Customer Reviews

OBD: Obsessive Branding Disorder: The Illusion of Business and the Business of Illusion

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This was a great book. It was short (only 200 pages), but the type was small and the margins were reasonable. It's an investigative piece. The author is not a marketing expert or a writer trying to promote a marketing firm or whatever. This is a simple book that explores the status of marketing today. It questions whether the US culture has become obsessed with brands rather than quality products and new improved products.

The author says at some point that he was thoroughly amused by the extreme examples of branding he saw. And he believes the world is cheapened when EVERYONE sees it with a marketer's eye. I agree. But this book is good because it points out that branding is used AND ABUSED as a tool to sell goods and services today. A lot more use and a lot less abuse would be good!

This book informs us that successful marketers today create loyal customers who are lazy minded and don't think much before they buy. They just stick to the brand that they have learned to trust and believe in. Once a company creates a successful brand, then they milk it for all it's worth.

This book has an introduction and 9 chapters. Examine the Search Inside material provided by Amazon to see the chapter titles. I thought the book was written well and well outlined. 5 stars!

Conley has done well in providing overdue business and cultural criticism for our quick fix, near-sighted economy. He cleverly points out that, over the last decade, business has become obsessed with branding their products with imagery, lifestyles, and experiences in an effort to fool consumers into loyalty and irrational buying habits. This obsession has sacrificed a company's attention to innovation and for a product's quality improvement.

To sell your product, it isn't about making something useful or effective anymore. Companies are convinced that the storylines, ideology, and the lifestyle they invent for their product will do the selling. If these methods become ineffective, the company ignores the need to improve the product or create something more advanced as it's far easier to just "rebrand" the lifestyle and the experiences that the product is supposed to bring you. All this is done in an attempt to overwhelm emotion and discourage reason.

Conley has framed a vibrant discourse for the zero-sum game playing out between branding and innovation, emotion versus reason, and the quick fix versus long-term solutions. He thoroughly outlines the branding disorder by providing plenty of convincing examples from the business world of Proctor Gamble to the cityscapes of New Orleans and Cincinnati. A persuasive criticism develops as we find out that it's not just business that loses but the consumer and the public at large as well.

The book encourages further thought and discussion as it branches into complicated issues including the nature of buying and selling, globalization, and our "just saying it makes it true" culture. A must read for the business tycoon or just the economic well-wisher, reading the book produces an immediate 'brand' new awareness of the ads and economy around us.

As someone who travels often, I require reading material that distracts m from the boredom of the airport drone. This book is poignant, funny and revealing. It held my attention throughout. The author, Lucas Conley has done an excellent job of pointing out how we have deviated from a society of quality seeking individuals to a mass of the product obsessed. It is all around us, on the subways of New York City where everyone is plugged into the latest i-gadget, to the streets of Bangkok where booths are jammed with fake goods. All this is clearly a reflection of our obsession with the appearance and perceived coolness of the brand rather than the caliber of the product itself.
Conley does an excellent job of calling our attention to the error of our ways, and does so in a humourous and captivating manner. I would highly recommend his book to anyone.

And Lucas Conley is none too happy about it as he warns us in OBD. Less R and D is being spent on improving a product. Why spend the do-re-mi when you can just change the shape,say, of the bottle it comes in, making it cooler but not better.Exploit emotion. The brain thinks 3,000 times faster with an emotional charge than a logical one. Go to an Apple store and you'll see his point. Or quoting Daniel Gilbert, "Experiences don't hang around long enough to disappoint you. What you have left(after a visit) are wonderful memories."(Or look at the testing done showing that people love Pepsi, in a blind taste test but when it is mano a mano(can to can), the visual of the Coke can actually lights up a part of our brains.) But the book really excels when he talks about what sounds like a vast conspiracy. Smells emanating from the shelves of grocery stores? Yes, put there to get you worked up. And smells for kids on put on the shelf consistent with a child's height. And P and G has organizations that give free samples to regular, next door folks in exchange for them hitting you up on the value of pampers or the sparkle to be found only in a certain toothpaste.Like a sci-fi movie. Now, if you'll excuse me, I must drive home in the Ultimate Driving Machine, fire up the Viking Range, get out the Gordon Ramsey cookbook, and get ready for the Fourth.

