Martin Howard’s book is] entertaining yet McLuhanesque... filled with engaging graphics and provocative but easy-to-follow guidelines for maintaining autonomy in a world made of marketing. This is a far more accessible and applicable treatment of my material for a wider audience looking to understand what is happening in our commercialized culture, and how to lead a life guided by meaning in spite of it all.”
Douglas Rushkoff

‘must read’ for any interested in business, marketing, consumerism and beyond,
Midwest Book Review

“captures precisely what’s going on at the moment... a fascinating overview of all the marketing tactics that are working to influence consumers on a much subtler level than traditional advertising...It’s well-done.” AdPulp

“a vibrantly designed, practical introduction to how we are psychologically influenced as a result of intentional strategic design”
BuzzFlash

“a vibrantly designed, practical introduction to how we are psychologically influenced as a result of intentional strategic design”
Libero (Italy)

“a classic... very easy to understand”
La Republicca (Italy)

something we badly need, a readable, usable guide that brings to light these hidden mechanisms of consumer control.... could easily be a textbook for a much-needed freethinking school curriculum News From Nowhere

“in order to get at the truth, you should read this great soft cover, beautifully produced with exceptional graphics and quotes about ‘how they change your mind. It is a brilliantly conceived book  John Austin

Solid primer about the ways your mind can be and is controlled by corporations looking to make you buy their stuff. This will freak you out.” Quimby’s

Martin Howard's book is] entertaining yet McLuhanesque... filled with engaging graphics and provocative but easy-to-follow guidelines for maintaining autonomy in a world made of marketing. This is a far more accessible and applicable treatment of my material for a wider audience looking to understand what is happening in our commercialized culture, and how to lead a life guided by meaning in spite of it all."

Douglas Rushkoff

'must read' for any interested in business, marketing, consumerism and beyond,

Midwest Book Review

"captures precisely what's going on at the moment... a fascinating overview of all the marketing tactics that are working to influence consumers on a much subtler level than traditional advertising...It's well-done." AdPulp

"a vibrantly designed, practical introduction to how we are psychologically influenced as a result of intentional strategic design"

BuzzFlash

"a vibrantly designed, practical introduction to how we are psychologically influenced as a result of intentional strategic design"

Libero (Italy)

"a classic... very easy to understand"

La Republicca (Italy)

something we badly need, a readable, usable guide that brings to light these hidden mechanisms of consumer control.... could easily be a textbook for a much-needed freethinking school curriculum News From Nowhere

"in order to get at the truth, you should read this great soft cover, beautifully produced with exceptional graphics and quotes about 'how they change your mind. It is a brilliantly conceived book  John Austin

Solid primer about the ways your mind can be and is controlled by corporations looking to make you buy their stuff. This will freak you out." Quimby's

"So many readers of Coercion - in schools, community groups, the Consumers Union, even Ralph Nader - have asked me to create a companion volume with methods and resources for people to fight back against those who would influence their behaviors... [Martin Howard's book is] entertaining yet McLuhanesque... filled with engaging graphics and provocative but easy-to-follow guidelines for maintaining autonomy in a world made of marketing. This is a far more accessible and applicable treatment of my material for a wider audience looking to understand what is happening in our commercialized culture, and how to lead a life guided by meaning in spite of it all." Douglas Rushkoff

Review by Mike Gange

An Island in the Media Stream:

"Most of these releases are aimed at adult readers, and while they contain ideas that may be useful in the classroom, they are more likely to end up as a library selection than a day-to-day classroom resource. We Know What You Want: How They Change Your Mind by Martin Howard would be one of the few surprising exceptions. Not only does it stand out from the others in the flood by proving to be enlightening for adults and students, it contains items that could be used alone or as part of a unit on media education... Part of the beauty of We Know What You Want: How They Change Your Mind is that it will teach both leaders and learners in the classroom and serve parents and kids in the home... Another appealing aspect of this book is the use of graphics that will help get the point across. Maybe the best part of the book, however, is its tone: it teaches us what to think about, without preaching to us about what to think. In that regard then, We Know What You Want: How They Change Your Mind is a stand out."

Buzzflash Review: We Know What You Want:

" a vibrantly designed, practical introduction to how we are psychologically influenced as a result of intentional strategic design... The two-page section (104-5) on how to detect propaganda is worth the book itself. It captures the Rovian manipulation of public opinion in seven short paragraphs."

