The modern marketer is quickly realizing the decades old business wisdom is not and never really has been enough to truly understand the customer and build an effective brand. Applying insights from different disciplines is becoming a key to modern marketing. With that in mind, I’d thought I’d offer my top five non-business books that will lead to a deeper understanding of what it takes to understand your customers and build killer brands. The top five, in no particular order:
- [amazon-product text="Motivation and Personality" type="text"]0060419873[/amazon-product] by Abraham Maslow
Maslow’s classic text containing his essay on the hierarchy of human needs. If you aren’t applying Maslow chances are that your branding is misguided - [amazon-product text="The Basic Writings of C.G. Jung" type="text"]1242870658[/amazon-product] by C.G. Jung
This is the best small compilation of Jung’s work. Jung’s idea of archetypes is key to understanding how the drivers Maslow describes in the hierarchy of needs manifest in the psyche and drive customer behavior. - [amazon-product text="The Power of Myth" type="text"]0385418868[/amazon-product] by Joseph Campbell
The best overview of Campbell’s ideas. Campbell’s examinations of cross cultural mythology offer great insight into the ways archetypes manifest within a culture. This relates to the the specific cultural meanings that develop in relation to brands. - [amazon-product text="The Feeling of What Happens" type="text"]0156010755[/amazon-product] by Antonio Damasio
This book explains how emotions operate at the biological level. Branding without emotional triggers is a useless exercise. - [amazon-product text="In Search of Memory" type="text"]0393329372[/amazon-product] by Eric Kandel
Branding relies heavily on memory and recall cues. Kandel’s book is a fascinating and engaging read about the history of our modern understanding of memory.
Tags: brand · Branding · Business · campbell · jung · Marketing · maslow · Neuroscience · psychology3 Comments
It’s one of my alltime favorite books. One of my top 2 in the biological sciences.
Right up there with The Double Helix by James Watson
In Search of Memory is the cherry on top.
That’s an excellent list, Aaron. Executives that exclusively read “business” and “marketing” books are going to have trouble discerning the bigger picture that becomes available with a greater depth of knowledge.