Thursday, November 12, 2009

Shoptimism Author: Lee Eisenberg Publisher: Free Press ASIN: 0743296257

About This Book

Shoptimism is a guided tour through the parallel worlds of selling and buying. Part I, “Them Versus You,” explores “the Sell Side,” where marketing, retailing, advertising, and consumer-research forces take aim on the American buyer. Part II, “You Versus You,” looks at buyers and examines what people are looking at when they buy things, why some people are loose with money and others pinch pennies, the differences between men and women as shoppers and what value there is in practicality, value, novelty and excess.

The book takes readers on a journey through the present and future of consumerism—the emerging importance of social networking, what neuroscience can and can’t tell us about buying behavior and our state of mind as we struggle through challenging economic times. It also  provides a social and cultural history of how the American consumer came to be in the early 1900s, how the 1950s changed buying habits and ushered in ever more sophisticated (and sometimes invasive) market research methods and the leveraging of sex as a sales tool.

Lee Eisenberg is a former Esquire magazine writer. Researching the book included a stint as a clerk at Target, encounters with leading academic and marketing experts, a probe into the world of online chatter and forays into stores of every description.