Book Description

With this small and discriminating book as their guide, visitors find themselves strolling down cobblestone back streets that only native Romans know well. Each walk takes an hour or two, and directs shoppers and window shoppers alike to unique retail spots - jewelers, stationers, clothiers, grocers - that uphold the Italian standards of quality, craftsmanship, and creativity. Distinctive items in these shops include gold jewelry inspired by Etruscan designs, religious souvenirs, and one-of-a-kind designer dresses. A discerning guide to the unique shops of Rome, the book includes 12 distinct walks featuring more than 100 stores. The authors also include café and restaurant recommendations. ... Read more

Book Description

An incisive exposŽ of the underhanded advertising initiatives that target teens-and an exploration of their disturbing consequences.

Generation Y has grown up in an age of the brand, bombarded by name products. In Branded, Alissa Quart illuminates the unsettling new reality of marketing to teenagers, as well as the quieter but no less worrisome forms of teen branding: the teen consultants who work for corporations in exchange for product; the girls obsessed with cosmetic surgery who will do anything to look like women on TV; and those teens simply obsessed with admission into a name-brand college. We also meet the pockets of kids attempting to turn the tables on the cocksure corporations that so cynically strive to manipulate them. Chilling, thought-provoking, even darkly amusing, Branded brings one of the most disturbing and least talked about results of contemporary business and culture to the fore-and ensures that we will never look at today's youth the same way again. ... Read more

Reviews (7)

only half the issue is examined
While this book has a lot of sound principles about how youth are bombarded with messages to buy buy buy particular status-laden brands, I felt a lot of the data was manipulated to support the author's theory.

For instance, she cites Katherine Newsome's book No Shame in My Game, about how teens take low-paying jobs in fast-food industries to pay for these status symbols. However, the rest of that book (which I highly recommend, by the way) goes on to say that a lot of people chose to work at those jobs rather than go on welfare --- even though they would have gotten more money from welfare - because it gave them self-esteem to work for their money, a positive social network among their coworkers, job experience, and, for some, a chance to break away from their gangs.

She tells how schools have contracts with Pepsi and Coca Cola, so that their drinks are sold in vending machines and ads are put up in the hallways. This is not done primarily to brainwash kids about the product, but to raise money for the school for basic supplies and repairs. Believe it or not, a lot of schools don't have everything they need to adequately teach a growing number of students. I once spoke with a board member for a school in DC whose windows were sealed with duct tape (as well as problems with the boiler) and the city did not reply to their complaints till they had a news crew come film it.

Maybe Branded could have done itself one better by examining more how the obsession with objects stems from loneliness and disconnectedness (hence the need to brand oneself and create an identity through labels). She speaks of teenaged girls and guys wanting plastic surgery and being accompanied to the plastic surgeon's office with parents. But what is the real dynamic behind all that? Why have the girls been asking for implants since age 13? We know they have seen Britney and crew forever, but why haven't parents, other relatives, counselors, teachers, etc - people they actually know --- helped them see beyond all that and have a stronger sense of self? THAT was the book I thought I was going to read. I feel this book did only half the job of looking at why things are worse than ever in terms of materialism.

Brands have been and always will be out there - it's the degree of importance that we attach to them that is the real issue. Is it appropriate or is it taking over our lives? You can only answer that for yourself, I guess.

Good examination of consumer culture
Quart does an excellent job of disecting the corporate world's exploitation of children and teenagers. This book could have been just another indictment against advertising, but Quart examines multiple aspects of brand-mania. I especially liked how she includes a chapter on "brand-name" colleges and universities (this is not just about sneakers and jeans, folks). I do have a few criticisms. As some other reviewers pointed out, she mostly interviews upper class teens. Young folks who can't afford to buy Gucci and Prada won't see themselves in this book. Quart also engages in some handwringing over the poor innocent children (see the chapter on teen authors), which I think was a little insulting. Overall though, I recommend this book.

