Marcel Danesi is an entertaining and insightful tour guide to decoding the messages woven into the advertisements, commercials, brand names, and logos we see on a daily basis. Guiding readers through the basics of how to interpret ads, Danesi explores everything from product and package design to jingles, cyberadvertising, ad campaigns, global impacts, culture jamming, and advertising effects. Why It Sells will fascinate and inform all readers interested in how ads, marketing, and branding take hold in the consumer psyche.
Who is Roy Spence and what makes him the Pied Piper of Purpose? Over the last thirty-five years, Roy Spence has helped organizations such as Southwest Airlines, BMW, the University of Texas, Walmart, the Clinton Global Initiative, and many others achieve greatness by getting them to obsess about one big idea: purpose. With purpose as the North Star, employee engagement is higher, competition is less threatening, customers are more loyal, and innovation flows. It's the secret to developing a more fulfilling work life as well as a healthier bottom line. Simply put, purpose is a definitive statement about the difference you are trying to make in the world. As Spence writes, "It's your reason for being that goes beyond making money, and it almost always results in making more money than you ever thought possible." It's not soft stuff, as some might scoff. Especially during times of great economic uncertainty, purpose is the key to creating and maintaining a high-performing organization. It deserves just as much attention as strategy, execution, and innovation. A real purpose can't just be words on a piece of paper. It has to get under the skin of every member of your organization like Southwest's purpose of democratizing the skies or Walmart's of saving people money so they can live better. If you get it right, your people will feel great about what they're doing, clear about their goals, and excited to get to work every morning. No organization is too big or too small, too niche or too mundane, to benefit from a clearly defined purpose. Spence and coauthor Haley Rushing share their insider insights and case studies to help you discover your organization's purpose, proclaim it to the world, and apply it to everything you do. This book will force you to address some tough and profound questions: •What difference do we want to make in the world? •What do we really stand for? •Do we have purpose-based leaders in key roles? •Do our employees feel like what they do matters? •Would our customers miss us if we ceased to exist? •Do we bring our purpose to life everywhere we can both internally and externally? Spence's hard-won lessons will change the way you view your job, your business model, your leadership style, and your marketing. They will help you make money, make a difference, and with a little luck,make history.
In the instant New York Times, Wall Street Journal and Washington Post bestseller, Jeetendr Sehdev inspires people everywhere to learn from the way celebrities engage their fan bases. In the space of five years, Jeetendr Sehdev has shaken up the world of entertainment by revealing how social media stars generate more obsession than the Hollywood A-list. What can he teach us about making our own ideas, products, and services break through? Sehdev shows why successful images today–the most famous being Kim Kardashian–are not photoshopped to perfection, but flawed, vulnerable, and in your face. This total transparency generates a level of authenticity that traditional marketing tactics just can’t touch. From YouTube sensations like Jenna Marbles to billionaire tech mogul Elon Musk, The Kim Kardashian Principle reveals the people, products, and brands that do it best. After all, in a world where a big booty can break the Internet and the president is a reality TV star, self-obsession is a must-have. No posturing, no apologies, and no shying away from the spotlight. The Kim Kardashian Principle is a fresh, provocative, and eye-opening guide to understanding why only the boldest and baddest ideas will survive–and how to make sure yours is one of them.
Look out for Daniel Pink’s new book, When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing #1 New York Times Business Bestseller #1 Wall Street Journal Business Bestseller #1 Washington Post bestseller From the bestselling author of Drive and A Whole New Mind, and teacher of the popular MasterClass on Sales and Persuasion, comes a surprising--and surprisingly useful--new book that explores the power of selling in our lives. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, one in nine Americans works in sales. Every day more than fifteen million people earn their keep by persuading someone else to make a purchase. But dig deeper and a startling truth emerges: Yes, one in nine Americans works in sales. But so do the other eight. Whether we’re employees pitching colleagues on a new idea, entrepreneurs enticing funders to invest, or parents and teachers cajoling children to study, we spend our days trying to move others. Like it or not, we’re all in sales now. To Sell Is Human offers a fresh look at the art and science of selling. As he did in Drive and A Whole New Mind, Daniel H. Pink draws on a rich trove of social science for his counterintuitive insights. He reveals the new ABCs of moving others (it's no longer "Always Be Closing"), explains why extraverts don't make the best salespeople, and shows how giving people an "off-ramp" for their actions can matter more than actually changing their minds. Along the way, Pink describes the six successors to the elevator pitch, the three rules for understanding another's perspective, the five frames that can make your message clearer and more persuasive, and much more. The result is a perceptive and practical book--one that will change how you see the world and transform what you do at work, at school, and at home.
