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Buying In: The Secret Dialogue Between What We Buy and Who We Are | 
 enlarge | Author: Rob Walker
Publisher: Random House
Category: Book
List Price: $25.00
Buy New: $15.26
You Save: $9.74 (39%)
New (32) Used (7) from $15.26
Rating:  17 reviews
Sales Rank: 4136
Media: Hardcover
Pages: 320
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.2
Dimensions (in): 9.3 x 6 x 1.2
ISBN: 1400063914
Dewey Decimal Number: 658.8270973
EAN: 9781400063918
ASIN: 1400063914
Publication Date: June 3, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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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 Buy
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| Customer Reviews: Read 12 more reviews...
 I approached this as a cynical brand-critic, and saw myself in its pages August 30, 2008
Charles Park
1 out of 3 found this review helpful
Presumably, I'm of the generation that shuns brands, that sees through marketing hype, that dismisses contrived cool, that celebrates and embraces the Authentic and Good. And yet, reading through Buying In, I realized (like Walker), that my cynicism was, itself, a somewhat contrived and manipulated reaction to most modern branding, that I have bought in to marketing messages myself. The brands I'm into might be subtler, or "cooler," or "more underground," but when it comes down to it, my consumption is shaped -- more than I'm often willing to admit -- by marketers and "community liaisons" and others who are ultimately more concerned with persuading me to spend money on their product than they are with celebrating the Authentic and Good.
Walker does a good job of showing various agents at work, and various methods they employ, in order to convince the masses that something is worth buying, worth wearing, and worth identifying with their own personal brand. And that's the ultimate paradox about branding, isn't it?: that by associating with a brand, that we'll become "more valuable" (cooler, more attractive, funnier, etc.) ... but its only in our collective consumption that the brand maintains its vaunted position in society. Bah ... I'm rambling.
I'm a big fan of books about society and consumption ... The Tipping Point, Consumed, The Corporation, The Omnivore's Dilemma. I'm really glad to have Buying In in my library.
You should not buy Buying In if you're looking for a step-by-step how-to on building your own brand. It's not written to serve that function. But as an introduction to how large corporations are spending lots of money on niche properties and subtle methods of persuading people to part with their cash while remaining skeptical of brands, it's great.
Bought In August 11, 2008
Brian W. Jones (Chicago, IL United States)
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
The great thing about this book is that unlike most marketing and business related reads--this one is actually enjoyable. I didn't want to put it down. Rob has a way of capturing his points in a personal, conversational manner that draws your interest and keeps it.
As a designer, I typically disregard books related to marketing because I believe that things have changed so much that most of them are missing the mark. Traditional marketing is a dinosaur. Buying In goes beyond Communication 101 and points out how little control companies have over the marketplace now. Consumers play a large part in defining a brand and therefore build the relationships that Marketer's could only dream of and don't fully understand themselves.
A few of the examples used could be considered cliche, but they are used because their stories are so powerful that it would be blasphemous to leave them out of a book like this. Most of them were insightful and many were new to me.
This isn't an instruction book on how to make money and doesn't give you the answers to any great business problems, but it creates an important conversation that should be held by anyone looking to continue building relationships with their customers. This book serves as great inspiration to those who are willing to change the way they do business and think about other avenues of communicating who they are to potential audiences. But most of all I think the book benefits the consumer in ways that draw better insight into why they buy what they do, and how it represents who they are.
Great read, very enjoyable and inspiring.
 Nattering Nothingness! August 8, 2008
Loyd E. Eskildson (Phoenix, AZ.)
5 out of 12 found this review helpful
The social sciences are replete with innumerable declarations of recent research insights that later prove to achieve nothing - why else would we have legions of economists that disagree with each other, decades of school "reform" that have brought little/no improvement in pupil achievement, findings that those treated by psychologists show little/no improvement over those not treated, and management theorists that split hairs over irrelevant topics while millions of jobs migrate to Asia for lower labor costs. "Buying In" follows this inglorious tradition.
Yes, Coke has a very valuable brand name that has boosted its profits; so do a few others - hardly news. "Buying In" also tries, but never credibly succeeds, to explain TiVO and i-Pod's successes, tries to make a phenomena ("Ooh - high margins," but very low volume) out of the occasional do-it-yourselfer that ekes out a living rebelling against Wal-Mart by creating hand-made-clothing, and a few surfers that have become brand names.
Save your money and instead read and think about declining real incomes, sales of brand-name stores (eg. The Limited), value of the dollar, and the importance of marketing in such an environment.
Helpful Examples of Below-the-Radar Marketing August 8, 2008
Donald Mitchell (Boston)
3 out of 6 found this review helpful
Rob Walker's main point in this book is that for most Americans brand choices have become a way to express individuality while still feeling connected to others. Why? Most people don't really do anything creative, but they want to feel better about themselves. They pick brands that reflect an appealing self-image.
This tendency to designer identity carries as far as choosing brands that reflect lifestyles that are symbolic of what you like, but aren't you. In some cases, brands develop such weak images that people flock to the same brand for widely different reasons.
The examples are what make the book fascinating. Mr. Walker has a keen eye for change in fashion and a good ear for listening to what people say about their choices. I've never seen such a simple thesis so thoroughly and interestingly illustrated.
Many brand marketing books avoid the whole realm of using nonadvertising methods to create images and awareness. Mr. Walker dives headlong into that subject and treats it pretty well.
The book's main weakness is that he doesn't get into the various segments that people tend to associate with in any detail. That leaves his examples better reflective of human psychology than marketing.
This book ultimately will provide more insight to consumers than to marketers. If you are a marketer, you'll probably grade this as a two-star book.
Mr. Walker is a talented writer as well. I don't recall having the opportunity to read too many books on marketing that display which a good writing style.
For some brands it's about trusting the tale, and not the teller July 16, 2008
Bob Duffy (Columbia, MD USA)
2 out of 6 found this review helpful
If you're interested in how certain brands take on personalities of their own beyond their framers' intent--or in the self-conscious denial of any intent at all--this book deserves your attention. Walker examines how certain brands come to embody what we say to ourselves about ourselves, but with no apparent acknowledgement of a surrounding brand community of any sort. In other words, individuals embrace many of these brands with no conscious pretension to belonging, seemingly because the brand has individual meaning for them alone. Or so they think.
All this may seem to run counter to the proposition that brand contagion is fueled by social networks. But the examples Walker presents don't diverge all that much from this model. And while he's a little snarky about notions like co-creation, that turns out to be pretty much the phenomenon he's examining. Many of his keystone cases--Converse sneakers, Pabst Blue Ribbon beer, and Timberland boots among hip-hop devotees--are brands that have prospered through diffusion force fields that are, at least initially, invisible to the "commercial persuaders" behind the brand.
And all of them, paradoxically, seem to emerge from a distinctive peer-to-peer energy that is militantly brand-averse, a kind of anti-matter in the branding universe detectable only through its effects. Clearly we're not in the realm of mass market brands here. Still, Walker's thoughts on brand contagion--not to mention his vivid coverage of the individual entrepreneurs and early adopters behind the brands--make this a most valuable read for anyone, and most especially for "commercial persuaders."
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