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Title: The Influentials: One American in Ten Tells the Other Nine How to Vote, Where to Eat, and What to Buy by Jon Berry, Ed Keller ISBN: 0-7432-2729-8 Publisher: Free Press Pub. Date: 07 January, 2003 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $26.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.87 (15 reviews)
Rating: 1
Summary: enough already, i get it...
Comment: "the influentials" could have been a wonderful overview of this very intriguing group of americans. however, in the hands of market researchers, this book is about 15 pages of overview and snapshots of some influentials, followed by 300 pages of charts and corresponding text that re-hashes the charts in sentence form (here's an example, albeit NOT from the book...i'm making this up, but it's on par with what's in the book: "...47% of Influentials recycle plastic. that's 14% higher than the entire population, 12% higher than college-educated Americans, and 5% higher than those in households that make over $75,000/year. Influentials recycle paper at an even higher rate - almost 56%. That compares to 31% for the entire populations..."). i mean, i get it already. essentially, there are about 20 bullet points that define an influential, and there isn't a whole lot more to say after that. the book has little profiles on about 5 or 6 influentials, but could have benefitted from many more of those. disappointing.
Rating: 5
Summary: Statistics of the politically and socially active
Comment: I agree with the other reviewer that the "influential" 10% selected for this book consists of people who are socially and/or politically active. That's how they were chosen. In my view, it wasn't really shown that this 10% of the population strongly influences the other 90%. Many statistics of this active 10% are given.
Influentials do tend to talk a lot.
Keller and Berry write "Influentials seem to have an aversion to keep things to themselves. ... They believe it's important to give others information that could help them." (p. 148).
So, what do we learn about Influentials?
* They are two times more likely to buy online than the average consumer. They like the convenience.
* They like to travel and tend to like to cook.
* They tend to be "tactical consumers," who shop around to get the best deal.
* Influentials tend to be interested in news, politics, the environment, health, technology, and science. They focus upon important "substantive, meaty areas."
* Influentials aren't particularly interested in celebrities, sports, fashion or TV culture. (They don't mind public television, because it's educational.)
* They value learning and tend to have active minds.
* They're not into bowling or extreme sports.
* Influentials feel they can control their destiny.
* 3 to 1, they would prefer to be entrepreneurs to top executives at big companies.
* They don't want to be extremely rich (not more so than non-influentials anyway). But, they want financial security.
* Influentials were early adopters of IRA's, 401(k), cell phones, and the Internet.
* Influentials read a lot, especially magazines and newspapers.
So, for marketers looking for information about the politically/socially active 10% of the population, this book provides many insights. Plus, I think it's interesting reading. However, for marketers looking for specific ways to reach this audience, "The Influentials" seems to offer only a few broad marketing ideas. For example, Keller and Berry write: "If there's a secret to advertising to Influentials, it is to be creative and informative."
And, the authors say companies must provide useful information. Keller and Berry write: "Succeeding with Influentials begins with information. A salient, meaningful piece of information is at the very least a conversation starter."
Another idea offered is sponsoring a community event or worthy cause. However, the authors point out that Influentials tend to be skeptical of advertising and messages can't just flow down from a company to Influentials. Influentials won't just blindly accept them. Influentials will listen to those they know, incorporating their experiences and their own personal experiences to determine the quality or usefulness of a product.
Influentials tend to be good listeners and get feedback from others. Partially, it's their wide experience though personal feedback that makes them a valuable source of information to others.
The book points out that Influentials represent an early majority of the market. Whether small cars, back to big SUV's, computers, cell phones, digital cameras, debit cards, or online computer access, Influentials tend to be early adopters of products that subsequently become popular with the general populace.
Keller and Berry tell us Influentials don't just adopt any product. They tend to adopt utilitarian products that really add to their lives. But, that seems to reduce marketing to the old maxim, "Build a better mouse trap and they will come," which many marketers don't accept.
So, overall, I think "The Influentials" is interesting reading, but I don't know that readers will find it full of useful marketing ideas.
Rating: 4
Summary: Better Than Most
Comment: As has been mentioned by others, this business book rises above others with the standard advice to do X or Y, with no empirical data. Hands down it is better than the self-aggrandizing autobiographies of CEOs who tell "how I did it." Yet, The Influentials falls short of what was possible. At no time are any models provided that explicitly lay out what influentials are, how their influence functions in society, or how their attitudes directly affect purchasing trends. In the place of any causation theory, the book piles on the descriptive statistics, with an occasional "We told you so" reference to previous Roper publications. A lingering question I had was the longitudinal nature of the research. Since the influentials were identified as early as thirty years ago, I wondered how their influence changed over time, but in fact the data was not longitudinal at all. A definition of influentials was made and then the researchers simply looked out for such people and interviewed them. Here the research starts to look a bit circular in logic, and we may ask if the samples interviewed were really "influentials" or simply people who answered questions in a way that fit into what Roper is looking for.
The book is a good read though, and the marketing trend to place the customer at the center of all the firm's efforts is right on target.
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Title: How Customers Think: Essential Insights into the Mind of the Market by Gerald Zaltman ISBN: 1578518261 Publisher: Harvard Business School Press Pub. Date: 21 February, 2003 List Price(USD): $29.95 |
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Title: Creating Customer Evangelists: How Loyal Customers Become a Volunteer Sales Force by Ben McConnell, Jackie Huba, Guy Kawasaki ISBN: 0793155614 Publisher: Dearborn Trade Publishing Pub. Date: December, 2002 List Price(USD): $25.00 |
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Title: The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference by Malcolm Gladwell ISBN: 0316346624 Publisher: Back Bay Books Pub. Date: 07 January, 2002 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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Title: Purple Cow: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable by Seth Godin ISBN: 159184021X Publisher: Portfolio Pub. Date: 08 May, 2003 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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Title: Priceless: Turning Ordinary Products into Extraordinary Experiences by Diana Lasalle, Terry A. Britton ISBN: 157851746X Publisher: Harvard Business School Press Pub. Date: 04 December, 2002 List Price(USD): $27.50 |
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