Recommended Reading?

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Permalink Reply by Ardath Albee on October 8, 2008 at 7:49pm

Hi Lisa,

I've found that reading consumer psychology-oriented books has given me lots of insights into the realm of engagement. A few of them are:

Irrationally Predictable by Dan Ariely
The Art of Woo by G. Richard Shell and Mario Moussa
The User is Always Right by Steve Mulder
Buying In by Rob Walker
Sway by Rom and Ori Brafman

Hope you find these suggestions helpful.
Ardath

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Permalink Reply by Richard Sedley on October 9, 2008 at 3:07pm

Hi Lisa
Good question!

I like Ardath's suggestions. I think that the whole field of Bevahioral Economics, on which a number of Ardath's recommendations draw, is very interesting. Ariely's Predictably Irrational is particularly a good fun read.

Another two books I'd recommend are:

• Persuasive Technology: Using Computers to Change What We Think and Do by BJ Fogg (BJ is the found of the Stanford Captology Lab and this is the book on captology. I interviewed BJ about a year ago - you might want to listen to the podcast 'Interview with BJ Fogg')
• Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert Cialdini. Cialdini's 6 prinicples are a good starting point.

There are loads more I could recommend but I'm sure other people have interesting recommendations as well. Once everyone has chipped in I'll try and make it into a separate part of the site which features everyone ones ideas.

Richard
(Loopstatic is my blog that also covers some of this stuff)

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Permalink Reply by Mark Nicholson on November 11, 2008 at 11:20am

Hi Lisa

For a good understanding of consumer behaviour I would recommend Consumer Behaviour A European Perspective by Solomon. It gives a good theoretical background on how consumers think and why they purchase.

Another good textbook is Strategic Brand Management by Keller which explains how customers engage with brands and the importance of having an emotional connection.

Mark

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