Consumer Behavior

From the shuttered factories of the rust belt to the look-alike strip malls of the sun belt---and almost everywhere in between---America has been transformed by its relentless fixation on low price. This pervasive yet little examined obsession is arguably the most powerful and devastating market force of our time---the engine of globalization, outsourcing, planned obsolescence, and economic instability in an increasingly unsettled world.

The greatest threat to privacy today is not the NSA, but good-old American companies. Internet giants, leading retailers, and other firms are voraciously gathering data with little oversight from anyone. In Las Vegas, no company knows the value of data better than Caesars Entertainment. Many thousands of enthusiastic clients pour through the ever-open doors of their casinos. The secret to the company’s success lies in their one unrivaled asset: they know their clients intimately by tracking the activities of the overwhelming majority of gamblers.

What if your customers had a vested interest in guiding your company toward greater success? What if your employees had a personal as well as professional commitment to elevating your organization? Imagine how different your results would be if investors, vendors, and even analysts treasured the relationships they have built with you. Most important...is your company capable of setting aside a bit of its own self-interest to become part of dramatically more rewarding collaborative effort?

In Demand, Adrian Slywotzky provides a radically new way to think about demand, with a big idea and a host of practical applications - not just for people in business but also for social activists, government leaders, non-profit managers, and other would-be innovators. To succeed in their various missions, all these groups need to master such ground-breaking concepts as the hassle map (and the secrets of fixing it); the curse of the incomplete product (and how to avoid it); why “very good” does not equal “magnetic”....

It’s a new era of business and consumerism - and you play a role in defining it.

Today’s biggest trends - the mobile web, social media, real time - have produced a new consumer landscape. The End of Business As Usual explores this complex information revolution, how it has changed the future of business, media, and culture, and what you can do about it. This is the end of business as usual and the beginning of a new era of relevance.

Online shopping continues to grow at an astounding rate. In 2012 more than $1 trillion were spent in online retailers alone. The nature of shopping is drastically changing - but with so little information on how best to interact with online customers, how are businesses to succeed?

In "Afrifluence," we embark on a transformative journey into the heart of African creativity, exploring its immense potential to reshape narratives, perceptions, and economies on a global scale. This book is more than just a guide, it's a manifesto for African influencers ready to harness the true power of their creative content and capitalize on the wealth of opportunities awaiting them.

Companies spend millions of dollars every year trying to court consumers. They invest in flashy advertising, celebrity endorsements, loyalty programs, websites ... you name it. And they spend millions more trying to build their businesses through elaborate "relationship management" software. The result? Most marketers still aren't emotionally connecting with consumers. Married to the Brand tells the story of what makes profitable brand relationships work - through the eyes of the consumer, not the marketer.

¿Estás utilizando inteligentemente toda la data recopilada y almacenada? En un escenario de feroces transformaciones digitales, debemos ser capaces de ayudar a nuestras organizaciones a salir airosas de estos cambios y ser competentes al desarrollar empresas basadas en datos (data driven). No se trata de trabajar con hojas de cálculo u otros mecanismos tradicionales, sino de emplear una gestión eficaz de los datos que genere enormes beneficios para las instituciones y para todo aquel que emprenda en el mundo de hoy.

Through Market Like a Human, you will learn ways to incorporate a more human-centric approach in your marketing campaigns to better develop trust, create rapport, and establish authority. We have to do more and be better in our marketing to truly connect with our audience.

In today’s world, a woman can be overwhelmed by the expectations put upon her—people who don’t know her, what she wants, or who she wants to be. Where do you turn when you know you want more, but your “more” doesn’t look like everyone else’s? Shop Social goes beyond the traditional understanding of buying from friends and shows how building a microcommunity of people who know you and who are personally invested in your well-being can be a life-changing experience that saves time and money, while putting you in control of your own health, happiness, and fulfillment.

Plastic surgery has become the answer for many Americans, and in American Plastic sociologist Laurie Essig explores how we arrived at this particular solution. Over the last decade there has been a 465 percent increase in cosmetic work, and we now spend over $12 billion annually on procedures like liposuction, face-lifts, tummy tucks, and boob jobs.

How do we stay safe? Should we? What if our attempts are exposing us even more to the very risks we are avoiding? Would acceptance of danger make us more secure? Is there such a thing as foolproof? In Foolproof, Greg Ip presents a macro theory of human nature and disaster that explains how we can keep ourselves safe in our increasingly dangerous world.

In Marketing Secrets of the Ultra-Wealthy, you will learn the exact processes and marketing methods that will enable you to get ahead of your competition and grow your business to incredible heights.

Drawing on insights from across the social, behavioral, and natural sciences, Michelle Baddeley explores contexts in which behavior is driven by the herd. She analyzes the rational vs nonrational and cognitive vs emotional forces involved, and she investigates why herding only sometimes works out well. With new perspectives on followers, leaders, and the pros and cons of herd behavior, Baddeley shines vivid light on human behavior in the context of our ever-more-connected world.

A social media expert with global experience with many of the world's biggest brands - including Nike, Toyota, and Motorola - Simon Mainwaring offers a visionary new practice in which brands leverage social media to earn consumer goodwill, loyalty, and profit, while creating a third pillar of sustainable social change through conscious contributions from customer purchases. These innovative private sector partnerships answer perhaps the most pressing issue facing business and thought leaders today: how to practice capitalism in a way that satisfies all needs.

Customers demystified! The truth and nothing but the truth! Simply the best thinking on how you can move customers to buy... buy more... and keep on buying! This book reveals 50 bite-size, easy-to-use techniques for finding and keeping highly profitable customers.

Wilber Winkle was called a "national treasure" by no less than TV's Larry King, and his book was dubbed the funniest in decades by American Bookseller. What does Mr. Winkle do? Without fear, he writes letters to the massive corporations responsible for popular consumer products, demanding satisfaction and complaining about even the most minor of flaws. And miraculously, the corporations answer.

Are you ready to transform your brand into a powerful entity that resonates deeply with your audience? How to Cultivate Brand Worship provides a groundbreaking exploration of brand-building strategies, drawing intriguing parallels between the fervent devotion of cult followers and the loyalty of dedicated customers.

If the financial crisis has taught us anything, it is that Americans save too little, spend too much, and borrow excessively. What can we learn from East Asian and European countries that have fostered enduring cultures of thrift over the past two centuries? Beyond Our Means tells for the first time how other nations aggressively encouraged their citizens to save by means of special savings institutions and savings campaigns.