The Influentials: One American in Ten Tells the Other Nine How to Vote, Where to Eat, and What to Buy [Hardcover]

Jon Berry (Author), Ed Keller (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 7, 2003

One American in ten tells the other nine how to vote, where to eat, and what to buy. They are

The Influentials

Who are they? The most influential Americans -- the ones who tell their neighbors what to buy, which politicians to support, and where to vacation -- are not necessarily the people you'd expect. They're not America's most affluent 10 percent or best-educated 10 percent. They're not the "early adopters," always the first to try everything from Franco-Polynesian fusion cooking to digital cameras. They are, however, the 10 percent of Americans most engaged in their local communities...and they wield a huge amount of influence within those communities. They're the campaigners for open-space initiatives. They're church vestrymen and friends of the local public library. They're the Influentials...and whether or not they are familiar to you, they're very well known to the researchers at RoperASW. For decades, these researchers have been on a quest for marketing's holy grail: that elusive but supremely powerful channel known as word of mouth. What they've learned is that even more important than the "word" -- what is said -- is the "mouth" -- who says it. They've identified, studied, and analyzed influence in America since the Standard Oil Company of New Jersey (now Exxon) hired Elmo Roper himself to develop a model for identifying opinion leaders, and in The Influentials, they are finally ready to share their results. A few samples:

• Influentials have been the "early majority" -- leading indicators of what Americans will be buying -- for more than five decades, from choosing energy-efficient cars in the 1970s to owning computers in the 1980s to adopting 401(k)s and IRAs in the 1990s to using the Internet and cell phones today.

• Influentials have led the way in social development as well, from the revival of self-reliance (in managing their own health care, investments, and consumption) to mass skepticism about the marketing claims of everything from breakfast food to politicians.

Although America's Influentials have always been powerful, they've never been more important than now. Today, a fragmented market has made it possible for Influentials to opt out of mass-message advertising, which means that a different route must be taken to capture their hearts and minds. The Influentials is a map for that route, a map that explains who these people are, how they exercise influence, and how they can be targeted. The Influentials features a series of rules and guidelines for marketing to Influentials; case studies of products that have prospered because of Influential marketing (and products that have failed because they lacked it); a history of the phenomenon...and why Influentials are more influential today than ever; and profiles of twelve real-life Influentials.

Both an intellectual adventure and a hands-on marketing manual, The Influentials is an extraordinary gold mine of information and analysis that no business can afford to ignore.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

There's a group of people, Keller and Berry posit, who are responsible for driving trends, influencing mass opinion and, most importantly, selling a great many products. These are the Influentials, the early adopters who had a digital camera before everyone else and who were the first to fly again after September 11. Like Malcolm Gladwell (The Tipping Point), these authors are keen to point out a common phenomenon and spin it for the edification of marketing executives. Their assertion is that 10% of Americans determine how the rest consume and live by chatting about their likes and dislikes. Keller and Berry spend most of the book bolstering their theory with extensive findings from Roper polls (both authors work for Roper). Following this is a suggested plan of action for capturing Influentials' interest, with suggestions on how to target them, how to sell and even how to treat them in a customer service setting. Being an Influential today is similar to being a Vanderbilt in a bygone era: "[T]he company should invite them in and engage them in a conversation... and keep tabs on them in the weeks that follow." Because its points are so concrete and straightforward, the book should have little trouble finding adherents who want to woo such a powerful consumer base. Keller and Berry's theories are compelling and exceedingly well researched, and should be a boon to anyone looking to promote the next big thing.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Veterans of RoperASW, Keller and Berry based their first book on decades of research through the Roper Polls. Their findings suggest that one in ten people affects the way everyone else thinks via word of mouth. Presenting profiles of 12 such "Influentials" along with results of the polls, the authors argue that the most influential people in America are often everyday people, folks in one's own neighborhood who are active in civics, charities, and religious institutions. The premise is that marketers who understand these dynamics can focus their resources on these individuals in order to influence everyone else. Though the authors support their arguments with an impressive array of statistics, provided in minute detail to substantiate the premise, a much more lively discussion of a similar theme can be found in Malcolm Gladwell's The Tipping Point. Clearly targeted toward practicing marketing professionals and business executives, this book is appropriate for libraries with specialized collections, such as those in business schools and advertising/PR agencies.
Stephen Turner, Turner & Assocs., San Francisco
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 368 pages
• Publisher: Free Press; First Edition edition (January 7, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0743227298
• ISBN-13: 978-0743227292
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #588,202 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Real Insight, May 6, 2003

By 

Panopticonman "panopticonman" (Brooklyn, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

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This review is from: The Influentials: One American in Ten Tells the Other Nine How to Vote, Where to Eat, and What to Buy (Hardcover)

For one simple, powerful reason THE INFLUENTIALS stands head and shoulders above the field in the marketing trends book sweepstakes. Its insights are based on data, long-term empirical data, judiciously considered. Facts. Numbers. A real departure from most books about the American consumer which base their hypotheses, and thus their recommendations, on anecdotes, renovated B-school doctrine, all plumped up with a few chunks of data culled willy nilly from any variety of sources. (Has anybody else noticed that the same warmed-over statistics show up again and again in the most marketing books? Shall we blame the Internet and Lexis/Nexis searches for this sudden homogeneity?). THE INFLUENTIALS, on the other hand, shares primary research data on the American consumer going back 30 years or more. Berry's and Keller's insights and recommendations are shaped by the evolving opinions of Americans. The horse is before the cart where the horse belongs.

