A book that gets under your skin…
The zeitgeist:
A fancy term for “collective unconscious.”
But wait! That’s a fancy term for “stuff we all know, without being able to define it or even knowing exactly why we know it.”
Hm. No wonder Chris Houchens stuck with “zeitgeist” when he wrote his new book, Brand Zeitgeist. Even the term is something we know, without being able to define it or knowing why we know it.
Chris is the author of the Shotgun Marketing Blog, mentioned here at Maximum Customer Experience several times as one of my favorite places to get simple wisdom and occasional A-ha! insights on marketing. When I heard he was writing a book talking about how your business can ride the waves of the zeitgeist to develop deeper relationships with customers, I was pretty psyched. I jumped at the chance to read a pre-publication version of the book and write a little something in praise of the book… if I thought it deserved the praise.
I won’t keep you in suspense. Chris had described it as a book for marketers who are at the beginnings of creating their strategy—and for learning the basics with an easy, straightforward guide, this book can’t be beat. It deserves the praise.
True, if you’ve spent 20 years devouring every book ever written on marketing, branding, and the like, this may not cover a lot of new ground, but even for a marketing geek like me Brand Zeitgeist was a fresh way to look at the larger issues of creating a brand that gets under the buyer’s skin. If you’re more of a marketing-geek-in-training (and especially if you never want to be a marketing geek), I think you’ll really enjoy Chris’s friendly style. Here’s the (typical Kelly-humor) review I sent to Chris a couple of months back:
Peppered with practicality! Rife with real-world examples!
It’s not easy to find a marketing book where all the hype is in other authors’ endorsements. The refreshingly no-nonsense volume you hold in your hands is one. Brand Zeitgeist answers the critical question you should be asking to grow your business: What does it take to get under your customer’s skin?
Chris Houchens delivers with this thoughtful work, in the same easygoing style that’s made his Shotgun Marketing Blog a must-read for me. If you’re trying to figure out how to connect with customers when traditional marketing has lost much of its value, and why “connecting” is a whole lot more than today’s buzz word, this is the book for you.
Zeitgeist is a real zinger!
I was pleased as punch that Chris included a snippet from this blurb on the back cover of the book—because I’m happy to help convince a reader who’s on the fence that they’ll get plenty of value from Brand Zeitgeist.
From first impressions, to crafting your message, to—you guessed it—Customer Experience, Brand Zeitgeist is a slim volume that will get under your skin and keep you thinking about relating deeply to your customer for a long time to come. I hope you’ll click over to amazon and give Brand Zeitgeist a try.
Grow and be well,
Kelly Erickson
P.S. Links to amazon are affiliate links. Buy a copy of Chris Houchens’ new book, Brand Zeitgeist, through these links, and I might buy a cup of tea with the proceeds one day.
P.P.S. This is not a paid review. I expect Chris is as surprised as you are to read it this morning. 
Wishing you continued success, Chris!
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20 April 2010, 10:34 am
Wow, you’re a published author! That’s worth the price of admission alone. (Now if you just had an affiliate link to Chapters.ca…)
I’ve been reading a lot about brands lately. Not on purpose — maybe it’s coincidence or maybe it’s a hot topic of late. The Ad Contrarian seems to have quite a bit to say on them, especially when it comes to “brand conversations” and “brand relationships”.
I don’t agree with everything TAC says, but I do get a vaguely uneasy feeling when I read about brand relationships. I find equating that iconic Coke bottle to a friend or loved one to be a little strange — not to mention a little too “yes-I-drank-the-Kool-Aid”-ish.
On the other hand, it not an inaccurate description. We do all have “relationships” with brands, insofar as how those particular products and services relate to us and our world.
However I think it’s important to underline that these relationships are really about how we view ourselves. For example, you can’t have a true relationship with a fictional character like Jay Gatsby or Elizabeth Bennet. But fictional or not, a character can have an impact on your life. How we relate to that character — our “relationship” with that character — tells us (and perhaps others) about our own true self.
That’s very much how I’m beginning to see brands. They are both a reflection of our true selves (or at least how we view ourselves) and a touchstone for some intangible ideal.
Not really sure what my point is here — just got me thinking s’all. Hmm…
Anyway, I’ve added the book to my list — looks like it will give me more food for thought!
And congrats on your cover blurb! That’s très cool!
~Graham
PS – love the background you used for the photo shoot. Obviously carefully arranged!
20 April 2010, 11:42 am
Kelly – congrats on the blurb.
Graham – I like your point about brands… “They are both a reflection of our true selves (or at least how we view ourselves) and a touchstone for some intangible ideal.”
When a brand shows a customer herself both as she is and and as she idealizes herself to be, that customer can’t help falling in love with the brand.
