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
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Rating:  20 reviews
Sales Rank: 9727
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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| Editorial Reviews:
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 15 more reviews...
Does what we buy define who we are? October 7, 2008
Todd Stockslager (Raleigh, NC)
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
Does what we buy define who we are? I won't tell you the punch line, you'll have to read to the last line of Walker's book to find the answer.
This is a popular study of marketing and consumers--why we buy, and how marketing affects what and how we choose to buy. Walker considers and rejects the two extremes often supposed to be true today:
--consumers (especially younger ones) are cynical and way too smart to buy the marketing hype.
--marketing is so smart and pervasive that nothing we buy is "authentic" (whatever that means; Walker spends some interesting time thinking about this) or meets an authentic need.
Consumers are smart today, no question, says Walker, and they understand marketing and hype--and buy anyway, sometimes even turning branding into an act of individualism or rebellion. In fact, Walker gives the example of Timberland boots, originally designed by manual laborers who needed tough waterproof boots, but were adopted by hip-hop artists and fans who drove sales to record levels and essentially co-opted the brand.
And marketing has gotten smarter too in the age of "clicks" (the mouse, the remote control, the DVR fast forward that bypasses marketing that doesn't hit home immediately). Walker references icons such as Apple and the iPod, stressing that the iPod was not first, cheapest, or necessarily technically superior to other MP3 players when introduced, although he misses a key point in the technical and marketing success of the iPod--iTunes, which both explains the iPods success, and adds another layer of mystery to Apple's business model for the iPod. An iPod, and any MP3 player, is really just a portable storage drive (either a rotating hard drive or a flash memory drive); people buy iPods (we own four of them in our family of five!) because of the utility value of the iTunes software, which is available for free download and is in fact of such utility that I (like many other iTunes users) had downloaded it and started using it to rip and listen to my music before I got my first iPod. I've always been fascinated by a business model that bases sales of an expensive product on a component of even higher utility--that is given away! It would be interesting to hear Walker's take on this.
Walker coined the term "Murketing" (murky + marketing) for the successful use of stealth marketing concepts that promote brands and brand loyalty without rising to the level of hard-core selling. In fact, murketing is successful only up to a level that is still under the consumer's radar--a level Walker calls the "murkiest common denominator."
But this book is not as dry or textbook as my review may be making it sound. Walker's interviews, writing style and examples are fascinating (we all are consumers and most of us enjoy doing it, after all) and his conclusion (you'll have to read to the end of the book) is interesting. I will say that along the way he considers consumer responses such as ethical consumerism (whatever THAT means, and again he has some ideas) and handcrafted production, and even references Rick Warren's immensely popular book The Purpose-Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here For? and his Saddleback Church as positive examples of why and how we relate to each other and our beliefs (or the products we buy). And its not about materialistic Christianity, quite the opposite.
 I decide what I buy.....or do I? Be in on the secret. September 27, 2008
Mary Longorio (Eagle Mountain, UT)
2 out of 4 found this review helpful
Where did Red Bull come from? December 2001, Rob Walker joined a growing group of onlookers on a Miami beach to watch as a group of kite boarders set off to cross the eighty eight miles of water between Key West and Varadero, Cuba. Not only did the event highlight the emerging sport of kite boarding, its participants were sponsored by Red Bull energy drink. At the time Red Bull was not widely marketed and didn't have much of a niche in the US, though well known in its home country of Austria. The event also was a perfect example of the new type of marketing, or murketing (a combination of the words marketing and murkey that best describes the new advertising techniques) employed in the highly competitive advertising business. Relatively unknown at the time of the kite board launch, Red Bull has employed innovative and personal approaches, such as sponsoring small groups of extreme athletes, to gain a market and a brand loyalty. Now Red Bull is everywhere and has a firm hold of the top spot in the energy drink market.
In the search for the new or repeat consumer brands have begun to use anti advertising. Relying on guerrilla marketing tactics, trend spotters, and actively seeking the anti brand or new consumer niche market for its products. From finding new groups to co-op a product (Timberland boots and hip hop) while retaining its original core, tracking an unexpected growth in sales of a product and trying to catch that lightning in a bottle or marketing a new product and coolhunters or buzz marketers tout the aspects of their products. . Consultants evaluate the variables of brand identification, price, target market, market saturation and how it will present their product. A whole branch of advertising has evolved around the idea of not looking as if you are trying to market your product. "Coolness" has become a much valued trait.
Rob Walker has written the weekly "Consumed" column for The New York Times Magazine as well as contributing to Slate and various print publications. Buying In is an incredibly readable account of the ever evolving dialog between what we buy, what we own, and who we are or what we may want our purchases to say we are. I was completely enthralled and often was nodding my head with recognition or reading something to my coworkers that was too cool to keep to myself. A very readable look into how our consumer habits have changed and the forces that compete constantly to sway our choices.
 No Sale September 14, 2008
bnieman (Wheaton, IL)
3 out of 5 found this review helpful
I thought this book would give me insights into why people like me buy the stuff we do. After all, the title says "the secret dialog between what WE buy and who WE are." Instead, it was a murky examination of mostly oddball marketing campaigns that successfully launched some products into commercial success. If I got the point - not sure I did; and I couldn't finish the book - it is that the methods discussed are going to be the successful marketing methods of the FUTURE. I think you can get an idea about the focus of the book from some of the chapter subtitles: "pink boots," "rickety bridges," "cool guys," "sexy t-shirts for young people." There may be some great stuff here, but it went over my head.
I approached this as a cynical brand-critic, and saw myself in its pages August 30, 2008
Charles Park
2 out of 4 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)
3 out of 4 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.
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