (Gladwell's influencers, Godin's purple cow, etc.) that they can immediately plug into their work, trot out to show thought leadership to clients, and so forth. So if that's what you're looking for, you will probably be disappointed with Buying In.
What this book does provide, however, is an exhaustively-researched, well-illustrated compilation of consumer trends, chiefly over the last 5-10 years, but in many instances, showing the historical roots of current-day market phenomena. What's refreshing about Walker's book--especially for those of us who often get our news and analysis from sites and blogs--is the number of fascinating, oft-obscure academic studies, psychological journal articles, and vintage treatises that he cites in context of making his observations. The "source notes" section at the end of the book is 8.5 pages single-spaced, and reading all of the works he mentions that caught my eye would take months. In that sense, one of the chief merits of Buying In is being such an excellent bibliography for finding the guy who did the definitive study on X or who wrote that influential book on Y.
Perhaps because of being built on such a meticulously-assembled ziggurat of research, Walker doesn't advance any radical theses; if you've been involved in the "commercial persuasion industry" for any length of time many of the thoughts will be familiar. In summary, however, I would not disagree with any of his substantive conclusions, and am convinced that this is a guy who gets it. Buying In convinced me that anything he writes is worth reading--a statement you can't make about many of these johnny-come-lately so-called gurus.
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| Good study of changes in marketing |
| Customer Rating: 4 out of 5 |
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This book focuses on what the author calls "murketing", which is where marketing blends into real life. Examples include the way people are invited to become "product advocates" (my term not his) to promote products for corporations, and how brands have become a part of self-identification. Walker is a journalist and it shows from his writing which is clear and not overwrought or stilted.
I found the book to be interesting, although the author was a bit too enamored of the new. Everyone who writes one of these books talks about how the world is changing and has never been this way before. Walker isn't quite that gullible and he even points to the past sometimes, but I found still that he seems to believe that his insights are unique a bit too often. They're not, but that doesn't make the book less worthwhile and it doesn't mean you shouldn't consider it.
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