One American in ten tells the other nine where to shop, what to buy...even how to vote. The Influentials tells who they are, and how they can be influenced.Who are they? The most influential Americans—the ones who tell their neighbors what to buy, which politicians to support, and where to vacation—are not necessarily the people you'd expect. They're not America's most affluent ten percent or best-educated ten percent. They're not the "early adopters," alw...

The Marketing of Meaning is an answer to the constantly recurring question asked by most brands: What do consumers want these days? Erik gives a clear answer to this question by mapping out consumer behavior, pointing out the responsibility of brands in a changing world, and showing how to survive and even thrive in a world dominated by excess. Here he deepens the book’s triggering statement, “why purpose markets itself,” and offers you the recipe to thriving in challenging times.

Identity Economics provides an important and compelling new way to understand human behavior, revealing how our identities--and not just economic incentives--influence our decisions. In 1995, economist Rachel Kranton wrote future Nobel Prize-winner George Akerlof a letter insisting that his most recent paper was wrong. Identity, she argued, was the missing element that would help to explain why people--facing the same economic circumstances--would make different choices. This was ...

"In today’s rapidly changing digital environment, Darwinism is alive and well. What’s the Future of Business doesn't just explore trends and theories; it introduces a dynamic, actionable path to transformation."—Evan Greene, CMO, The Recording Academy, Producers of the GRAMMY AwardsRethink your business model to incorporate the power of "user" experiencesWhat’s the Future of Business? will galvanize a new m...

We are encouraged from all sides to view our lives as being full of choices. Like the products on a supermarket shelf, our careers, our relationships, our bodies, our very identities seem to be there for the choosing. But paradoxically this seeming freedom to choose can create extreme anxiety, and feelings of inadequacy and guilt. The Tyranny of Choice explores how late capitalism's shrill exhortations to 'be oneself' can be a tyranny which only leads to ever-greater disquiet and ...

You don't care who can access your data because you have nothing to hide. But what if corporations were using that data to control your decisions?As millions of consumers carry on unaware, powerful corporations race to collect more and more data about our behaviors, needs, and desires. This massive trove of data represents one of the most valuable assets on the planet.In All You Can Pay, Anna Bernasek and D. T. Mongan show how companies use what th...

In today’s Internet-driven world, customers have more power than ever. Through what interactive marketing expert Pete Blackshaw calls "consumer-generated media"—blogs, social networking pages, message boards, product review sites—even a single disgruntled customer can broadcast his complaints to an audience of millions. Blackshaw shows managers, marketers, and business leaders how to establish and maintain credibility for their brand by being authentic, listening and responding to customer...

Should the idea of economic man—the amoral and self-interested Homo economicus—determine how we expect people to respond to monetary rewards, punishments, and other incentives? Samuel Bowles answers with a resounding “no.” Policies that follow from this paradigm, he shows, may “crowd out” ethical and generous motives and thus backfire. But incentives per se are not really the culprit. Bowles shows that crowding out occurs when the message conveyed by fines and reward...

For almost forty years, Yankelovich Partners has helped America's biggest companies understand and reach their customers. Their breakthrough MONITOR studies-annual surveys that analyze the values, beliefs, attitudes, and expectations that shape consumer decisions-not only pinpoint current trends, but predict where the market will be in the future.Rocking the Ages: The Yankelovich Report on Generational Marketing (HarperBusiness; May 21, 1997) by J. Walker Smith and Ann Clurman turn...

Evidence-based Policy Making in Labor Economics distills and condenses the best thinking and research on labor economic issues to enable decision makers make better informed policy decisions.Written by well-known labor economists worldwide, research findings on key policy issues are presented in a compact and readable format, as distillations of comprehensive evidence-based research with concise policy recommendations. Designed to act as a quick reference, this guide bring...

Consumption decisions are crucial determinants of business cycles and growth. Knowledge of how consumers respond to the economic environment and how they react to the risks that they encounter during the life-cycle is therefore important for evaluating stabilization policies and the effectiveness of fiscal packages implemented in response to economic downturns or financial crises. In The Economics of Consumption, Tullio Jappelli and Luigi Pistaferri provide a comprehensive examina...

Inspired by his viral New York Times article, prize-winning investigative journalist Frank Lalli details how he mastered the ins and outs of health care—and how you, too, can get the best care for your money.Frank Lalli, the former editor of Money and George magazines, has devoted his career to getting to the bottom of a good story. When he was diagnosed with Multiple Myeloma, a rare but potentially deadly blood cancer, he put his reporte...