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Summary: great book for the right person;a snoozer for the rest
Review: I wanted to like this book. Great title,enticing blurbs,a respected author.And,if I was into a very detailed read on the chemistry of our brains,the nature of human thought,and the mechanics of how we perceive,then I would have loved it.And if those topics are of interest to you, buy this book.But don't get this book if you are looking for practical, hands on advice on marketing you or your services. The book's best chapter is "Memory,Metaphor,and Stories" and it has some useful concepts that you can put into practice,but no where near as useful as books like the Story Factor by Annette Simmons.
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Summary: Essential for MBAs
Review: I was captivated by this book immediately and have integrated it into my summer executive MBA class. This is a bold and provocative book. Zaltman challenges the traditional assumptions that have guided both applied marketing research and theoretical consumer research, particularly in his discussion of the role of the subconscious. He effectively builds a bridge between practice and theory by showcasing the relevant research on the mind/brain interface and providing strategic applications for managers. Executive MBAs are often hard to impress, but I expect that this book will excite their thinking and change how they view their consumers. The real-world examples will be particularly useful for bringing home the major ideas to them. I have read many managerial/marketing books and have been disappointed by the superficial nature of their content, the abstractness of their ideas, and their lack of breakthrough insights. Zaltman's book, in contrast, presents a deep theoretical and practical background and through his discussion of his consulting projects provides concrete suggestions for how managers might act under these new assumptions regarding the mind/brain. Executive students are often hard-pressed for time, and this book, while being thorough, is something that they will be able to read and digest in short time periods. This is the first time I will use a book in addition to the traditional text and am expecting great results. Feel free to contact me if you are interested in how this worked out (later in the summer of 2003). [name] [website]
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Summary: Unique book
Review: I've been recently shopping around for good marketing books, and I was glad I picked this one off the shelf. This book is well written and the concepts are explained to the reader very clearly. Very useful if you're in the marketing biz.
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Summary: This is a Must-Read for all Market Research Professionals!
Review: In his book, How Customers Think - Essential Insights Into the Mind of the Market, Gerald Zaltman hits gold! Professor Zaltman has expertly combined the disciplines of all the sciences to provide not only "rich insights", but equally as important, practical applications. It is essential that Market Research Professonals go beyond their "Suite of Tools" and explore the sub-conscious through Dr. Zaltman's sound methodology. At the very least, it should be addressed when outlining a preliminary research design. As a market researcher for over 35 years, we've all been challenged by the mystery of how customers think...because, we know, that the sub-conscious rules and is difficult to measure. At last, we have an approach that I consider one of the best. Companies today would be hard-pressed to explain why they haven't tried this approach to gain competitive advantage in the knowledge of their customer base. I applaud Dr. Zaltman for publishing this book...and, will admit, have used his metaphor elicitation technique when tackling some very complex problems. I urge market research professionals to take this book very seriously. It can make a difference! Patricia Mordigan Hawkins
Private Consultant
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Summary: How Marketing and Consumers' Minds Interact: A New Paradigm
Review: In recent months, I have read a number of excellent books on the general subject of marketing or on the more specific subject of branding/brand management. I think each of them would be invaluable, not only to those entrusted with marketing responsibilities but to all other decision-makers within any organization, regardless of size of nature. For example, Jeff Fox's How to Become a Marketing Superstar and Seth Godin's Purple Cow. This book is certainly outstanding but I recommend it only to those who are (a) corporate marketing managers, (b) principals, account supervisors, and account managers in advertising agencies, and (c) students enrolled in MBA programs, preferably if read in combination with Joseph Murphy's The Powers of Your Subconscious Mind. Zaltman makes significant demands on his reader as he explores with meticulous care how all people (not only customers) function both on the conscious and subconscious level. He identifies and applies a number of key terms such as cognitive unconscious, metaphor elicitation, response latency, and neuroimagining. He explains the Metaphor-Elicitation process, how to use a Consensus Map, and memory's "fragile power." For me, some of the most interesting and most valuable material is provided in Chapter Nine ("Memory, Metaphor, and Stories") and Chapter Ten ("Stories and Brands"), in part because I am especially interested in organizational symbols, rituals, and traditions. Zaltman shifts his and his reader's attention to "Crowbars for Creative Thinking" (a terrific chapter title) following by the final two chapters in which he (somehow) reviews and then integrates all of his key concepts while explaining how and why "Quality Questions Beget Quality Answers" and how to launch a "New Mind-Set." I hope you have noted my frequent use of "how to" while briefly reviewing the range of subjects embraced by Zaltman's own intellect as he takes a "frank" look at the state of marketing today, introduces and analyses a "new paradigm" through examples of "how companies today apply the paradigm's principles, with remarkable results," and (in Part III) expands the perspective beyond customers' and consumers' thinking. Specifically, Zaltman shows managers ten ways to "break out of the box" when thinking about consumers and marketing -- and how they can help their colleagues to do the same. In Chapter 12, he suggests that new ways of thinking begin with better ways of asking questions and offers eight guidelines. Then in Chapter 13, Zaltman offers a word of caution about regressing into "business as usual" attitudes and practices, to what Jim O'Toole has characterized as "the ideology of comfort and the tyranny of custom." Zaltman views his book as a "starting point" for better representing (and understanding) the "mind of the market," which is to say both the conscious and subconscious mind of the given customer or consumer. Zaltman's reference to a "starting point" can be interpreted in quite different ways. Some may conclude that he is suggesting that his book offers an appropriate "starting point" for those in need of books about marketing. In m y opinion, that is not his intention. (My own recommendations would be Theodore Levitt's The Marketing Imagination, Ries and Trout's Positioning, and Harvard Business Review on Marketing. After a careful reading of those two volumes, Zaltman's book will be much more accessible.) Rather, I think Zaltman's use of the term "starting point" has quite a different purpose: To suggest (and I agree) that mankind's efforts to understand what the mind is, how it works, etc. have only just begun...especially with regard to efforts to understand how and why customers think. Our "voyage from the familiar" has only begun. This is one of several books I felt obliged to re-read at least once before attempting to formulate a review of it. (Others include Edelman's Bright Air, Brilliant Fire and Pinker's How the Mind Works.) Earlier, I suggested that this brilliant but challenging book would be of greatest value to those who are (a) corporate marketing managers, (b) principals, account supervisors, and account managers in advertising agencies, and (c) students enrolled in MBA programs. I'll go with that, taking this opportunity to thank Gerald Zaltman for a uniquely thought-provoking as well as informative intellectual experience. How well I apply what I think I have learned from him has yet to be determined. Frankly, my own journey of discovery is only at its "starting point."
