Buying in: What We Buy and Who We Are

by Rob Walker

Book Overview

Brands are dead. Advertising no longer works. Consumers are in control. Or so we're told. In Buying In , Rob Walker argues that this accepted wisdom misses a much more important cultural shift,... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0812974093
• ISBN13: 9780812974096
• Release Date: January 2010
• Publisher: Random House Trade
• Length: 320 Pages
• Weight: 0.55 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.2" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

Bought In

The great thing about this book is that unlike most marketing and business related reads--this one is actually enjoyable. I didn't want to put it down. Rob has a way of capturing his points in a personal, conversational manner that draws your interest and keeps it. As a designer, I typically disregard books related to marketing because I believe that things have changed so much that most of them are missing the mark. Traditional marketing is a dinosaur. Buying In goes beyond Communication 101 and points out how little control companies have over the marketplace now. Consumers play a large part in defining a brand and therefore build the relationships that Marketer's could only dream of and don't fully understand themselves. A few of the examples used could be considered cliche, but they are used because their stories are so powerful that it would be blasphemous to leave them out of a book like this. Most of them were insightful and many were new to me. This isn't an instruction book on how to make money and doesn't give you the answers to any great business problems, but it creates an important conversation that should be held by anyone looking to continue building relationships with their customers. This book serves as great inspiration to those who are willing to change the way they do business and think about other avenues of communicating who they are to potential audiences. But most of all I think the book benefits the consumer in ways that draw better insight into why they buy what they do, and how it represents who they are. Great read, very enjoyable and inspiring.

Walker is the first to nail the new marketing paradigm.

Rob Walker's book is excellent. Since the dawn of the internet age, just over a decade ago, the classic marketing paradigm (brands, 4Ps, advertising etc) have been on a slippery slope, and the only trouble is nobody has been quite sure which way it would all tilt. I have a raft of books talking about the "new marketing" (there was a boom in these after 1998 and the new millennium) but in my view Rob Walker is the first author to really nail the subject. He gets it so right. I've spent since 1996 doing market research amongst youth brands (mostly amongst energy drinks as it happens, so I feel Rob's discussion of Red Bull and other players is absolutely right on the mark.) In this past decade I've been conscious that the changes we've been seeing are part of a mich bigger pattern. But Walker is the first writer and critic to stand back and really put it all in perspective. His thinking here - wide-eyed, holistic, detailed and entertainingly pertinent - puts you in the right place to see everything and how it all fits. He kind of grabs you by the sleeve to take you there, such is the energy of his writing. One is left with the interesting question: are brands what the manufacturers make of them? Or are they appropriated by the consumer to reflect what we want of them? The subtle cover art, with the title floating between a bar-code and a thumb print, kind of sums things up. (One of the most subtle covers I've seen since Rita carter's excellent Multiplicity: The New Science of Personality, Identity, and the Self) Rob Walker presents us with an excellent book for marketers, market researchers, tired media buyers, marketing graduates who think they know everything and anyone who is just plain fascinated by how our society ticks. This is great reading.

One thing successful people tend to have in common is that they read at least one work of non-fictio

Smart enough for the academic set, and approachable enough for the casual observer, Walker's style is as engaging as the many cases he draws from. This month, you should read this one.

Energy Drink Kitesurfing

I second what Po Bronson says about "Buying In." This book is much more than a simple, cocktail party business book -- it's an attentive, subtle and entertaining meditation that not only uncovers the latest trends in buying, selling and marketing but also pushes us to consider larger questions beyond these subjects. Personally, since finishing the book, I've taken a harder look at my purchases and what they mean to my larger sense of identity. Not that this is some kind of Chicken Soup for the Marketing Soul, but Walker isn't afraid to follow his many case studies and pieces of hard evidence to wherever they lead, and sometimes that means not only a critique of consumer culture but a look at contemporary American culture as a whole. And that's what I love most about this book -- that Walker dives into consumer culture with such wide, bemused eyes. The reporting reminds me of Studs Terkel -- when a journalist can turn a subject into something wonderful, literally into something "full of wonder." I was happy to follow marketing detective Walker on his tour of energy drink kitesurfing, dive bars, chicken sausage cookouts, underground dance parties, and Lower East Side sneaker boutiques. (As someone who almost got kicked out of an "underground" New York sneaker boutique for merely trying to, um, shop, I was pleased to have Walker pull my coat on this corner of underground brand culture.) And where his tour leaves us, at the end of the gripping final chapter, is in a place that is somewhat contradictory and unexpected and completely fascinating.

Media Savvy Marketing Commentary

I'm a huge fan of Rob Walker's style and regularly read his 'Consumed' column and mourn his recently departed 'Murketing' newsletter. Heck, I even read his yearly 'zine on departed public figures. That said, I wasn't entirely sure what to expect when reading 'Buying In.' Unlike typical industry commentators and critics, Walker tends not to add hype to the mix, but rather breaks down products, trends and marketing techniques to almost a scientific level. More text book than hyped book du jour. If you're looking for a quick easy read with sound bites that will make you sound cooler to your colleagues- this is not the book for you. If you're looking to dig into a book that will make you rethink the branding of your favorite companies while offering insights into the industry in general, you should probably stop reading this review and just order the book--just don't expect to finish it in one sitting. Walker doesn't have schtick, no funny hair or pretentious wording, just an extremely meaty read that makes me think I should reread it in case I missed anything.