Graeme started Timeless Marketing Classics as a series of posts/reviews where grads new to the industry can discover which books experienced planners have found inspirational during their career. He very kindly asked me to suggest one timeless marcomms classic – certainly not easy to pick just one, but I had a go: you can read my suggestion here and also cross-posted below:
My pick is actually a reasonably new publication, having been first published in 2008, so not sure if longevity is a pre requisite for being a ‘timeless’ classic, but I think it’s an absolutely essential read for any planner, or indeed anyone who wants to understand more about people.
If you’re in the business of trying to engage people through your communications, then understanding human behaviour, and what makes us tick, is absolutely crucial.
I personally don’t think you can get this from any one book, nor indeed from books alone, but if I had to pick one must-read book, Dan Ariely’s Predictably Irrational would be up there. Behavioural economics is the latest buzzword, but really it’s just a new way of describing the science and art of human behaviour, and in “Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions“, Ariely uses a wealth of scientific experiments and fascinating anecdotes to illustrate how we aren’t the rational creatures we would like to think we are.
Marketing may change, brand communication may change, but human behaviour remains startingly constant over time. As human animals we are by our very nature consistent in our irrationality – and the patterns within this are such that in many ways we’re predictably irrational. Have been, are, and likely will continue to be. Hence unless the human condition changes dramatically, I’d bet that Ariely’s book will be relevant for many years to come.
