Instant Appeal and over one million other books are available for Amazon Kindle. Learn more

Have one to sell? Sell yours here
Instant Appeal: The 8 Primal Factors That Create Blockbuster Success
 
 
Start reading Instant Appeal on your Kindle in under a minute.

Don't have a Kindle? Get your Kindle here, or download a FREE Kindle Reading App.

Instant Appeal: The 8 Primal Factors That Create Blockbuster Success [Hardcover]

Vicki Kunkel (Author)
4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)


Available from these sellers.


Formats

Amazon Price New from Used from
Kindle Edition $14.40  
Hardcover --  

Book Description

November 26, 2008

What do the runaway success of E.T., Oprah, and the Cabbage Patch Kids have in common? How come Scrabble was a flop when first introduced, but became an instant hit when re-introduced just three years later? According to extensive research, the secret to who gets heard, what gets our attention, and who and what has staying power lies in deeply ingrained biological and anthropological codes we all subconsciously share.

Filled with fascinating examples and explanations of the phenomena associated with "stickiness,” Instant Appeal reveals the often surprising (and proven) reasons behind why we vote for certain people, listen to the same songs over and over again, and favor one brand over another. The book illuminates the hu­man universals that cause positive and negative chemical reactions in our brains, and shows how anyone can use them to advance their career, cause, company, or product.


Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought


Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Kunkel, a communications consultant, posits that the most persuasive and powerful icons and brands owe their success to an uncanny ability to appeal to one or more cultural and biological universals, our species' emotional and behavioral responses to certain stimuli (for example, the need for security and comfort, distrust of classically beautiful people). Unfortunately, Kunkel's evidence of these universals is vague and speculative—referring to research into the effect of sound waves on cellular structure, she asserts that just as plants dislike heavy metal music and uncooked rice thrives on compliments, our body processes are altered by sound waves—and she advises her readers to speak in rhythms that resonate on a cellular level. The author's appeal to science that is either clearly marginal or only vaguely related to her conclusions, along with her tendency to label as universal a wide gamut of folk beliefs and obviously culturally determined phenomena (such as the effect of certain words that have no meaning outside of the speaker's linguistic community), make even the more reasonable arguments in the book seem suspect. In the end, the author overreaches her grasp, producing a marketing guide that is unlikely to convince practical readers. (Dec.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review

“…densely packed compendium of fascinating observations about human behavior and hypotheses on how to market people, ideas, and things.” --Graziadio Business Report



“…a winner…a 'must' for any business library strong in marketing psychology.” -- Midwest Book Review



“… anyone from salespeople to senior management can take something away from Kunkel's research.” -- Houston Business Journal


Product Details

  • Reading level: Ages 18 and up
  • Hardcover: 304 pages
  • Publisher: AMACOM (November 26, 2008)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0814409466
  • ISBN-13: 978-0814409466
  • Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.2 x 1 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
  • Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,009,600 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

 

Customer Reviews

9 Reviews
5 star:
 (7)
4 star:
 (1)
3 star:    (0)
2 star:
 (1)
1 star:    (0)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.6 out of 5 stars (9 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
Share your thoughts with other customers:
Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Definitely a winner - Read this book!!!, January 5, 2009
By 
Steven Chambers (Las Vegas, NV USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Instant Appeal: The 8 Primal Factors That Create Blockbuster Success (Hardcover)
I read a lot of books on persuasion, influence and sales. The disappointing fact is that most of them simply rehash the same information and rarely provide any new and exciting content. Instant Appeal: The 8 Primal Factors That Create Blockbuster Success is not one of those books. Like a breath of fresh air, I rank this as one of the most informative books on positioning and persuasion I have read.

Instant Appeal: The 8 Primal Factors That Create Blockbuster Success will show you the primal factors that cause people to choose one thing over another, whether it be a product, a company or a person. The book is well researched and provides ample notes along with an index. These are things the less rigorious books in this field often lack. Despite this it is an easy and fun read. I did not feel it was overly technical, but that the technical information validated the points made in the book.