Interspersed with the data and trend analysis, Berry and Keller introduce in mini-bios to actual Influentials. These particularly well-written sections serve to embody the data, (the data sections can get a little overwhelming at times) and show us how an Influential lives, thinks and leads. Most are local community leaders, or have real involvement in their communities, and and as such are the nodes of wide personal networks. They are the people who get things done, the people to whom others look to for advice or counsel. By the way, over the years, about 10% of Americans have ?qualified? by their behavior to be counted as Influentials. The definition of an Influential is based on a question about people's political and other civic behavior that Roper has been asking since the 1920s, and has been updating ever since to reflect changing times.

Now it could be argued that the Roper definition of what constitutes an influential American is antiquated, no longer applicable in the post-modern era. For instance it could be said that the influence of super-empowered individuals (to use Thomas Friedman's term) has been magnified in our hypermediated age to such an extent that "celebrities" now have exponentially more sway over how we choose to think, to live, to dream than any local influential. A good point, but Keller and Berry do not reject the influence of the celebrity and celebrity brand culture. They answer that that Roper Influentials are not only leaders in the sense that others look to them for political or community leadership, but that non-Influentials also look to them for guidance on most consumer goods and entertainment because Influentials also tend to be early adopters of new goods, services and culture. In other words, Influentials serve as an early warning system for those trends that other Americans will get to a six months to a year or so later.

What's really impressive about THE INFLUENTIALS is that Berry and Keller share so much data. That runs counter to another kind of marketing book that readers in this field will recognize -- the marketing books as "teaser." In this type of marketing trends book, the reader is told that the insights offered in the books are based on years of trend data, presumably similar to that found in THE INFLUENTIALS. This type of marketing trends book then indicates that the real information is only available to the clients of the writers. They go on to cite case studies where organizations have used the data to effect stellar marketing programs and boost profit. In other words, now you?ve got to buy their consulting services to get the real information and the real help you need. In THE INFLUENTIALS, it's all there - sometimes actually too much is there - but that's certainly better than books that are empty shells, "door openers" for standard consulting services.

All in all a solid, well-conceived, time-tested and amply proven marketing paradigm. A rare treat.

20 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Poorly written and not very insightful, April 14, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: The Influentials: One American in Ten Tells the Other Nine How to Vote, Where to Eat, and What to Buy (Hardcover)

This is a truly awful book. I was initially excited to hear about this book and bought it the week it was released. But after having spent many painful hours drudging through the 300+ pages of endless tables and graphs, I can safely say that my excitement was displaced by great disappointment.

Problems with this book:
1) The framework is misleading. The "Influentials" are in fact "activists," as they are defined by their propensity to be politically active.

2) The analysis is weak. The authors' ability in data analysis seems to be restricted to reporting percentages. This makes for an extremely dull read consisting of table after table of percentages.

3) The authors have utterly failed to convince me that these people are truly influential. Page 146 basically proves how "uninfluential" this group of people truly is.

4) The insights are thin. Quotes from the book include such penetrating statements as "Based on this Influential trendline, the online audience will likely continue to grow" and "we expect e-commerce to grow" (both quotes on page 166). Well, at least the authors have a firm grasp of the obvious.

5) Aside from being misleading and uninteresting, the material is simply poorly written. I often had the feeling that there was no editor involved in the creation of this book.

Bottom line: don't waste your time with this book. There are simply far too many good alternative choices on the subject.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Good title, but the actual book part just muddles things, November 17, 2004

By 

Gagewyn (United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Influentials: One American in Ten Tells the Other Nine How to Vote, Where to Eat, and What to Buy (Hardcover)

The Influetials is either just a big statistical blob or I missed something. Keller et al start out by describing the influential as someone who other people in the community kind of look toward. They are very socially connected and respected. There is no doubt in my mind that the proposition that one in ten people has a huge influence on how the other nine think, however instead of exploring the social patterns Keller et al try to define that person whom they call an "Influential" They begin by saying in the first chapter that statistics can't pinpoint an influential and then spend most of the book tossing statistics on influentials at the reader - lots of tables that don't tell me anything.

One thing that I found interesting were the case studies scattered through the book. Basically these were mini-biographies of influentials slanted more towards what they were up to at the moment. Even these weren't all that helpful.

I recommend skipping The Influentials. The title is really good but the book doesn't focus or do much to back it up. Actually things just get muddled. The Tipping Point by Malcome Gladwell has a good bit of discussion about who influences opinions and how. Check that out instead.