Buying In: The Secret Dialogue Between What We Buy and Who We Are | 
| Author: Rob Walker
Publisher: Random House
Category: Book
List Price: $25.00
Buy New: $12.47
You Save: $12.53 (50%)
New (33) Used (8) from $12.47
Avg. Customer Rating:  13 reviews
Sales Rank: 1255
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 320
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
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Brand New. 100% money back guarantee. All books shipped from Strand Bookstore, New York City, USA.
|
| Also Available In:
|
| Similar Items:
|
| 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 writerwho 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: Read 8 more reviews...
For some brands it's about trusting the tale, and not the teller July 16, 2008
1 out of 4 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
3 out of 9 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
1 out of 6 found this review helpful
the author uses ample research to back his insights...an amazing look at the changing landscape of marketing
 Dry book July 10, 2008
8 out of 13 found this review helpful
Contrary to all the good reviews, I find this book very dry. Since 1996, Internet E-Commerce is the new marketing distribution. Everyone knows that. People are creating contents on MySpace, YouTube and many other social networking blogs and sites every minute. Consumers are taking control of the content of these websites. Web 2.0 is another name for it.
Many books covered these issues.
This book cited all types of research, using a term "murketing". It is a cliche. Marketing research is only as good as the customers that paid for them. Many times, it does not work in the real world. I would not recommend this book.
 Rob Walker rocks! July 7, 2008
4 out of 6 found this review helpful
Fascinating -- accessible to non-academics yet rich with anecdotes and an in-depth analysis of the state of flux which typifies marketing today. A must read for anyone interested in marketing or branding. I am a young fashion designer who reads Rob's blog regularly and have corresponded with him on a couple occasions. I enjoy his work because his angle is intellectual yet relevant, and he really breaks down the nuances and subtleties of what's happening in "murketing" today.
|
|
|