Review by AdPulp

Below The Line Marketing. Way, Way, Below The Line. "Every so often, a marketing book comes along that captures precisely what's going on at the moment--the 'zeitgeist,' if you will....We Know What You Want: How They Change Your Mind by Martin Howard is a fascinating overview of all the marketing tactics that are working to influence consumers on a much subtler level than traditional advertising....covering such tactics as event marketing, in-store marketing, targeted CRM, advergaming, word-of-mouth, PR, buzz marketing, etc., Howard lays it all out in a kitschy, well-designed book full of little graphics to keep you enthralled... I read a lot of marketing stuff, but this book has quite a few 'I can't believe someone's doing THAT' marketing ideas in here. It's well-done."

More about Subliminal Persuasion

Book of the Month

Book Review: "WITH ALL THE verbal and written rhetoric for the past several years about the elite, liberal and/or Conservative media, in order to get at the truth,  you should read this great soft cover, beautifully produced with exceptional graphics and quotes about 'how they change your mind. It is a brilliantly conceived book from The Disinformation Press!...AUTHORED BY MEDIA  literacy advocate Martin Howard, this book is a much-needed (and we could say, required reading) and field manual to protecting yourself from subliminal messages, hypnotic triggers, and other perils of modern marketing.  With an introduction by media theorist Douglas Rushkoff, We Know What You Want is a visually organized companion volume to Rushkoff's ground breaking book Coercion." BOOKS OF THE MONTH (Incorporating Book Notes) By John Austin

News From Nowhere - reviews » “We Know What You Want: How They Change Your Mind” by Martin Howard: "Did you know that the classic business self-help text How To Win Friends and Influence People is part of the CIA’s training on interrogation techniques? Or that product placement doesn’t just happen in films, that people in the street or a bar enthusing about a product or brand might have been paid to do so? The book is packed with fascinating information like this."

Books: the true price that we pay for our lifestyle

of Dario Olivero Repubblica.it - 15 Decembers 2005

Incredible for as it is conceived, written, impaginato Sappiamo what you want of Martin Howard, "a classic although its young age on philosophies, techniques and stratagems of manipulation puttinges in field from the marketing. From the position of the products in the shelves of the supermarkets to music to transmit in cable broadcast in the centers it trades them, to the techniques of interrogation of the Cia red-adapt in order to induce the consumer in one be of regression, to the menzogne covered from the world dealt like wonderful of the financing, credit cards to rate zero and credit to the consumption. The book more than a test is a series of outlines, diagrams and designs much easy memorizzare and that they facilitate to comprise described dynamics. The scope is to help the reader to earn more freedom from the conditionings, because what ago the advanced marketing is not more to sell produced, but to crop them although same we to us. And this makes to pull sad sums: we are in a position to conceiving a freedom that does not contemplate consuming?

Sai what buys and because?

libero.it - 28 November 2005

Anyone has gone around in a great supermarket has learned one fundamental what: that it is always exited with the full undercarriage of things that were not on the list of the expense. A case? Absolutely not. We know what you want (subtitle it: Who, like and because the mind manipulates us), as soon as exited for Minimum Fax, is an agile book and light, full of cards, illustrations, outlines and diagrams, that it explains for before turns all daily the more innovative techniques used from the corporation and the governments in the battle for the control of the mind of the consumers. The objective is to influence the purchaser without its consent and to insinuate itself in five fundamental areas of the life of the human being: the area of the consumption, the personal area, the area of the events, the informative area and the virtual area.

The book, in short, is "a guide in order to maintain the autonomy of thought in a more and more dominated world from the marketing, the publicity and the disinformation." As an example: the family doctor is indeed objective when a medicinal one prescribes? Who chooses the news that we read? How work the motivazionali seminaries? How they make the great multinationals impossessarsi of the data contained in the cache of the browser of the navigators? How they make the seven to recruit the adepts person? Which thing is viral the marketing and which insidie hide in the videogiochi? The ideal reading in period of purchases crowds for the christmas season.