While theory is great, the reason I read books like this is to learn some fact or technique that I can apply that will have an immediate impact on my business or personal life today. Again, this book delivered. In every chapter of the book I found myself extensively underlining and scribbling notes in the margins on how I can apply the information.

I highly recommend this book. It is so good that it is one of the rare few that has a place on my desktop bookshelf, along with Kevin Hogan'sThe Psychology of Persuasion: How to Persuade Others to Your Way of Thinking & Dave Lakhani's Subliminal Persuasion: Influence & Marketing Secrets They Don't Want You To Know for immediate reference.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews 
Was this review helpful to you? Yes No


1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars More New Information than You Can Imagine, March 13, 2009
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Instant Appeal: The 8 Primal Factors That Create Blockbuster Success (Hardcover)
It doesn't take long to discover that Vicki is one sharp woman. I could hardly wait to turn each page to see what else she had written that would make me say "wow!"

Vicki has done her homework; if she makes a claim, she shows you where you can go to check out the sources she used. This is a professinally written book, but unlike many "professional" books that are painfully dry, Vicki's writing style is as entertaining as they come.

You'll learn new and useful applications for creating mass appeal-guaranteed!
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews 
Was this review helpful to you? Yes No


1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Instant Appeal is Irresistible, January 10, 2009
This review is from: Instant Appeal: The 8 Primal Factors That Create Blockbuster Success (Hardcover)
Warning: Instant Appeal is not for dummies.

Vicki Kunkel digs deep into the inner reaches of anthropology, biology, and lots of other ologies for the purpose of putting together the final solution for instant appeal.

The urge to sit by a window or on the perimeter...just one of the anthropologic human universals that Kunkel points out is part of who we innately are.

This book covers a lot of territory but what captured my attention....what was instantly appealing to me was the 8 Factors of Instant Appeal
1) The Conspicuous Flaw Factor
2) The Visual Pre-Programming Factor
3)The Reptilian Comfort Factor
4) The Sacred Cow Factor
5) The Jackass Factor
6) The Biology of Language Factor
7)The Bio-Tuning Factor
8) The Mental Real Estate Factor

And this is really just the surface.

You gain a lot of insights from this book that most authors won't touch with that really long pole.

Instant Appeal is not without it's arguable flaws. I quibbled with Kunkel about a few of her interpretations of scientific data, but that says a lot in an age when no one wants to look at data at all.

This is a definite must read. You'll pull plenty of ideas and aha's from this book and be glad you invested the time in a really good read.

Kevin Hogan
Author of Irresistible Attraction
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews 
Was this review helpful to you? Yes No

Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
 
 
 
Most Recent Customer Reviews







Only search this product's reviews



Inside This Book (learn more)
Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
sacred cow factor, anthropological conditioning, primal preference, primal conditioning, flaw factor, primal programming, mental real estate, allegiance capital, literary universals, conspicuous flaw, instant appeal, mirror neurons fire, comfort universal, primal brain, primal factors, inattentional blindness, appeal factors, change blindness
Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Good Vibrations, Failure of Epcot, Small Dogs, United States, Story Lines, Addictive Appeal, Harry Potter, Golden Ratio, Agatha Christie, George Bush, New York, The Secret, Hillary Clinton, Ronald Reagan, President Bush, Hillary Rodham Clinton, American Girl, Norah Jones, John Kerry, Rush Limbaugh, Super Bowl, John Smith, Howard Stern, Cabbage Patch Kids, Air Florida
Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Surprise Me!
Search Inside This Book:

Tags Customers Associate with This Product

 (What's this?)
Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
 

Your tags: Add your first tag
 

Customer Discussions

This product's forum
Discussion Replies Latest Post
No discussions yet

Ask questions, Share opinions, Gain insight
Start a new discussion
Topic:
First post:
Prompts for sign-in
 


Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
Search all Amazon discussions
   
Related forums



So You'd Like to...



Look for Similar Items by Category


Look for Similar Items by Subject