The Things We Love: How Our Passions Connect Us and Make Us Who We Are by Aaron Ahuvia
About the Book:
A revealing investigation of the secret, tangled emotional relationships people have with things—drawing on cutting-edge findings from the fields of psychology, neuroscience, and marketing.
Books, baseball cards, ceramic figurines, art, iPhones, clothing, cars, music, dolls, furniture, and even nature itself. If you're like most people, at some point in your life you've found yourself indulging in a love affair with something that brings you immense joy, comfort, or fulfillment.
Why is it that we so often feel an intense passion for objects? What does this tendency tell us about ourselves and our society?
In The Things We Love, Dr. Aaron Ahuvia presents astonishing discoveries that prove we are far less “rational” than we think when it comes to our possessions and hobbies.
In fact, we have passionate relationships with the things we love, and these relationships are driven by influences deep within our culture and our biology.
Some of our passions are sudden, obsessive, and fleeting; others are devoted and lifelong affairs. Some turn dark: we become hoarders or would prefer to destroy certain objects rather than let anyone else own them.
And as technology improves, becoming increasingly addictive, one wonders: might our lives become so dominated by our emotional ties to things that we lose interest in other people?
Packed with fascinating case studies, scientific analysis, and takeaways for living in a modern and ever-so-material world, The Things We Love offers a truly original and insightful look into our love for inanimate objects — and how better understanding these relationships can enrich and improve our lives.
About the Author:
Dr. Aaron Ahuvia is a professor of marketing at the University of Michigan–Dearborn College of Business and the most widely published and cited academic expert on noninterpersonal love including brand love.
He is also a leading expert on how our happiness is influenced by money and materialism.
He has been ranked 22 in the world for research impact on consumer behavior and ranked in the top 2% of all scientists in the world across all disciplines by an independent study from Stanford University.
Professor Ahuvia studied philosophy at the University of Michigan before getting a Ph.D. in marketing from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management.
From there he became a professor at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business and then a Full Professor at the College of Business on UM’s Dearborn Campus
Dr. Ahuvia also holds an appointment as a Professor at the University of Michigan Penny W. Stamps School of Art & Design.
Dr. Ahuvia has over 100 publications and presentations. He does research, teaches, and consults for governments, nonprofits, and corporations around the world.
He has presented research or consulted for Google, L'Oréal S.A., Samsung, Maybelline New York, Procter & Gamble, Audi, General Motors, Microsoft, Ford, Chrysler, and Herman Miller, among others.
And, interesting fact – he was once a guest on the Oprah Winfrey TV Show!
Click here for this episode's website page with the links mentioned during the interview...
https://www.salesartillery.com/marketing-book-podcast/things-we-love-aaron-ahuvia
Evolutionary Ideas: Unlocking Ancient Innovation To Solve Tomorrow’s Challenges by Sam Tatam
About the Book:
When faced with new challenges, it’s easy to feel our solutions need to be equally unprecedented. We think we need a revolution. But what if this is a big mistake?
In Evolutionary Ideas, Sam Tatam shows how behavioral science and evolutionary psychology can help us solve tomorrow’s challenges, not by divining something the world has never seen, but by borrowing from yesterday’s solutions – often in the most unexpected ways.
Just as millions of years of evolution have helped craft the wing and dorsal fin, thousands of engineers, designers, marketers, and advertisers have toiled to solve many of the problems you face today.
Over time, through intent, design, social learning, and sheer luck, we have found what works.
Armed with an enhanced ability to see these patterns in human innovation, we can now systematically approach the creative process to develop more effective ideas more readily and rapidly.
In the same way, Japanese engineers reduced bullet train noise by studying the evolved biology of the owl and kingfisher, today we can see how Disney improved the queueing experience in the same way Houston airport made arrivals feel faster (while making people walk further).
You’ll learn how the chocolate at the bottom of a Cornetto ice cream can improve an Error 404 message, and what a bowl of M&Ms has in common with a canary in a coal mine.
These are Evolutionary Ideas.
Exploring five of the most critical challenges we face today, we learn how to ‘breed’ more effective solutions from those that have survived.
The result is a dynamic and exciting way of solving problems and supercharging creativity – for anyone in any endeavor.
About the Author:
Sam Tatam is the Global Head of Behavioural Science at Ogilvy. His passion is understanding human behavior, and his experience comes from organizational /industrial psychology and advertising strategy.
From New York to Nairobi, Sam has led behavior change projects across virtually every category and continent. Today, he leads a global team of talented psychologists and behavioral economists to develop interventions and shape the communications of some of the world's most influential brands and organizations.
And, interesting fact – the first draft of this book to his publisher contained a typo - in the headline!
