Brave New World
The Generational Imperative by Chuck Underwood
After recently re-reading Aldous Huxley’s classic novel, Brave New World, it was timely to read the Questions for Jonah Lehrer interview in Sunday’s New York Times Magazine, as he has just written How We Decide, a book on how we make decisions. I got to thinking about our understanding of the human brain and the use of that knowledge in marketing. In another post, I’ll chat about behavioral economics, but in this post, as it is the end of the year and there is the surfeit of “Books of 2008″ lists, allow me to note just a few books related to this topic that I think would be inspiring and to ask you to provide your own suggestions.
The Generational Imperative by Chuck Underwood tackles the issues of human decision-making and perspective from the viewpoint of generational factors. Generational trends can be identified and aligned with historical cultural and social issues.
The Culture Code by Clotaire Rapaille also looks at cultural issues, but less from a generational approach and more from the analysis of cultural norms and iconic messages that settle into our subconscious views of the world. Rapaille suggests people behave in subliminal ways guided by deeper, more primitive prompts from the animal or “reptillian” parts of the brain, not the rational parts of the brain. I rather like that Publishers Weekly seem to dislike the book, as that at least suggests a book worthy of debate! As I mentioned in a previous post, Emotionistas, we are working with a client’s substantial re-branding initiative based upon Rapaille’s work and it is incredibly interesting.
A Whole New Mind by Daniel Pink rings the alarm bells of abundance, Asia and automation, and advocates for right brain thinking to succeed in the new marketplace. He offers an interesting guide through the six core aptitudes he identifies, including exercises to beef up the right brain.
Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell is another interesting and easy book to read. Personally, I found it less insightful than Blink or Tipping Point, especially Blink which is better aligned to the topic of the brain’s reactions. Still, Outliers does challenge a number of the perceptions that are usually associated with success, not least that some people’s brains or other character attributes are alone responsible for their superior success.
Status Anxiety by Alain de Botton is a beautifully articulated book that analyzes our social fears about status and worth and then proposes mental or perceptual “cures” to them.
It will have to wait for another post, but clearly the more we learn about the brain’s function, the more we, as marketers, will begin to exploit that knowledge to communicate our brands. These books may help spark some of your neurons as you consider that. Let me know what comes of that …
My Walking Brain
Written by Stuart
David Day | Associates
About the Author: Stuart is constantly curious and believes conversation matters, for business, people and community. Feel free to join in...