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

Influentials do tend to talk a lot.

Keller and Berry write "Influentials seem to have an aversion to keep things to themselves. ... They believe it's important to give others information that could help them." (p. 148).

So, what do we learn about Influentials?

* They are two times more likely to buy online than the average consumer. They like the convenience.

* They like to travel and tend to like to cook.

* They tend to be "tactical consumers," who shop around to get the best deal.

* Influentials tend to be interested in news, politics, the environment, health, technology, and science. They focus upon important "substantive, meaty areas."

* Influentials aren't particularly interested in celebrities, sports, fashion or TV culture. (They don't mind public television, because it's educational.)

* They value learning and tend to have active minds.

* They're not into bowling or extreme sports.

* Influentials feel they can control their destiny.

* 3 to 1, they would prefer to be entrepreneurs to top executives at big companies.

* They don't want to be extremely rich (not more so than non-influentials anyway). But, they want financial security.

* Influentials were early adopters of IRA's, 401(k), cell phones, and the Internet.

* Influentials read a lot, especially magazines and newspapers.

So, for marketers looking for information about the politically/socially active 10% of the population, this book provides many insights. Plus, I think it's interesting reading. However, for marketers looking for specific ways to reach this audience, "The Influentials" seems to offer only a few broad marketing ideas. For example, Keller and Berry write: "If there's a secret to advertising to Influentials, it is to be creative and informative."

And, the authors say companies must provide useful information. Keller and Berry write: "Succeeding with Influentials begins with information. A salient, meaningful piece of information is at the very least a conversation starter."

Another idea offered is sponsoring a community event or worthy cause. However, the authors point out that Influentials tend to be skeptical of advertising and messages can't just flow down from a company to Influentials. Influentials won't just blindly accept them. Influentials will listen to those they know, incorporating their experiences and their own personal experiences to determine the quality or usefulness of a product.

Influentials tend to be good listeners and get feedback from others. Partially, it's their wide experience though personal feedback that makes them a valuable source of information to others.

The book points out that Influentials represent an early majority of the market. Whether small cars, back to big SUV's, computers, cell phones, digital cameras, debit cards, or online computer access, Influentials tend to be early adopters of products that subsequently become popular with the general populace.

Keller and Berry tell us Influentials don't just adopt any product. They tend to adopt utilitarian products that really add to their lives. But, that seems to reduce marketing to the old maxim, "Build a better mouse trap and they will come," which many marketers don't accept.

So, overall, I think "The Influentials" is interesting reading, but I don't know that readers will find it full of useful marketing ideas.

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.