Repubblica.it - 15 dicembre 2005

Incredibile per come è concepito, scritto, impaginato Sappiamo cosa vuoi di Martin Howard, un classico nonostante la sua giovane età su filosofie, tecniche e stratagemmi di manipolazione messi in campo dal marketing. Dalla posizione dei prodotti negli scaffali dei supermercati alla musica da trasmettere in filodiffusione nei centri commerciali, alle tecniche di interrogatorio della Cia riadattate per indurre il consumatore in uno stato di regressione, alle menzogne coperte dal mondo spacciato come meraviglioso delle carte di credito, finanziamenti a tasso zero e credito al consumo. Il libro più che un saggio è una serie di schemi, diagrammi e disegni molto facili da memorizzare e che agevolano a comprendere le dinamiche descritte. Lo scopo è aiutare il lettore a guadagnarsi più libertà dai condizionamenti, perché quello che fa il marketing avanzato non è più vendere prodotti, ma rifilarceli nonostante noi stessi. E questo fa tirare tristi somme: siamo in grado di concepire una libertà che non contempli il consumare?

Sai cosa compri e perché?

libero.it - 28 novembre 2005

Chiunque abbia fatto un giro in un grande supermercato ha imparato una cosa fondamentale: che si esce sempre con il carrello pieno di cose che non erano sulla lista della spesa. Un caso? Assolutamente no. Sappiamo cosa vuoi (sottotitolo: Chi, come e perché ci manipola la mente), appena uscito per Minimum Fax, è un libro agile e leggero, pieno di schede, illustrazioni, schemi e grafici, che spiega per la prima volta tutte le tecniche più innovative utilizzate quotidianamente dalle corporation e dai governi nella battaglia per il controllo della mente dei consumatori. L'obiettivo è influenzare l'acquirente senza il suo consenso e insinuarsi in cinque aree fondamentali della vita dell'essere umano: l’area del consumo, l’area personale, l’area degli eventi, l’area informativa e l’area virtuale.

Il libro, in sostanza, è una guida per mantenere l'autonomia di pensiero in un mondo sempre più dominato dal marketing, dalla pubblicità e dalla disinformazione. Per esempio: il medico di famiglia è davvero obiettivo quando prescrive un medicinale? Chi sceglie le notizie che leggiamo? Come funzionano i seminari motivazionali? Come fanno le grandi multinazionali a impossessarsi dei dati contenuti nella cache dei browser dei navigatori? Come fanno le sette a reclutare gli adepti? Che cos'è il viral marketing e quali insidie si nascondono nei videogiochi? La lettura ideale in periodo di acquisti folli per la stagione natalizia.

Quimby's

"We Know What You Want: How They Change Your Mind :::

Solid primer about the ways your mind can be and is controlled by corporations looking to make you buy their stuff. This will freak you out." -LB (Quimby's)

--------------------------------------

We Know What You Want: How They Change Your Mind

‘The secret tactics that influence what you buy, think and believe’ says the cover tagline, and the ‘They’ in the book’s title means advertisers, cults, pyramid-scheme-sellers, and propagandists. You accept that advertisers and the others will always be trying to sell you something or persuade you of something, but what is a revelation in this book is the insidious and obsessive detail that goes into trying to control and modify consumer behaviour.

For instance, the idea of ‘pester power’ and the debate around the ethics of advertising to children is pretty well known, but it takes on a whole new dimension when you read the quote in here from a marketing consultant, and realise that the advertisers have no ethics:

“Kids are the most pure consumers you could have … They tend to interpret your ad literally. They are infinitely open.”

Did you know that the classic business self-help text How To Win Friends and Influence People is part of the CIA’s training on interrogation techniques? Or that product placement doesn’t just happen in films, that people in the street or a bar enthusing about a product or brand might have been paid to do so? The book is packed with fascinating information like this.

It draws on, and is a companion to, the book Coercion by Douglas Rushkoff, which is now out of print - a pity, because I would have loved to read a more in-depth dissection & explanation of the manipulation techniques that are covered in this book, which offers only tantalisingly brief insights into the psychology of these tricks and how they work. We Know What You Want seems to have been designed primarily as a consumer action guide and as a teaching resource. The content is presented very visually, lots of diagrams, cartoons and so on, and laid out in brief snippets of information with bold headings. Key quotes from the main text are often repeated in the graphics a page or so later, which is slightly jarring, (rather as if the author is writing for people with little attention span, who need their books laid out like commercial television, with little recaps every so often). There are lots of ‘Take Action!’ points designed to help the reader think critically about the media & advertising, spot manipulative techniques and combat them.

