Customer Reviews

Emotionomics: Winning Hearts and Minds

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Dan Hill is far ahead of his time. I have read hundreds of books on sales and marketing and have been hard pressed to find solid data around emotions and how they relate to the buying process. When I found this book, I felt like I hit the jackpot. Dan Hill compiled reseach that would take years for any of us to compile on our own. He fills in many of the missing pieces of the puzzle for buying behavior. Emotion is where it is at and Dan Hill is ahead of his time. It pains me to see books out there that don't hold a candle to Mr. Hills work selling thousands more copies. Take it from someone who eats breathes and drinks human motiviation to buy, Mr. Hill has a book chock full of valuable data here to choose from. If you want meat to chew on when reading a great book, it is in this book.

A fascinating read about how emotions affect the choices we make in purchasing decisions. As a designer I used this book to help clarify (or justify) design choices that I always understood to be intrinsically valuable. I can now explain to left brain people why these emotional choices are so valid. Lots of clearly presented information. I enjoyed the illustrations, quotes and little asides that the author included to help explain points about brain science, business and human relationships.

The concept is a solid one, particularly in the light of modern neuroscience and the insight that it is bringing to our understanding of decision processes. But the book is crammed with superficial visuals that compromise its gravitas. The prose is stolid and charmless. And right up front, Mr. Hill cites "Claude Rapaille, a french psychologist." He was referring, of course, to Clotaire de Rapaillle, a french-born American market research professional with a background in medical anthropology. Not a big deal, perhaps, but it is a sloppy mistake that suggests the author has not done due diligence. Later, when reviewing advertising research practices, there is an image of a funnel. As an advertising professional this was rather jarring, given that the funnel construct is 1980's thinking (it derived from Alison Fisher Inc -- now GfK -- who used it as a construct to measure the health of automotive brands); it was strange to see it used in the context of supposedly cutting edge thinking. Factors like these for me cast a pall over the rest of the book.