Customer Reviews

We Know What You Want: How They Change Your Mind

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

I would not allow people go into any shop without this book.
Just one fact: 60% of consumer decisions are made inside the store.
There are tons and tons of other information what was new to me. For example what effect does a mass have on you, if you stay in the midst of them?
How can you be manipulated by music?
I've even ordered two of this book to my friends.
Must to read.

Overall, I thought this book had a lot of interesting and valuable facts about how the media has an influence on us unconsciously. This book points out the tactics that supermarkets, malls, medical professions, music concerts, television, etc... use to draw us in to buying their products. This book will make you conscious of what to watch out for when going to place that the average everyday shopper goes to. It goes into detail about where stores place their products, to the type of aromas they use. It also goes into detail on how newspapers work. For example, newspapers will wait to release bad news on Friday so it has time to dissipate by Monday. To conclude, this book really goes into how the media really is a dark and disgusting place, but it gives you the inside scoop, so you don't get sucked into the darkness!

The main message of this book is to teach the public to be aware of the bias all over our lives. One of the ideas that I found valuable was learning about all of the tactics stores use in order to increase the consumers' impulse. From the type of music played, to the physical layout of the store, the retailers carefully plan how to seduce the consumer into spending more money. The book has improved my life because I am more aware of the tricks that corporations are using to distract consumers. The information can be used to improve the world because if people are aware of all of the bias, they won't believe the first thing they hear and develop opinions based off of bias. The strengths of the book were all of the real life examples used, because it was easy to relate to. A weakness of the book was that there was a lot of repetitiveness throughout it. Overall, I would recommend this book so more people can become aware of the truth about corporations.

Easy to understand and filled with comprehensive images, We Know What You Want: How They Change Your Mind is recommended for both students and consumers alike.

Not sure how I stumbled onto this book, but I liked how colorful it was (like a shiny toy!), picked it up, opened it up, and started learning. It was pretty awesome. And I had read a pretty good amount about subversive advertising, and viral advertising, and a lot about public relations before I picked this book up, and I was still learning as soon as I started reading in the store. That's my number one qualifier for a good book - I read almost exclusively non-fiction. The last time I picked up a book and started learning something so quickly was when I read a bell hooks book.

I only wish I'd read this book fifteen years ago when I was a teenager. Most of the concepts could be picked up by teenagers, and then they'd be much better prepared to fight indoctrination from advertisers and any self-proclaimed experts as they grew up.

The layout and pictures and diagrams and charts inside help explain things well and put everything into the proper context - and keep your attention. There are lots of 'a-ha' moments. And it definitely made me want to read Coercion - which I'll do soon.

If more books were like this, we'd have a lot better informed public.

Corporations and governments are sharing some of the same tactics to manipulate consumer attitudes and perceptions, and it's time to understand the roots of these messages in We Know What You Want: How They Change Your Mind. From retail sales to media, events, and virtual reality, case studies spotlight 'trend' origins, influences, and underlying goals in a thought-provoking, often frightening, clear set of examples and discussions. A 'must read' for any interested in business, marketing, consumerism and beyond.

I picked this book from a list of books for a class I'm taking. Didn't really know what to expect before I chose to read this book, but I must say that it was interesting enough where I read some sections twice and even marked some of the pages for future reference. As I read "We know what you want" a lot of things became somewhat clearer to me on why and how companies use manipulative tactics for political and commercial gain.

This book details tactics that influence us in areas such as the retail zone(supermarket, malls), the event zone (sports, concerts), the media zone (Junk news, adverts), the personal zone (word-of mouth, network marketing), and the virtual zone (Social media, ,manipulation of personal data). The intentional strategies outlined in all these zones have psychological influences on what we see, hear and smell. For example, some supermarkets switch their "layout every six months to intentionally confuse shoppers", or the idea using scent to lower people into a store at the mall, or sports stadiums bombardment of advertisements at a sporting events to get us of thinking about buying a particular product.

There are sections in this book that touch on how to detect propaganda, crowd control and influence techniques used by others on you, and understanding when you are being sold something -- among others that is well worth reading the book itself.

"We know what you want" is a very informative, concise, and quick read that gives insights into how we are constantly manipulated by companies and individuals through marketing, our friends and family, our kids, and our own senses. While reading this book you will come to the realization that 60-70% of what you are reading are things that are relatable to your own experience -- whether at a sporting event, out shopping with your kids, or even in in your living room -- and you will be amazed at how highly influenced we are.