In the words Mickey-D s- "I'm Lovin It!"
What I'm lovin'is books like this. The message that consumerism is attacking the younglings of this country and turning them into faux-yuppies who end up broke or depressed couldn't be more true. Ms. Quart gives a much needed "shout-out" to all the nerds out there who's skin is tough enough to resist the marketing machines that permeate the all important kingdom of youth. This woman is one smart cookie and is able to give us delightful jaunt into part of our culture that many of us try to avoid. Some people will drive past a dead cat lying in the road and think, "Hey, it wasn't me that hit that dead cat..."
Alissa Quart tells us,"Hey THERE IS A DEAD CAT IN THE ROAD! SOMEBODY DO SOMETHING!"
Great book.

Seduction of the Innocent
In accessible, often witty prose, Quart shows the corrupting effect that the conscienceless pursuit of profit by corporate marketers has on everything from young girls' body images or young boys'understandings of what it means to be masculine, to the complaisant administrations of public schools. "Seduction of the innocent" is not too strong a term to apply to the corporate behavior that Quart describes; though happily she also focuses on the ways in which many young people have begun to resist being "branded." As an account of the impact of corporatism on daily lives, this book belongs on the shelf next to Naomi Klein's No Logo. It will only not appeal to those who make a living exploiting young people; most others will find it a revelation.

Poor little Alissa, tell us how your really feel!!
I have worked in the marketing world for many years, and specialize in marketing to the youth culture. I have a hard time reading a book that was written purely upon opinion (there is an entire chapter dedicated to "Media" and the author ends up discussing her favorite and least favorite moves of the 80's??). Let take a moment and asks this generation what it thinks about companies marketing to them. I have a feeling you will find that most appreciate that fact that their thoughts and creative ideas really matter. It appears this author has been hurt in the past by people who were more popular than her, and this is her way of lashing out (woe is me, woe is me, I won't give into being branded, seems to be her only point)

Might I remind the author that if it was not for large companies taking the time to listen to Teens and Tweens our economy and country would be in a far different place?

Overall the book is shallow, and a waste of time, I would recommend not wasting your money. ... Read more

Book Description

What is the nature of motives, goals and desires that prompt consumption behaviors?Why do consumers buy and consume particular products, brands and services from the multitude of alternatives afforded by their environments?Hoe do consumers think and feel about their strivings and cravings and how do they translate these pursuits into actions?And what explanations might we offer for differences in consumer motives and goals across individuals and different contexts?Such questions are very relevant if we are to understand consumer behavior.This book provides many provocative answers. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Great Scholars -- Timely Topic
This book pulls together to top scholars in the area of goals and decision making. The lead chapter by the authors really nails down the breadth and the depth of the field. In doing so it helps show why consumers aren't necessarily acting inconsistently when their behavior varies across occasions.

Top-notch Researchers on a Timely Topic
This is a timely topic, and it's tackled by a team of top-notch researchers. One of the first chapters (on goal structures) is a classic in that it really helps in understanding why consumers appear to be inconsistent, but are actually consistent in much that we do.

Many people have written many things on this topic. This book summarizes much of the best thinking in a credible, condensed, interesting manner. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

comprehensive and objective
Slater thoroughly examines multiple and diverse theories addressing the whys, whens, and hows of consumption. He captures many of the paradoxes of "consumption" and "culture" without passing judgment on consumption. This book will give you an historical view of the role consumption has played in western societies, as well as an examination of some of consumption's current functions (identity formation, status signification, etc.). An excellent overview text for courses addressing consumption, but also a readable and thought-provoking discourse on consumption.