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Summary: 5 highlighters!
Review: One of the best business books of all time. The author brings to light a fascinating subject that seems so obvious but has received so little attention. Mr Zaltman chooses not to focus on the famed five p's of marketing and points out that the main driving force of our purchase decisions and for that matter other decisions that we make in our lives are driven largely by our subconscious mind.
One reason the power of the subconscious may receive so little attention in business books and courses is because it requires a solid grasp of many fields of study, including psychology, sociology, neuroscience, etc..It would not surprise me to hear Mr Zaltman, who has an MBA and a PhD in sociology, say that his PHD has had an equal if not greater impact on his business success than his MBA. Mr Zaltman stresses the importance of a diverse knowledge base and 'an ability to find relevance where others see triviality.'
Mr Zaltman has wriiten a classic!
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Summary: Before you buy, know this...
Review: The technique that the author discusses in this book, known as ZMET (the Zaltman Metaphor Elicitation Technique) is patented. It is owned by a private research and consulting firm, Olson Zaltman Associates, and must be licensed through them. While this book was definitely interesting and provides a unique approach to marketing research, I can't help but question how much of this book is genuine, impartial knowledge and how much of it is an advertisement for the technique.
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Summary: There are no mature markets. Only lazy marketeers!
Review: The title of my review refers to Sergio Zyman, in his book "The end of marketing as we know it!". His quote just entered my mind while writing this review. This is what Zyman in his book calls a "Mental reentry map".
When you are facing a mature market, the book of Zyman can provide you with enormeous growth potential. This just by tapping into the consumers' mind.
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Van&Goos Marketing Partners helps firms in the Healthcare market to make sustainable profits.
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Summary: There are no mature markets. Only lazy marketeers!
Review: The title of my review refers to Sergio Zyman, in his book "The end of marketing as we know it!". His quote just entered my mind while writing this review. This is what Zyman in his book calls a "Mental reentry map".
When you are facing a mature market, the book of Zyman can provide you with enormeous growth potential. This just by tapping into the consumers' mind.
____________________________________________________________
Van&Goos Marketing Partners helps firms in the Healthcare market to make sustainable profits.
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Summary: Refreshing new insights
Review: This book is a must-read for marketing researchers, academics, managers, or anyone else interested in why we make the decisions we do. Dr. Zaltman has integrated the latest findings from cognitive psychology, neuroscience, and sociology into an easy-to-read, but definitely thorough, discussion of how the brain works and consumers think. Zaltman accomplishes that task by providing real-life case studies coming from his years of experience as a consultant along with a well-summarized view of the underlying theories and evidence. His discussions about the role of the subconscious should result in a paradigm shift in marketing research. Anyone who has conducted a focus group or distributed a large-scale written survey and has been left with the feeling that there must be more going on, will be comforted by the fact their intuition was right (there is) but also troubled by the issue of how to gain more information from consumers. Zaltman's research method, Zaltman Metaphor Elicitation Technique (ZMET), is presented as a way for managers to "dig deeper" into both their own and their consumers' decision processes. This book provides detailed information about ZMET and how real managers have gained unique insights from its usage. As both an academic memory researcher and consultant I was particularly impressed with Zaltman's coverage of the role of memory in consumer decision making, both with its frailty, making it subject to distortion on more traditional market research measures, and its depth, as in the role of storytelling and relationship to deep metaphors. On a practical note, Zaltman has integrated some features that make his book user-friendly, such as usage of pictures or images to demonstrate his points, summary tables that concisely articulate his ideas, a short glossary of terms that is helpful to the novice reader and an appendix on ZMET which includes good/bad examples of interviewing techniques. In addition to Zaltman's breakthrough coverage of content, he is also a gifted writer that is a pleasure to read. I highly recommend this book!
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