The Illusion of Choice

I loved this book. Designed for marketers or business owners wanting to drum up business. This book is marvelous.
I am not a marketer nor a business owner, but I found this book absolutely fascinating.
It provided real world experiments in which to convey why certain brands/advertising works.
I loved learning all about the experiments, how the author set up the book (a man going about his work day and the situations that he might encounter), and really all the tricks to set up advertising.

I would recommend this book to anyone interested in branding, advertising, psychology, or just needs a good easy read for the weekend.

You will not be bored or disappointed by this book.

I was fascinated by this book, and I think I will look for 'Dumb Ways to Die' on the Internet as I have not encountered it before. It is an example of the way marketing can be influenced by humour. Other ways marketing can become more effective are outlined, such as rhyming, as in the 'Coughs and Sneezes Spreads Diseases' which has been around for a long time, since the Spanish flu pandemic. Apparently there are many ways to increase sales, as well as ways to make writing more effective, like C.S. Lewis wrote to an admirer, that you should not use adjectives like terrible, instead you make your readers feel terrible. There are many ways to influence sales, but this book is interesting to the general reader as well, because it details the many ways that shoppers are influenced by marketing strategies, and for other little gems of information as well. In my opinion the book is a little gem, and I would recommend it to anyone who wants to know more about the way the world works.

I was offered this book as an ARC via NetGalley and found it to be in intriguing insight into the world of marketing. This book is aimed at people working within the marketing field (though those wanting to market their own products would find it interesting too) and so there are lots of suggestions and examples as to how research can be applied. The book is full of studies and research, many of which had surprising or counterintuitive outcomes. Personally I do find people's behaviour fascinating so this was a fairly quick and easy read that threw up some thought provoking examples. If you work in this field or are wondering how to better market your own products in this increasingly freelance economy, this book is worth a read.

To me this book strikes a perfect balance between too much and too little detail. It is also written in a light, reader-friendly way. Each chapter introduces new concept using real-life examples. It’s all brief yet explained well (and also referenced well so you can go to source material for more details). Then, you get recommendations on how to use these concepts in a way that works in real life according to experiments and data. Everything is bite-size with no fillers or fluff. Great book.

This is a well-researched and clearly-communicated book designed for marketers and business owners. All readers will find the behavioral science interesting. The book is good for consumers, too, because the reader can consider his or her own purchasing habits while learning about these methods and reading about the studies referenced.

Thank you to the publisher and to NetGalley for this ARC.