ON THE SHELF: New books of note

American Demographics, Nov 1, 2003

By Dan Hill John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 2003

Most marketing efforts assumes that consumers are rational beings who can be sold on the utilitarian benefits of a product. But in Body of Truth, Dan Hill argues that this traditional approach to marketing has typically overestimated the isolated power of reason and fails to account for how humans are programmed to think and make decisions.

Instead, Hill advises marketers to appeal to our senses. The latest scientific research into human cognition suggests that decision-making occurs subconsciously. Given that 80 percent of human communication is nonverbal, Hill advocates focussing on sensory/emotive responses. The book offers a critique of various ways to gauge consumers' sensory responses to products and advertisements, such as eye tracking, biofeedback and facial coding. It also transforms scientific concepts into actionable principles that marketers can implement. Later chapters look at what companies can do to appeal to our innate needs and motivations. Real-world examples of how leading companies have used this approach to marketing are sprinkled throughout.