The indispensible and accessible introduction to this field.
Very readable, provocative; a superb course textbook. Makes the subject come alive. ... Read more

Book Description

Supplying list prices for most piano brands and models, as well as advice on how to estimate actual street prices, this annual supplement to the bestselling The Piano Book offers honest and unbiased price information. For those in the market for a new piano, this supplement will pay for itself many times over by offering greater peace of mind and convenience while shopping for one of the most expensive consumer purchases they will make. ... Read more

Amazon.com

No interest for one year! No annual fee! No minimum payments for six months! And, if you want to believe Robert Manning, there's no way out of the debt that we find ourselves in, as individuals and as a country. Credit Card Nation combines debt of every kind--consumer, corporate, and governmental--and creates a vast landscape of profit-spewing lenders and struggling debtors present at every level of economics. Appalling statistics set readers off on a depressing journey: the years between 1980 and 1994 saw annual consumer charges skyrocket from $170 billion to $581 billion, with the average household carrying over $4,000 in revolving debt. Accompanied by the erasure of nearly $100 billion in corporate debt and tremendous tax cuts for ever-merging conglomerates, the end of the 20th century seems to be just the beginning of an overwhelming cycle. While Manning's book is extensively researched, it is also extremely readable. Individual stories of junk bondsmen, corporate raiders, and middle-class consumers are threaded throughout the pages of charts and statistics, with a few surprises. While most media would have us believe that students who rack up charge accounts are totally irresponsible, the reality is that some of these students are helping their families with cash-advance loans to make mortgage or insurance payments. Emphasis is also placed on the tremendous advertising budgets of credit card companies: Manning comments on "how quickly the cultural norms have changed in the Credit Card Nation," we see a poster insisting "money can't buy you love, but a credit card can get you started." This is not a self-help book, and Manning has no 12-step program for debtors at any level. Credit Card Nation simply tells it as it is. --Jill Lightner ... Read more

Reviews (18)

Must Read!!
I bought this book after I heard the author on NPR. It shows how the credit card companies "hook" in young college students with promises of low "teaser" rates and "no payments" for certain amounts of time. The companies market heavily on college campuses, and unfortunately many people get into trouble. I am not totally blaming the credit card companies-parents need to teach their children financial responsibility, which the book also acknowledges. The book doesn't just focus on college students, but others as well who get themselves in debt with credit cards. There are some statistics, etc.. which are not too cumbersome for us "non-economists", but all in all it is a very informative read-a good graduation gift for kids starting out on their own, as well as for those who want to know how people do end up in the unfortunate situation of massive debt, and bankruptcy. Several people were interviewed for the book, and their stories are harrowing.

Had this professor when he was researching this book
I know Professor Manning from his days teaching class at Georgetown and American universities in DC. He was a fairly nice guy and a decent professor, with some fun arguments. My problem with this book was how selectively he researched some of the information. Not that he ignores importent sociological and economic trends, but for example I remember him polling me about my credit card spending as a college student. When I responded that I got the card as part of a through-the-mail low-interest offer when I was 18 and had successfully managed the debt and payments, he seemed uninterested, largely because my response did not fall within the paradigm supporting his book.

All in all an interesting book, with some important facts, but skewed.

Comprehensive Study of Consumer Debt
A striking and keen assessment of the credit card industry and damning expose'of corporate tactics to lure the unsuspecting and inexperienced into a life of consumerism. This comprehensive text outlines many of the megabanking tactics to increase their bottom line at the expense of the American consumer. The predatory marketing strategies and extensive profits of the credit card industry are exposed and provide the reader with information the banks do not want you to know.

Yawn.
Having just finished Eric Schlosser's "Fast Food Nation," I had high expectations for this book as well. I suppose if I were drowning in debt myself I might appreciate it more.

Here are the problems: While Schlosser's book explores many issues surrounding the fast food industry, each of them has clear relevance to the central theme. Not so, alas, with Manning's book.

For instance, chapter 2 seems to be mostly about corporate mergers. Chapter 3 appears to have as its central theme the fact that banks decided they wanted to make more money off credit cards. But while the fact that banks want more credit card money is relevant to the book, the reasons why they want this money, and the statistics that relate to this, are profoundly uninteresting. (Honestly, is is that hard to figure out that everybody wants more money than they have?)