Click here for this episode's website page with the links mentioned during the interview...
https://www.salesartillery.com/marketing-book-podcast/evolutionary-ideas-sam-tatam
Undisruptable: A Mindset of Permanent Reinvention for Individuals, Organisations and Life by Aidan McCullen
About the Book:
Understand the barriers to change and cultivate a reinvention mindset that will make you impervious to disruption
In our world of incessant change, we are all threatened by volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity—at the individual and organizational levels. Undisruptable will give you a new lens through which to consider change as an opportunity rather than an obstacle.
You’ll be inspired to consider the big questions of today:
Society is evolving at breakneck speed. What does this mean for all of us?
Undisruptable will help you to bridge the chaos and build the resilience you need to move forward.
While we cannot see into the future, there are repeatable patterns that we can understand. Undisruptable demystifies the principles of change through a blend of analogies, innovation frameworks, and exemplars of change such as Fujifilm and Arnold Schwarzenegger.
The first step to becoming undisputable is to realize that evolution is a natural part of life, and nature provides many examples.
Undisruptable will help you to:
By the end of this book, you will have the essential tools and techniques to foster a reinvention mindset that will help you and your organization to become Undisruptable.
This book is part of a 3-part series. Part 2 looks at the biases and mental obstacles that prevent change. Part 3 examines the best ways to communicate change within an organization.
About the Author:
Aidan McCullen reinvented himself after a 10-year rugby career with over 100 caps for Leinster, Toulouse, and London Irish and is a full Ireland Rugby International.
He worked in digital and innovation transformation and now works on culture and leadership initiatives after he discovered that you cannot change business models until you first change mental models
He is the host and founder of the Global Innovation Show, which is broadcast on national radio in Ireland and is the only English-speaking show on Finland's Business FM. The show is also available everywhere you find podcasts.
Aiden developed and delivers a module on Emerging Technology Trends at Trinity College Business School, ranked first in Ireland and in the top 100 globally.
Aiden speaks globally on disruption and change for organizations such as MasterCard, Google, Epic Games, and many more. He runs workshops on permanent reinvention, bias, and communication.
He is also a board director for National Broadband Ireland.
And, interesting fact – in addition to English, Aiden also speaks French and German!
Click here for this episode's website page with the links mentioned during the interview...
https://www.salesartillery.com/marketing-book-podcast/undisruptable-aidan-mccullen
Interview recorded on July 15, 2022
Indispensable Brand: Move from Invisible to Invaluable by Mitch Duckler
About the Book:
What makes your brand indispensable?
Increasing market share, commanding premium price points, enhancing profit margins--the overall growth and enduring success of your business are inextricably linked to the strength of your brands.
Whether it is a corporate, business unit, or product brand in question, your challenge is to identify a meaningfully differentiated positioning and to bring that positioning to life in the market in ways that are consistent with its compelling point of difference.
However, today we are faced with a condition that can only be described as brand monotony–consumers' inability to distinguish between brands within practically any industry or category.
If you were to remove your brand name from packaging, advertising, or any other piece of marketing collateral–while leaving every other communication element in place–would consumers be able to identify it as coming from your brand? In most cases, the answer is a resounding "no!"
The Indispensable Brand is your guide to crafting a brand strategy and rising above the noise and monotony in your industry... to move your brands and business from indistinguishable to indispensable.
In this book you'll learn:
Your brands are more than a logo, identity, or tagline. They are among the most valuable assets of your company. They also represent the promise you make to and fulfill with, your customers.
Whether your business is B2B or B2C; large or small, product- or service-based--and regardless of industry or sector--the principles put forward in The Indispensable Brand will help you build and maintain a portfolio of strong, profitable, and enduring brands.
About the Author:
Mitch Duckler is the founder and managing partner of FullSurge, a brand, and marketing strategy consultancy based in Chicago, Illinois. He has more than twenty-five years of brand management and management consulting experience.
Prior to FullSurge, Mitch was a senior partner at Vivaldi Partners Group and a partner in the Chicago office of Prophet, where he co-led the brand strategy practice area.
His client base includes Fortune 500 companies and numerous world-class brands, such as Exxon Mobil, Deloitte, Kellogg’s, Best Buy, Payless ShoeSource, American Family Insurance, NBCUniversal, Cox Communications, Alcon, The Home Depot, and General Electric.
Mitch began his career in brand management at Unilever, where he worked on category-leading personal care brands, including Suave and Degree.
He also worked for The Coca-Cola Company, where he helped launch an in-house consulting group that provides consumer and brand marketing consulting services to many of the company's largest retail customers.
Mitch is a faculty member of the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) School of Marketing. He earned a BS in business from the University of Minnesota and an MBA from the University of Michigan.
And, interesting fact – he attended the most recent perfect game in baseball (in 2012)!
Click here for this episode's website page with the links mentioned during the interview...
https://www.salesartillery.com/marketing-book-podcast/indispensable-brand-mitch-duckler