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WHATEVER HAPPENED TO MADISON AVENUE?

ADVERTISING IN THE '90S

A chatty, instructive update on the ad game, once a glamour business but now fallen on increasingly harder times. The prolific Mayer (The Greatest-Ever Bank Robbery, Markets, The Money Bazaars, etc.) is an agreeable and savvy tour guide who knows the territory. Over 30 years ago, during advertising's heyday, he wrote a breezy best-seller entitled Madison Avenue, U.S.A. This time around, his publisher was subsidized (by the American Association of Advertising Agencies); the sponsor probably got more than it bargained for. At any rate, Mayer casts a decidedly cold eye on an industry he concludes is losing its edge in the run for corporate America's marketing money. All told, he reports, US enterprises invest upwards of $120 billion annually to promote and sell their goods or services; about one-third of this vast sum is earmarked for advertising. Mayer nonetheless discerns problems in the midst of putative plenty. Among other difficulties, he notes that too many suppliers of consumer products are more intent on price discounting than in building strong brand franchises through appealing ads. By no coincidence, the author points out, agencies are being run by MBAs at least as interested in organizing full-service shops as in creating great advertising. In the meantime, media outlets in general and TV in particular have fragmented, limiting the effectiveness of mass-market campaigns. As one unfortunate consequence of ongoing change, Mayer determines, the best and brightest university grads now bypass Madison Avenue when making career choices. Whether advertising can overcome its currently servile position vis-Ö-vis clients and regain a central role in merchandising is a very open question in Mayer's mind. Though far from sanguine about the industry's prospects, however, he's vastly entertaining in his wide-angle analysis of its once and future woes.

Pub Date: June 12, 1991

ISBN: 0-316-55154-6

Page Count: 304

Publisher: Little, Brown

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 1991

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THINKING, FAST AND SLOW

Striking research showing the immense complexity of ordinary thought and revealing the identities of the gatekeepers in our...

A psychologist and Nobel Prize winner summarizes and synthesizes the recent decades of research on intuition and systematic thinking.

The author of several scholarly texts, Kahneman (Emeritus Psychology and Public Affairs/Princeton Univ.) now offers general readers not just the findings of psychological research but also a better understanding of how research questions arise and how scholars systematically frame and answer them. He begins with the distinction between System 1 and System 2 mental operations, the former referring to quick, automatic thought, the latter to more effortful, overt thinking. We rely heavily, writes, on System 1, resorting to the higher-energy System 2 only when we need or want to. Kahneman continually refers to System 2 as “lazy”: We don’t want to think rigorously about something. The author then explores the nuances of our two-system minds, showing how they perform in various situations. Psychological experiments have repeatedly revealed that our intuitions are generally wrong, that our assessments are based on biases and that our System 1 hates doubt and despises ambiguity. Kahneman largely avoids jargon; when he does use some (“heuristics,” for example), he argues that such terms really ought to join our everyday vocabulary. He reviews many fundamental concepts in psychology and statistics (regression to the mean, the narrative fallacy, the optimistic bias), showing how they relate to his overall concerns about how we think and why we make the decisions that we do. Some of the later chapters (dealing with risk-taking and statistics and probabilities) are denser than others (some readers may resent such demands on System 2!), but the passages that deal with the economic and political implications of the research are gripping.

Striking research showing the immense complexity of ordinary thought and revealing the identities of the gatekeepers in our minds.

Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2011

ISBN: 978-0-374-27563-1

Page Count: 512

Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Review Posted Online: Sept. 3, 2011

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2011

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THE CULTURE MAP

BREAKING THROUGH THE INVISIBLE BOUNDARIES OF GLOBAL BUSINESS

These are not hard and fast rules, but Meyer delivers important reading for those engaged in international business.

A helpful guide to working effectively with people from other cultures.

“The sad truth is that the vast majority of managers who conduct business internationally have little understanding about how culture is impacting their work,” writes Meyer, a professor at INSEAD, an international business school. Yet they face a wider array of work styles than ever before in dealing with clients, suppliers and colleagues from around the world. When is it best to speak or stay quiet? What is the role of the leader in the room? When working with foreign business people, failing to take cultural differences into account can lead to frustration, misunderstanding or worse. Based on research and her experiences teaching cross-cultural behaviors to executive students, the author examines a handful of key areas. Among others, they include communicating (Anglo-Saxons are explicit; Asians communicate implicitly, requiring listeners to read between the lines), developing a sense of trust (Brazilians do it over long lunches), and decision-making (Germans rely on consensus, Americans on one decider). In each area, the author provides a “culture map scale” that positions behaviors in more than 20 countries along a continuum, allowing readers to anticipate the preferences of individuals from a particular country: Do they like direct or indirect negative feedback? Are they rigid or flexible regarding deadlines? Do they favor verbal or written commitments? And so on. Meyer discusses managers who have faced perplexing situations, such as knowledgeable team members who fail to speak up in meetings or Indians who offer a puzzling half-shake, half-nod of the head. Cultural differences—not personality quirks—are the motivating factors behind many behavioral styles. Depending on our cultures, we understand the world in a particular way, find certain arguments persuasive or lacking merit, and consider some ways of making decisions or measuring time natural and others quite strange.

These are not hard and fast rules, but Meyer delivers important reading for those engaged in international business.

Pub Date: May 27, 2014

ISBN: 978-1-61039-250-1

Page Count: 288

Publisher: PublicAffairs

Review Posted Online: April 15, 2014

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2014

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