Fortunately, later in the book we get some personal interest material. But the people profiled in these chapters can be hard to identify with. Were those college students really too dumb to know that credit cards have interest rates? Many of them seem to insist, for instance, that credit card companies shouldn't issue twenty thousand in credit to a student who makes nine thousand a year. Perhaps they're right; but then, would they similarly insist that McDonald's shouldn't serve its high-fat food to a person who weighs four hundred pounds? Chalk up one more for the American culture of self-victimization; God forbid I should take responsibility myself for my finances.

Manning's book fails where Schlosser's succeeds brilliantly: showing the human side of things. Manning does give us some anecdotes that help to show the human consequences of credit card debt; but these have to be sought out between the droning statistics. I think that with some heavy editing this could be a great book. Right now, though, much of it is simply a cure for insomnia.

Just a question of free will? NOT!
Several reviewers here of Manning's *Credit Card Nation* take him to task for proposing sweeping regulatory reforms to get Americans out from under the stupendous national credit card debt. These regulations would include reining in the frenzy with which banks, savings and loans, and retailers offer their high-interest cards to everybody under the sun (from young students, to aged indigents, to already over-stretched middle class types). Critical reviewers argue that the regulations are unnecessary and, worse, intrusive. All we consumers need do, they say, is exercise some old-fashioned self-restraint. When the pre-approved credit card arrives in the mail, toss it into the dustbin.

In the best of all possible worlds, this would be the most likely strategy. But this isn't the best of all possible worlds. The consumerist culture in which we live encourages us to spend, spend, spend. It teaches us to measure our individual worth by how many possessions we own and how much buying power we control. Marketing experts study our psychological profiles and target us. Television and radio bombard us with near nonstop ads. Television sitcoms teach us that the average family ought to have hundreds of gizmos and gadgets to make life comfortable. Individuals living in poverty who are painfully aware of the disparity between their lifestyle and the "Great American Dream" are promised as easy piece of the pie by credit card merchants. To his credit, Manning goes out of his way to document and discuss these and some of the hundreds of other ways in which our consumer culture encourages us to spend money we don't have.

So it just won't do to casually say the problem will go away when we toss away the credit cards. Given the marketing saturation of everyday life, this wouldn't be an exercise of free will so much as an act of near-omnipotence. To claim that credit card debt is just the consequence of lack of personal discipline is to ignore the consumerist culture that increasingly fashions us. We should exercise more personal discipline. But we should also be increasingly aware of the high payoff for bankers and retailers if they can manipulate and encourage our addiction for buying on credit. This is a social problem, not just an individual, psychological one. Readers tempted to take an exclusive "it's a matter of personal responsibility" position might want to supplement Manning's very carefully argued book with others such as *Culture Jam* or *Affluenza*. ... Read more

Book Description

Book Description

Customer loyalty has always been grounded in human interaction. Years ago, you'd walk into your favorite store and the staff would know your name, they'd remember your favorite brands, and they'd smile, nod, and take pains to make sure you came back. Because you were treated well by a personable, friendly staff--and because you were physically constrained by time and distance to limit yourself to particular stores--you'd go back to the same stores again and again.

The reach of the Web and advances in database technology have made this same level of personalized attention attainable by e-tailers thousands of miles away with a virtual staff customers may never meet. With customers now freed of the shackles of distance, they can comparison shop and fill out a profile that introduces a personalized element where e-tailers remember their name and preferences at a level that exceeds what a brick-and-mortar retailer can provide.

More than ever, the Web is empowering customers, making them more demanding of a great shopping experience, and consequently more fickle. Today's customers have the world at their fingertips, and keeping them loyal has become even more difficult. This is why websites are failing at an alarming rate. It's more obvious than ever that success lies not only in attracting customers but in retaining them.

In e-Loyalty, Ellen Reid Smith, leading customer loyalty expert and nationally acclaimed speaker, offers the definitive and essential step-by-step guide to creating and managing highly effective online loyalty and retention strategies.