Perhaps the breeziest business book in years, Obsessive Branding Disorder hooked me in with its gloriously funny potshots at branding executives and the branding industry.

Examples: The state of Kentucky shelled out some $20 million for the words "Unbridled Spirit" and an ad campaign to accompany it, while Connecticut's tourism board assigned colors to each region of the state, because: "The psychology of color was used to further define the brand by zeroing on geographic characteristics or more ethereal elements," said a state tourism director.

If only Lucas Conley could have continued his assault on the world of branding. Sadly, beginning with the story of the Charmin Bath Tissue truck (Page 67), his writing flattens into a catalog of advertising methods and gimmicks the industry continues to trot out...entire stores devoted to a brand, packaged scents, and neuroscience.

(The list is not astoundingly different from other sound-the-alarm tomes of the recent past. Product placement on game shows, celebrities in TV ads, and even radio jingles were considered demons of the day, and while I'd personally argue (and agree with the author) that all of this marketing is taking a toll on our psyches, he provides no evidence that the latest gimmicks are going to be any worse than their predecessors.)

Only in the end does Lucas get back to branding, and this time, he takes successful shots at personal branding before finishing with some fairly well-written philosophical perspectives on the practice.

We quickly learn packaging is king. Never mind the old saying about the customer always being right. OBD says, today it's not about serving consumers but about pumping up products and getting into the psyche of shoppers, forever "helping" them do the "right" buying. In the end, the idea is to heavily increase "the bottom line" for company stockholders ...as hastily as possible. Author Conley details how "executives apply innovations to marketing... rather than to products and services." And it all works. -So, we consumers think we shop "by choices," do we?

Here's one good book that tells us how shoppers, from supermarket to car lot, are enticed, swayed, directed, influenced, encouraged, manipulated, schmoozed, and otherwise "helped" into buying what "they" want us to buy. OBD opens our eyes to tricks of the trade by marketers and advertisers, who work feverishly to have us pick Their (!) favorite brands off the shelf. He uses examples of familiar goods and situations: Froot Loops to Ford, Best Buy to Blockbuster. Volvo and Xbox. Ever think your neighbor might actually be "paid" to casually fawn over a great product he's been using lately? It's in OBD. How about companies that spend millions on subtle strategies to tickle your sense of smell in the store? It's in OBD. "Sounds" that direct us to certain products? Using lasers to put ads on eggs? -Most interesting! [Didn't someone years ago want to use lasers to put an ad on the face of the moon? (!) Maybe "branding" is not so new a technique after all.]

-But it's not a very uplifting book if shoppers believe in "carefully choosing." Product numbers may be limitless, but we learn real "choice" is minimally in play. Companies have the edge, Conley says. Indeed, here's an mind-sharpening alert that scorns (underhanded?) strategies and tactics that companies use to encourage us buy Their goods. He says CEOs enhance the aura of products, the charm of their packages, the glitz of their ads...without ever much worrying about actually improving the products. -And we, apparently as consuming "sheeple," bite every time at the trumped-up, branded bait. OBD explains it...but, too bad, doesn't much tell us what we can do about it. -If we could do anything about it at all.

The author does get a little wrapped-up in the analytical as he deals with "personal branding," and olfactory and brain-wave inventiveness. Here, he takes on a less-critical and more theoretical slant; and sometimes, it's hard to tell what he's getting at. Sometimes, the eyes automatically turn to reading in skim-mode. Complete with high-rent words like "activated zygomatic major," Conley abandons easy-to-relate-to, everyday products and services...and delves into the more abstract ...his thoughts on university studies, on CEO mindset, sensory logic...and, of all people, Freud. If OBD didn't suddenly morph into a thinly-layered, psychology treatise, it could have been a starting guide for beating "Branding Disorder." Luckily, "Getting Inside Our Heads" and "Getting Personal" are only two such chapters that come to mind....