The motivations customers act on are seldom logical, predictable, or even conscious. Instead, their strongest responses stem from one source: emotion. It's a deceptively simple reality. But it permanently changes the way organizations must go about understanding their customers. Why Customers Really Buy introduces emotional-trigger research, a revolutionary new approach that uncovers the core, unfiltered, and spontaneous triggers that drive customer sales. Traditional market research is outmoded and counterproductive because old methods measure rather than inform. They generate predictable answers that confirm preconceived assumptions. Emotional-trigger research is a powerfully different method that gets to the heart of what companies need to know. Based on an indirect approach that features provocative questions, insightful listening, and in-depth conversations, the results are more spontaneous and enlightening. This book equips sales and marketing professionals with: The keys to solving the mystery of how customer decisions are really made Twelve real-world case studies illustrating how emotional-trigger research solved many of the most pressing sales/marketing challenges companies confront Twelve universal sales/marketing lessons revealed through emotional-trigger research and how to apply those lessons to diverse industries Why Customers Really Buy reveals how customers emotionally connect with a product or service, and goes to the very root of how to craft winning solutions to reach them.
This helpful resource will show you what you’re doing wrong with selling and how to fix it. You make the right calls all day, you deliver your pitches flawlessly, and you donate to every one of your potential client’s kid’s school fundraisers. But you still aren’t closing deals. What gives? Well, you’re clearly screwing something up, and it’s time you find out what it is. You aren’t anywhere near your sales targets, and your bottom line hasn’t budged since your started. Chances are it’s not about what you’re doing right--it’s about what you’re doing wrong. How Not to Sell is filled with interviews and stories of people who were being held back by the things they didn’t realize were working against them. The workplace is a minefield filled with politics and unspoken rules. This book is here to teach you: How you’re screwing it up and what to do about it How other people screwed it up before figuring it out What you should stop doing immediately What you should be doing more of Stop panicking and letting frustration hold you back. How Not to Sell is the tool you need to get out of your sales slump and make your numbers!
What's the secret to sales success? If you're like most business leaders, you'd say it's fundamentally about relationships-and you'd be wrong. The best salespeople don't just build relationships with customers. They challenge them. The need to understand what top-performing reps are doing that their average performing colleagues are not drove Matthew Dixon, Brent Adamson, and their colleagues at Corporate Executive Board to investigate the skills, behaviors, knowledge, and attitudes that matter most for high performance. And what they discovered may be the biggest shock to conventional sales wisdom in decades. Based on an exhaustive study of thousands of sales reps across multiple industries and geographies, The Challenger Sale argues that classic relationship building is a losing approach, especially when it comes to selling complex, large-scale business-to-business solutions. The authors' study found that every sales rep in the world falls into one of five distinct profiles, and while all of these types of reps can deliver average sales performance, only one-the Challenger- delivers consistently high performance. Instead of bludgeoning customers with endless facts and features about their company and products, Challengers approach customers with unique insights about how they can save or make money. They tailor their sales message to the customer's specific needs and objectives. Rather than acquiescing to the customer's every demand or objection, they are assertive, pushing back when necessary and taking control of the sale. The things that make Challengers unique are replicable and teachable to the average sales rep. Once you understand how to identify the Challengers in your organization, you can model their approach and embed it throughout your sales force. The authors explain how almost any average-performing rep, once equipped with the right tools, can successfully reframe customers' expectations and deliver a distinctive purchase experience that drives higher levels of customer loyalty and, ultimately, greater growth.
The authors explore how Americans' levels of political knowledge have changed over the past 50 years, how such knowledge is distributed among different groups, and how it is used in political decision-making. Drawing on extensive survey data, they present compelling evidence for benefits of a politically informed citizenry--and the cost of one that is poorly and inequitably informed. 62 illustrations.