Using some of the Internet's leading consumer and business-to-business websites as case examples, she takes readers from the early stages of implementing e-loyalty marketing programs through budgeting and evaluating their impact. From explaining the key concepts of e-loyalty to advising on critical website design factors, Reid Smith imparts techniques that can be applied by companies of any type or size--from the Fortune 500 companies she is regularly called upon to consult with to Internet start-ups.

Most of all, what truly distinguishes Reid Smith is her unwavering focus on not just retaining customers but retaining a company's most valuable customers through customer lifetime value modeling. Her advice will help companies ensure that their retention programs are focused on the most profitable customers since this aspect of online marketing has become the most important issue facing websites worldwide.

No matter whichsegment of the online economy you hail from, this is the essential handbook for initiating, cultivating, and extending that rarest of company assets: e-loyalty. ... Read more

Reviews (7)

This book gave me a plan for designing customer retention
I heard Ms. Smith at a conference and bought her book to get more details on her 7 steps to designing an e-loyalty strategy. The book throughly explains her 7 steps with tons of examples, some of which were really funny (I love humor in a business book). I designed and implemented a customer retention program based on the book and our customer return rate has really soared. Both the customer communications and reward ideas were key in raising our page view and purchase rates. It's a great book for businesses with websites that aren't successful, or for anyone implementing a customer retention program online.

Remarkable light on the substance; disappointing purchase
I read a number of the reviews here and was quite excited to read this book when it came in the mail. Much to my chagrin, the material was very light and pretty much common sense. There were no great insights and a remarkable lack of specific examples. The author discusses her suggestions in generalities, but does not support those suggestions with specific examples forcing the reader to long for clarification on exactly what she is trying to recommend. All in all, a disappointing purchase. This book may have been great in 2000, but today is obsolete.

A great primer for Loyalty
I consult for clients in ebusiness strategy and one of my clients was interested in using a loyalty program to retain clients. With little time on my hands, I needed to become an expert on Loyalty and Ellen's book was the best primer I could find. As a resource, her book provides a great foundation for what loyalty is about, the theory, and the how-to-approach for building a loyalty program. I may be a quick study, but I credit Ellen's book with giving me the knowledge that I needed to be credible with the client in our first meeting. With all the confusion out there about loyalty, and the misperception that everyone has about loyalty=points program, I believe Ellen's is the right book to set you on the right path

The step by step manual to truly engender loyalty!
Ellen Reid-Smith has distilled everything you need to know and everything you need to do into a step-by-step manual for creating a website that will cause people to show up and then to keep coming back. The real key is that you must focus your efforts on Most Valuable Customers (MVCs) as these are the people who make your business profitable and pay the bills. Reid-Smith demonstrates with hundreds of excellent examples from her many years of first-hand experiences that companies who try to please everybody equally end up pleasing nobody completely. If you design your website to attract everyone and assume that your "great" service will keep them coming back, then, you don't have a prayer against your competition. As Reid-Smith points out, you MUST design with your MVCs in mind and focus on strategies that build "switching costs" that will keep you best customers with you and make it difficult for them to consider going to a competitor. This focus on MVCs will give your website a distinctive "personality" that will soon attract casual users to also become MVCs. The book is easy to read, but, is clearly quite deep on the details of what you need to do to go get it done. I applaud Ms. Reid-Smith for being the first to market with such a helpful blueprint for success fo content and commerce website developers!

Key to Survival
The key concept in the Darwinian model of evolution is that even small competitive advantages will, over time, determine the dominant traits overall.

What we are seeing in the "dot-com" world is a blindingly fast Darwinian process. The trouble is that due to its speed, it is difficult to differentiate why the winners are winning and the losers are losing. That is, unless you take into consideration the human side of the issues.

In her book, e-Loyalty, Ms. Reid Smith brings her many years of experience together with a sublime understanding of human relationships to make it clear that though the Web may be new, the principles that work to develop loyal customers are not.