-But more importantly, Lucas never actually defines his brand of "branding," making for some confusing passages.

For instance, is "branding" about hyping a product's name (as in its "brand name")? Is it re-doing a product's on-shelf look? -Can't be this alone because the author describes (unshelved, of course!) "personal" branding, or is it about the re-styling of people themselves? -About sneakily re-doing shopper thinking to favor a certain product? -Some new theory of eye-catching package wrapping? Is it tattooing the forehead or the back-end of a steer? Maybe it's all of this.

-Don't know for sure. Clearly, though, this is, overall, basic, textbook-like "psychology" on marketing and advertising, surely outstanding info if you like that sort of thing. Curiously, he's hit us with a pop-title that's all branded-up for consumer consumption! OBD. -A victim of his own research! In any event, the book's good, but it's not nearly a practical guide (as expected to be) to whipping the disorder [Obsessive Branding Disorder] Lucas Conley accuses the country of having.

Read it before doing the weekend shopping! After you've finished, going to the local supermarket may never feel the same.

In the early sections of this book I thought Conley must have been rejected by some branding agency at some point and had a score to settle. I was convinced that he didn't know the difference between brand, image, identity and advertising. I was already formulating my scathing review of this book in my mind and was ready to pounce.

But then I kept reading.

By the end of the book I was convinced that every brander must read this book.

Conley masterfully traces the history and future of branding and discusses the dangers involved when companies stop investing in product development and innovation because competition easily copies true innovations and then finds a way to manufacture and sell them cheaper than you. He talks about the inevitable results of shortsighted brand managers with short tenures who are being rewarded based on short-term performance. He covers the logical results of trying to differentiate products in a world where most product categories are loaded with products that are all pretty much the same and all pretty good options in their own right.

From emotional branding to personal branding, brand churches, experiential marketing (XM), using sound, smell and a full slate of other tricks to differentiate aside from actual product attributes or performance we are shown how we can be manipulated without any awareness or rational thought on our part whatsoever. We are shown this potentially dangerous future of branding in a world where the products are the same, the promises are the same and the tangible benefits are all the same amongst competitive choices.

This book should serve as a wake up call and a warning to branders everywhere and underscore the importance of true product innovation, making unique promises of value that are hard for competitors to copy, long-term view of the brand as a strategic asset and why the commoditization of just about every product category is such a threat, challenge and opportunity all at the same time.

If you are serious about marketing and branding then this book is a "must read." I highly recommend it.

~~Review by the author of the e-book, "How to Build and Manage Your Brand (in sickness and in health)."

Having seen the author plug the book on 'The Colbert Report' I immediately thought it would be a book I would like to read...living in Ireland I had to import the book at extra cost...and having just finished reading it 10 minutes ago I can say it was well worth it.
I would recommend this book to anyone at all interested in how the companies of the world are infesting our daily lives with constant advertising and the ways in which they try to get under our skin to persuade us to buy their products.
The book being a little on the short side,would be my only quibble.

Having spent a good many years in advertising and marketing, and having read a great many articles and books about the subject, I'll have to admit I did approach this book with a more than casual interest in learning about the current state of the "art".

One of my all time favorites "The Hidden Persuaders" by Vance Packard, was the standard of the earlier attempts to dig into the underbelly of the mind grabbing beast called advertising. Well, we've come a long way, Baby.

Lucas Conley's book delivers marketing today, with specificity, freshness, and courage. A "no-holds-barred" look at the disorderly state of the marketing of "brands" instead of the "goods and services" they were originally intended to represent. I found it fascinating.