For me this comes back to Kelly’s constant reminder to pick ONE ideal (but real, live) customer and build the brand around him. When you do that, the chances of making the customer fall in love increase dramatically.
20 April 2010, 12:07 pm
@Todd – Yes, I agree. I’ve been in situations with clients where they are too afraid of losing sales to “exclude” anybody. I try to explain that this means you also do not “include” anybody.
A personal invitation might upset the people who *don’t* receive it, but it ups the chances that the addressee will show up. A general invitation is more likely to be ignored by everybody.
~Graham
20 April 2010, 12:28 pm
Graham – yeah, it’s counter intuitive at first for business owners but, as a customer, wouldn’t you rather shop at the Graham Strong shoe store? All the shoes there fit your foot and match your sense of style. You probably wouldn’t want to go anywhere else.
20 April 2010, 12:59 pm
@Todd – heh heh, that would be cool. I also have visions for the Graham Strong bar and grille, the Graham Strong bookstore, and of course, Air Graham Strong.
Reminds me — there’s a new discount airline here called Porter. But it actually goes away from the typical “discount” tack — they offer free drinks, the seats are leather, and they very much hearken back to the “Golden Age” of passenger flight when flying was a dress-up event. (Their tagline is “Flying Refined”.)
There’s branding for you — rather than simply choosing Porter to fly to Toronto, I want to fly to Toronto just to fly Porter…! (I think that’s what Kelly meant by getting under the customer’s skin.)
Here’s the website — the radio ads are much cooler.
http://www.flyporter.com/
~Graham
20 April 2010, 1:41 pm
Graham – that airline sounds nice. I’d love to give it a try. In fact, I’m flying to Toronto in July. I may have to check them out.
Todd Smith´s latest blog… I Like Old Cars – They’re Awefully Photogenic!
20 April 2010, 1:53 pm
Graham,
Thanks. Yep, I’m a published blurb-author. Maybe it’s a second career, eh?
TAC is dead-on about folks not wanting to be pushed about their love for their things. And his main point, usually, is that you can’t try for the love and then say “Hey—that love goes with our product.” Have to make the lovable product, then gently coax the fanaticism into view.
Macs, Harleys, Coke… heck, even Timmy H, right? As long as there’s something to love and something to push against, lovers can be highlighted and encouraged, in some cases even mythologized, but a brand can’t push for them.
I’ve got a project coming up working on that exact “me-too” aspect of brand relationships. If you can get a buyer to say those lovely words, Me Too, when thinking about buying and joining your customers, you’ve hit the magic nerve!
P.S. It’s my leather jacket, well-worn and well-loved. I was looking for a background that would give it some pop, and black is always my frame of choice.
Todd,
Thanks!
And so true, that one Ideal is one of the greatest helps there is in pinpointing a brand’s essence. When you’re aiming at something that real people can feel it. It helps enormously to encourage the me-toos, because we tend to look for similarities and ignore differences.
Making this up, but for instance: Oh, Harley owners like desert riding? Me too! (Never mind that (a) other bike brands probably have plenty of desert riders in their ranks and (b) there are tons of other Harley-esque attributes that may not fit the person at all…)
Graham again,
Going to check out the flyporter site in a sec, but (laughing and) musing…
I wish my last name was Strong. What an infinitely extensible brand with awesome positive associations!! Could be bigger than Virgin. What’s Branson got that you haven’t got?
My entry in the Graham brand… how about, since it was sort of mentioned, a Graham Strong Porter? “Kick back and drink deep with Graham Strong Porter. Builds you up for the night ahead!”
Mm. Thirsty…
Regards,
Kelly
20 April 2010, 2:03 pm
lol – Graham Strong Porter — It’s Not Just Stout, It’s Strong.
~Graham
20 April 2010, 2:07 pm
lol. you got a brand, Graham!
20 April 2010, 2:12 pm
In a word… *hiccough*
20 April 2010, 10:29 pm
I WAS suprised when I saw this pop up in my reader! Thanks for the shoutout and praise for my book.
Out of the blurbs I got back, Kelly’s was certainly the most heartfelt and enthusiastic. (a good tip for any type of writing) Plus a good portion of the book is focused on the same stuff that she preaches here. Brands are built with customers.
I truly am honored that you felt Brand Zeitgeist was a zinger! Thank you.
(And like Graham, I’m impressed with your images of the book. I’m sure Brand Zeitgeist felt like a celeb during the photo shoot!)
Chris Houchens´s latest blog… social media marketing perfection
27 April 2010, 8:46 am
Chris,
Hi again!
Oh, yes. After the leather jacket photo shoot, it demanded I pick out only the orange and brown M&Ms and put them in a Waterford crystal bowl in the green room. Ridiculous how demanding these celebs can get.
Honored to write the blurb. I hope it gets under a lot of readers’ skin!
Until later,
Kelly