The tools available are uncountable. The technologies have never been more powerful. The medium is mass-oriented. With Ellen as your guide, you will find clarity in solving your problems.

This is a must read for anyone who wishes to survive and thrive online. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

WOW!!
This is an incredible--and credible--fact based view of what's really going on in the economy. Mr. Osenton has clearly done his homework, and presents this fresh material in a very insightful and enjoyable read.
The best business book I have read since Peter's "In Search of Excellence" two deacdes ago.
Bravo!

A Remarkable Piece of Work
This book is not only a wonderful read and an impressive history of business during the second half of the 20th century, but it presents the most logical understanding as to why corporations, industries - the entire economy - is having such a difficult time growing. The irony that Osenton points out is that we are victims of our own success - pushing for more and more consumption - and getting it! - only to begin to approach levels of saturation. He points out that there are currently more than 32 million more registered vehicles in the United States than there are licensed drivers! Talk about surplus. For the first time ever, someone has explained WHY - beyond the simple explanation of greed - that corporations are cooking their books in order to make the numbers. It's because their respective top lines are lifeless, and they have squeezed every penny, every productivity gain they could out of the corporation. Death of Demand helped me completely understand why employees are paying for earnings growth with their jobs - jobs that are either being cut altogether or sent overseas. What a spectacular analysis of our current economic condition. Bravo! ... Read more

Book Description

Get answers to your legal questions — in plain English!

Find out how to protect your family, your money, your job, and your rights

If you're like most people, you probably don't know much about your legal rights and responsibilities — until you run smack-dab into a messy legal problem. Now revised and updated, this friendly guide helps you get a handle on a wide range of everyday legal issues, decipher legal mumbo-jumbo — and come out on top.

Discover how to:

• Protect your child support rights
• Arm yourself against identity theft
• Clean up your credit and improve your credit score
• Hire the right attorney for your needs
• Draw up wills and living wills

Reviews (1)

A Good Way to Start Learning About Law
This is one of the "how-to" books that are fun to read even if you are not faced with a situation which requires it.This well-written book covers a wide range of legal topics that an American citizen may face one of these days.Much emphasis is placed on things like maritalproblems, parenting problems, employment issues, consumer and creditproblems, etc.Needless to say it does NOT replace a good lawyer when thecase is complex, but the author actually encourages you to "take thelaw into your own hand" and shows you how you can solve a number ofeveryday legal difficulties without hiring a lawyer.

This book cannotclaim to be a complete guide to being your own lawyer or recognizing yourlegal rights or duties, but I found it a terrific first-step book to readabout our great legal system. ... Read more

Book Description

A European perspective of consumers' food choices. Essential reading for those involved in product development, market research and consumer science in food and agro industries and academic research in European countries. ... Read more

Book Description

A meticulously reported expose uncovers exactly how the drug industry boosts sales and bilks consumers in the most lucrative prescription drug market in the world.

As the pharmaceutical industry invests more and more in the development of new drugs, true breakthroughs are few and far between. Into the breach comes a panoply of product-line extensions and me-too drugs aimed at grabbing market share. The industry plows its high profits back into research, but invests an equal or greater sum in flogging its products in every imaginable venue. Research studies are designed to support marketing claims. Many doctors all over the country get their first information about new drugs from a salesperson. And, increasingly, prescription drugs are pitched to consumers on TV and the internet with images of hope, terror, or chic. Evidence-based practice guidelines, which endeavor to get the right medicines to those who will benefit most, can't be heard over the din.

