We Know What You Want: How They Change Your Mind [Paperback]

Martin Howard (Author), Douglas Rushkoff (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 1, 2005

In this handbook for locating the hidden sales messages that bombard us everyday, Martin Howard explains the new techniques that corporations are using to make subconscious approaches without your consent. It covers the five major zones where consumers are being confronted: in the retail shopping context, at major events and concerts, through information media, personal friendships, and your computer.

Up until recently, there was a social contract that alerted consumers to advertising messages. They were clearly labeled, endorsements were obvious and certain areas were off-limits. That contract has been broken, and many corporations are resorting to underhanded methods to persuade.

Our shopping centers, stadiums, telephones, friendships and editorials are all “fair game.” Marketing messages have crossed into the social sphere.

We Know What You Want points out dozens of examples of how these signals are being relayed and gives you the tools and techniques to decode these messages and make your own decisions.

Inspired by the popular book Coercion by Douglas Rushkoff, this book presents key ideas and case examples in a practical, easy-to-follow, illustrated format. Rushkoff himself contributes the Introduction. We Know What You Want has Rushkoff’s full support; he calls it “an entertaining yet McLuhanesque ‘Medium is the Message,’ filled with engaging graphics and provocative but easy-to-follow guidelines for maintaining autonomy in a world made of marketing.”

Martin Howard has spent over 15 years in the marketing field with over 10 of them in advertising agencies. While witnessing the decline of the traditional advertising agency, he became interested in emerging forms of communication and stumbled upon the writings of Marshall McLuhan and others, who charted the profound but underestimated impact of electronic media. Now a strong advocate for media literacy, his interest is in making these theories accessible to average consumers and students. He lives in Brisbane, Australia.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Martin Howard has spent over fifteen years in the marketing field with over ten of them in Advertising Agencies. He has consulted to a range of organizations in the area of communications and design. Douglas Rushkoff is the author of 9 non-fiction books and 2 novels, as well as numerous television shows. His work has been translated into 20 languages. He appears on CBS Sunday Morning, NPR All Things Considered, and in Time, The New York Times, and periodicals around the world. He also made the PBS Frontline documentary The Merchants of Cool. This is his first graphic novel.

Product Details

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: The Disinformation Company (February 1, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1932857052
• ISBN-13: 978-1932857054
• Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 6.1 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #231,680 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A first-rate gem of a book, October 29, 2006

By 

Paul Lappen (Manchester, CT USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: We Know What You Want: How They Change Your Mind (Paperback)

The marketers and public relations firms of this world are constantly improving the myriad of ways they have to get inside your head and manipulate you to their way of thinking. This book looks at some of them.

Today's supermarkets intentionally place popular items, like milk and bread, as far from the entrance as possible. That way, the shopper must pass all those impulse items at the end of each aisle. Also, they are subjected to muzak tracks that will cause them to ignore their shopping lists and stay longer. Have you ever heard of the Gruen Transfer? It describes the moment when a shopper loses control of the decision-making process, characterized by suggestibility and glazed eyes. It is at this time that a shopper is most likely to make an unplanned purchase.

At the local sports stadium, is there any surface, except for the player's uniforms and the field itself, that doesn't have a corporate logo? You have probably seen Video News Releases, slick corporate promotions and government messages designed to look like news, even if you have never heard of them. The book also looks at how to engineer public opinion, through front groups, paid experts and targeted messages.

Ebay has said that will ignore their own privacy policy if law enforcement is looking for information on a specific person, and hand over that information without a court order. Everyone is familiar with cookies, spam and spyware on your computer. Not everyone knows that Kazaa software embeds extra, hard-to-find, programs on your computer. They send information on your viewing habits to third-party servers. Advertising and subliminal messages are among the newest trends in computer games. This book also includes a list of actual patents for inventions that involve "regulated subconscious behavioral control by invisible means."

This is a first-rate gem of a book. It is really easy to read. While some might consider the information in this book common knowledge, it is still a rather spooky look at how well They have gotten inside our heads. It is very much recommended.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Helpful book for the educated, March 18, 2011

By 

Eliza Enriquez - See all my reviews

This review is from: We Know What You Want: How They Change Your Mind (Paperback)

This book was very informative about the influential world of many different organizations. It brought up many things I've never thought about such as advertising on the news, and things that I really care about like advertising to children. A good thing about the book is how it tells you how to be aware when and how you're being handled and how to combat it. It doesn't tell you in detail how to fight being handled though. But I'm not sure you can go into anymore detail than the book already has. I guess it's sufficient enough.

Another thing is that this book is meant to help people. Many of the people that need the help are the uneducated. Now forgive me if I'm insulting but I think the majority of this nation is uneducated or undereducated. A trip to the DMV might support my argument. Anyways, many may not really get the important information out of this or they might become disinterested very quickly. It's filled with a lot of difficult technical language. I think the only way I see this booking helping out in a major way is if it were to be dumbed down or everyone smarts up. If everyone REALLY smarts up I guess we really wouldn't need this book then.

You know what? Even I don't think I would've picked this book up if it weren't for a philosophy assignment. The language was too technical and uninteresting even for my liking. Nonetheless it was still an informative and helpful read.

15 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Regurgitated PR material from business intelligence companies, March 6, 2006

By 

Roger Hsueh (Cerritos, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: We Know What You Want: How They Change Your Mind (Paperback)

First of all, the book's not written by Douglas Rushkoff. He only wrote the foreward.

The book doesn't have a lot of useful content. It mostly lists supposed marketing innovations and data mining techniques with large neon graphics (like WIRED magazine circa 1999) and minimal analysis. Its aim seems only to scare you in a conspiratorial tone: you are being watched! your every move is being analyzed!

Too bad it accepts the claims of the companies trying to market these surveillance and date mining systems at face value. Without finding out whether they actually work, you are likely just scaring yourself for no reason.