While it might not be as in-depth as I might like, (plus it mainly focuses on American examples), it’s certainly something we badly need, a readable, usable guide that brings to light these hidden mechanisms of consumer control. (And, thinking about it, we’re not going to get very far in reclaiming our cultural and mental environment from these ever more invasive commercial tactics if our only resource is the interestingly infuriating Adbusters!) We Know What You Want could easily be a textbook for a much-needed freethinking school curriculum.

The focus of the book is mostly on commercial advertising and public relations tactics, but it does also touch a little on government surveillance and control. The book finishes up by listing U.S. patent applications for mind-changing (and mind-reading?) technologies. Whether or not you can accept these as science fact not fiction, this book leaves you in no doubt that if they work, the advertisers & other manipulators will use them without consideration for personal space, privacy or human rights.

Island in the Media Stream

We Know What You Want: How They Change Your Mind

by Martin Howard

Disinformation Company, $13.95, 191 pages.

In the past five years, the number of books released that illuminate the workings of the mass media have gone from a trickle to a flood. Some, such as The Game Makers: The Story of Parker Brothers from Tiddley Winks to Trivial Pursuit by Philip E. Orbanes, are a behind-the-scenes glimpse at how businesses evolve; others such as Vulgarians at the Gate by Steve Allen decry the changes in our media entertainment values. Still others, such as Jean Kilbourne‚s Deadly Persuasion: Why Women and Girls Must Fight the Addictive Power of Advertising provide an insightful analysis of how advertising shapes our thinking.

Most of these releases are aimed at adult readers, and while they contain ideas that may be useful in the classroom, they are more likely to end up as a library selection than a day-to-day classroom resource. We Know What You Want: How They Change Your Mind by Martin Howard would be one of the few surprising exceptions. Not only does it stand out from the others in the flood by proving to be enlightening for adults and students, it contains items that could be used alone or as part of a unit on media education.

Howard is a former marketing executive, with over 15 years experience in the marketing field. He became interested in emerging forms of communications and stumbled upon the works of Marshall McLuhan simultaneously. As a result, he targets his book to average consumers; it is especially pertinent to middle school and high school students. Howard states that he wants to encourage individuals to assess their own media environment.

We Know What You Want: How They Change Your Mind is divided into five chapters: The Retail Zone, The Events Zone, The Media Zone, The Personal Zone, and The Virtual Zone. Each contains brief tantalizing morsels that show us the impact of the media environment we are swimming in, and then something extra that supports it ˆ a web site, a quotation, some current research into marketing or persuasion, an applicable case study. For example, Howard writes, „Department Store customers exposed to MUZAK shop 18% longer and make 17% more purchases. Grocery shoppers respond best to MUZAK that has a slower tempo, making a whopping 38% more purchases when it is employed.‰ Just below, he puts this telling quote from the MUZAK web site, <http://www.muzak.com/>www.muzak.com, „We create experiences with audio architecture. Our art is to capture the emotional power of music and put it to work for your business∑.our music programs are designed to create experiences that are both powerful and persuasive.‰

Part of the beauty of We Know What You Want: How They Change Your Mind is that it will teach both leaders and learners in the classroom and serve parents and kids in the home. Students looking for an idea for a final project in communications courses, language or civics classes, or media studies lessons will revel in the breadth of the topics covered. Another appealing aspect of this book is the use of graphics that will help get the point across. Maybe the best part of the book, however, is its tone: it teaches us what to think about, without preaching to us about what to think. In that regard then, We Know What You Want: How They Change Your Mind is a stand out.

Mike Gange teaches media studies and journalism at Fredericton High.

A 'must read' for any interested in business, marketing, consumerism and beyond, October 5, 2005

Reviewer:

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

Corporations and governments are sharing some of the same tactics to manipulate consumer attitudes and perceptions, and it's time to understand the roots of these messages in We Know What You Want: How They Change Your Mind. From retail sales to media, events, and virtual reality, case studies spotlight 'trend' origins, influences, and underlying goals in a thought-provoking, often frightening, clear set of examples and discussions. A 'must read' for any interested in business, marketing, consumerism and beyond.

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