Having created an unprecedented number of "megabrands"--blockbuster drugs with huge sales--and undergone an extraordinary wave of consolidation, some drug companies now find themselves in a precarious position. Patents are expiring on flagship products. In order to sustain the growth Wall Street has come to expect, these companies must produce billions of dollars worth of new revenue--fast. But can Americans continue to bankroll Operation Grow Big Pharma? Must we swallow the bad with the good? ... Read more

Reviews (5)

Very good read
This book is stringly recommended for anyone interested in this subject. A good site to explore is www.rxsanity.org

No easy answers or analysis ...
Not nearly the insightful analysis that is claims to be, it presents a lot of the practices of the pharmaceutical industry that deserve scrutiny, including its promotional practices and focus on drugs that treat chronic vs. acute conditions, because that is where the profits are. But it doesn't address the issues of high healthcare costs. Pharmaceutical profits represent such a small fraction of healthcare costs that even if they were eliminated, total costs would go down perhaps a few percentage points. We would still have out-of-control healthcare costs. And the book doesn't adequately address the profit motivation that is needed to support innovation and has always been the strength of this great country, nor does it adequately address the economics that support how often drugs save many more dollars in healthcare costs vs. their costs, or the fact that many drugs especially generics are available at much lower costs in the US than elsewhere. Drug firms have their issues, reforming their cost structures including drug R&D and other practices is necessary, but many of the roots of healthcare costs go well beyond drug firms, and unless the whole system is addressed, to pick on one seemingly dysfunctional part will do little.

Patients themselves contribute to the high-cost of healthcare by expecting free healthcare and not doing anything to take care of themselves preventively. How telling is it that many people take better care of their cars than than themselves (is this because no one else will fix our cars for free if we abuse them)? What I look at my personal experience, and how much better pharmaceuticals have made my life when I needed them, and how inexpensive they were, lifesaver is what I think, not rip-off.

Bottomline, if you want some insight into some practices that could be improved without enough context to the overall structural issues in healthcare, read on. But for a more balanced debate around what really has to be done to fix healthcare costs, dig deeper.

Sick, sick, sick
Did you know that when you or your insurance company plunk down big bucks for your Zocor or Zoloft or Zyrtec, you're paying nearly twice as much as the French and Italians and about a third again as much as the Swedes, Swiss, Germans and Canadians? What for? If you believe the pharmaceutical industry, the high price of your prescription is supporting research that could save your life. And so it does, but not nearly to the extent we've been led to believe. In fact, as you'll learn in this well documented new book, much of that research is done on your tax dollar by Uncle Sam, with the drug companies reaping the profits at little or no expense to themselves. Your drug dollars are also paying for 625 industry lobbyists--a contingent larger than Congress itself. You're also subsidizing anti-consumer legal battles, like the one against that Maine law designed to get competitive drug pricing for Medicaid and uninsured patients that was just upheld by the Supreme Court. And all those lawsuits to prevent or stall low-priced generics from getting onto the market after patents expire. And then there's the annual $2.6 billion in consumer advertising--a tenfold increase in just a decade, and all those free samples and other rewards to doctors. Is this how you want your hard-earned healthcare dollars spent? Do you really want the pharmaceutical industry setting America's drug policy? If not, what can you do about it? Reading this excellent book is a very good place to start.

Excellent discussion of prescription drug issues
Despite the inflamatory title, for which I deducted one star, this book is a compelling read. Whatever side of the drug prcing and access debate you are on, you can learn from Ms. Greider's review of the core issues. She makes the issues entirely understandable and it is actually a fascinating read.

What is clear is that the status quo will not stand. That is, the polical pressure and books like these will force the drug industry to either lower or slow down price increases. If not, then legislative action largely from states, will put a cap on prices through state pricing negotiations with drug companies. This book, despite the insulting title, should be read by all drug company executives. While I doubt it is a "big fix", I have no doubt aggressive drug marketing practices are not all pure and need some revisions soon.

cogent, revealing, compelling reading
If you've ever stood at the pharmacy counter and wondered why the prescriptions you've just picked up cost so much, this book has the answers. Big Pharma - the major drug companies - need to make big profits, and the author explains how they use the money you pay them. She does it without being sensational or shrill, instead calmly laying out the facts of direct-to-consumer advertising, pharma-sponsored conferences, pharma-sponsored research, vacations and coffee mugs and big consulting fees for doctors. I for one had no idea of the extent of their reach, and I find it shocking and enraging. Big Pharma virtually sets the health agenda, and after reading this book I have a clearer sense of how they do it. I hope our politicians pay heed, and start fixing this disaster. ... Read more