I originally purchased this book because of the bright red cover, the lettering style and the title. After reading it, I decided to buy additional copies for some of my friends in the business world. Of the books currently out there on the topic, I give this one "Best of Breed".

Blade Runner has arrived. Audiences back in 1982 were shocked at the advertisement-laden society of the then future. Ads flashed everywhere, floated through the sky and penetrated nearly every orifice and molecule. Welcome to the future. Is there an aspect of our twenty-first century lives that isn't inundated with commercials? Even urinals feature ads, so now we can't even relieve ourselves without being sold something. How did we get here? One answer lies in Lucas Conley's "Obsessive Branding Disorder" (OBD), which diagnoses our modern world as bordering on outright neurosis. Ostentatious branding, he claims, has undercut American ingenuity by emphasizing emotional appeals to products over research into better quality products. Not only that, companies have expanded the scope of marketing to our everyday face-to-face interactions and threaten to undercut what little sense of community we have left. Conley sees more than just annoying ads in these trends, he sees our lives being altered in disturbing ways. As such, Blade Runner now seems almost contemporary.

OBD offers a hearty survey of advertisement's encroachment into our environment and our lives. The craze has apparently extended to the branding cities and towns (Cincinnati is the branding capital of the US). A New Orleans mayor even spoke about "the New Orleans brand," unfortunately with reference to the (high) murder rate. Not good PR. According to the book, Proctor & Gamble has one of the largest branding enterprises of all US companies. The comical yet confusing traveling mega-bathroom for Charmin, dubbed "Potty Palooza," says it all. Blatant product placement doesn't surprise our current jaded generation, but shocking advances have occurred in even this realm. EggFusion uses lasers to burn advertisements onto eggs. Freeload press inserts ads into its "free" college textbooks. Some brands ditch traditional ads altogether and just make their own movies or shows. Even more unsettling are that the people next door just may belong to WOMMA, or "Word of Mouth Marketing Association." Such people try to sell us things in exchange for free goods or payment. And, under current laws, they do not have to disclose this. An innocent neighborhood coffee gathering may in fact conceal a marketing ploy. This, as Conley says, "is inherently repulsive." Many may have a hard time disagreeing with this sentiment. Of course it doesn't stop there. After all, we have more than one sense. Companies now strive to stretch the "brand experience" into taste, smell, and touch. A product just can't be a mere material object anymore. It has to dance. It has to imbibe us with "meaning." In this way consumers, so agencies believe, can become "loyal beyond reason." The goal seems to involve making products and brands part of the essence of our very being. A second nature co-dependency such as we have for parents or siblings. The brand is us and we are the brand. But by far the most disturbing trend discussed in OBD is "neuromarketing." This involves looking into our skulls to see how our brain chemistry reacts to overwhelming "brand experiences." Readers of this chapter will begin to pine for the good ol' days of free will. How much further can the psychology of advertising go? Actually, let's not entertain that thought.

The book's final chapter offers some thoughts on derailing the inane and insane commercial roller coaster we're on. Conley blames both consumer and legislative indifference on our current brand neurosis. He calls for authenticity and critical thinking - things that seem sadly lacking in mainstream culture. At the same time we must accept brands, but encourage limits on them to strike homeostasis between commerciality and reality. Brands can fill the need for illusion in our life, and the last chapter's title, "The Future of an Illusion," comes right our of Freud. The final pages juxtapose religion, illusion, and branding into a surprising denouement. Anyone interested in the increasing commercialization of our bizarre modern lives should read the very readable OBD. But be warned: disturbing realizations await. Things are not as they seem. They're far more commercial. In fact, this book may make some so cynical that the constant references to products and companies may begin to sound like an advertisement in itself. Could OBD be a clever advertising ploy? Doubtful. Nonetheless, after finishing this enlightening book, no one will doubt that someone, somewhere, in some well-designed cushy branding agency wouldn't think twice about trying to pull off such a stunt. And what a coup that would entail.