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 enlarge | Author: Rob Walker
Publisher: Random House
Category: Book
List Price: $25.00
Buy New: $12.46
You Save: $12.54 (50%)
New (47) Used (12) from $11.84
Rating:  20 reviews
Sales Rank: 7401
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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| Customer Reviews:
 Nattering Nothingness! August 8, 2008
Loyd E. Eskildson (Phoenix, AZ.)
6 out of 14 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)
2 out of 5 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)
3 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."
buying in the secret dialogue between what we buy and who we are July 14, 2008
V. Coleman
6 out of 30 found this review helpful
I am a small business person and chose this book because it was recommended by amazon. I want to learn as much as I can about marketing or attracting more customers to my business. I have read about half the book so far and I have been asking myself why I bought it? When will the author mention something that a small business person can use in his/her business. This book has been a real waste of time. It consists of stories of companies doing new types of marketing. I really do not think it will help a small business person at all. The author does not identify with them.
great insight July 10, 2008
Richard J. Mergener (St. Augustine, FL)
1 out of 7 found this review helpful
the author uses ample research to back his insights...an amazing look at the changing landscape of marketing
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