Book Description

Consumer Behaviour in Tourism takes a broad view of tourism and looks at consumer behaviour in a number of sectors including:-
* tour operation
* tourist destinations
* hospitality
* visitor attractions
* retail travel
* transport

The authors provide an international perspective on consumer behaviour in tourism through the use of numerous examples and case studies drawn from a range of different regions of the world; an exploration of national differences in consumer culture; the dissemination of research findings and concepts from a number of different regions of the world.

Each chapter features conclusions, discussion points and essay questions, and exercises, at the end, to help tutors direct student-centred learning and to allow the reader to check their understanding of what they have read.

Cases include: PGL; The segmentation of the outbound Japanese market; The Savoy Group of Hotels; Cathay Pacific Customer Questionnaire; First Choice Holidays; Carnival Cruise Lines; Wensleydale Creamery (UK); Societe Roquefort (France); British Airways Environmental Policy; TUI Germany Environmental Policy; Easyjet; Destination Marketing in Las Vegas, USA; Taiwan and the emergence of a new major outbound tourism market.

First european textbook on the subject
International examples and case studies
Interactive text with exercises and discussion points ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Good marketing book in specific segment
It is an useful book to look into the tourism market which is apotential yet challenging industry. It provides an insight to study the tourist industry in marketing perspectives.

This text offers an international perspective on consumer behaviour in tourism in a number of aspects including: tour operation; tourist destinations; hospitality; visitor attractions; retail travel and transport. Case studies are used from a range of different world regions.

It takes a broad view of tourism and looks at consumer behaviour in a number of sectors.
If you study in tourism or hospitality industry, this book can help you to get more leaning insight pinpoint to the marketing problems.

If you are looking for a book about marketing in Tourism industry, it is a book that you must put into your cart! ... Read more

Book Description

While women make up 52.1 percent of the U.S. population, they control two-thirds of the nation's disposable income. In Pocketbook Power noted marketing expert and bestselling author Bernice Kanner describes how female spending power has radically transformed the face of advertising and marketing over the past several decades. Combining compelling demographic and statistical information with eye-opening and entertaining "tales from the trenches," she explores how the ad world has responded to a female-dominated marketplace. Industry sector by industry sector, Kanner describes successful approaches that have been used to reach women consumers of apparel, financial services, health care, technology, and more.

• An entertaining and informative look at how today's women-dominated marketplace is shaking up the status quo on Madison Avenue
• Anatomizes some of the most successful (and unsuccessful) women-oriented campaigns of all times

Book Description

Designed for a two- or three-hour course, Consumer Law focuses on special rules for consumer transactions that supplement — by way of disclosure or regulation of agreement and practices — the contract, property and tort rules that also apply to the transaction. However, the coverage of special consumer rules that pre-empt the otherwise applicable commercial law rules, such as the holder in due course doctrine, is left to the relevant commercial law course with only brief mention to assure the preemptive rules are not ignored.

Miller, Harrell and Morgan have divided the material into three parts: pre-transactional protections, focusing on improper inducements — ranging from misleading advertising through unsolicited access devices — disclosure and fair evaluation; initial transaction protections, such as charge regulation and unconscionability, unfairness and bad faith; and later transaction protections, involving matters in closed-end transactions such as billing errors, limitations on default, the enforcement of liens and abusive collection efforts, and bankruptcy.

Both federal and state laws are covered in this casebook. Discussion on the federal level includes the Consumer Credit Protection Act, Federal Trade Commission statutes and regulations, and RESPA. Focus at the state level primarily is through uniform acts such as the Consumer Credit Code and Consumer Sales Practices Act. ... Read more