Product Description

This text is a pioneering work that looks into what people want and why, it blows traditional future planning theory and practice sky high, and replaces it with groundbreaking strategies that really work. Melinda Davis is also a fiction writer and winner of a Pushcart Prize.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #971122 in Books
• Published on: 2002-10-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 288 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Combining popular psychology with business acumen, consultant Melinda Davis presents a Faith Popcorn-like guide for businesspersons in The New Culture of Desire: 5 Radical New Strategies That Will Change Your Business and Your Life. Davis contends that Americans' desires have shifted in recent years, from the physical to the metaphysical. She explains ways businesspersons can tap into this shift and thus present consumers with products that truly suit their needs. The book is thus not only a manual for marketers who want to understand their audience, but also a revealing social study that will intrigue consumers and producers alike.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
There is an ever-proliferating number of trend prognosticators, futurists, and think tanks. Few if any can predict what will really happen. Nevertheless, take time to enjoy Davis' ideas, for this Harvard grad, novelist, and corporate consultant bases her five strategies for marketers on the search for bliss, pure and simple. After all, today's work and pleasure are defined primarily by knowledge; we interact via screens and remote videos, all balanced by a desire for the high touch, the human connection. Many statistics and current trends support her theory, including the growing demand for personal advocates, such as coaches, and the pursuit of altered states, whether it is in a spa or via cosmetics. Barbara Jacobs
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review
Charles Lazarus founder, Toys "R" Us Melinda creates a new geography of the human imagination that will not only help humankind navigate technology but also enable us to find our way around the inside of our own brains.

Customer Reviews

Good read.....
The author is a very good writer. She wrtites about emeging consumer trends. Although I am not sure how radical the ideas are and not sure it will change my life. Davis contends that Americans' desires have shifted in recent years, from the physical to the metaphysical. One other book I like that relate these ideas to what brand does is 60-Minute Brand Strategist by Idris Mootee. It covers quite of those metaphysical stuff.

Melinda Davis is the "Pied Piper" of our new age!!
A large part of the joy I derived from my recent "home for the holidays" visit involved setting up hotmail accounts and MSN messenger service for my parents while also explaining how google, CNN Breaking News alerts and fast web navigation would provide a quick fix to the gray area that surrounds their current needs, pleasures and wants. Fact is fact... our world is changing at warp speed and we either shuffle to simply keep up or shudder at the thought of getting in or online. The New Culture of Desire, written by Melinda Davis is a triumph for all those who seek the light of our new day and the truth of this dramatically powerful shift in our time and reality. Melinda, the "Pied Piper" of our new age, takes our hands and forges forward, both "tenderly" and "fearlessly" into the complexities of the world we once knew, in order to assure us that "there are no monsters under our beds at night", but we better damn well check just the same!! In a point-by-point tell tale, she examines our shifts from the physical to now imaginational world, reflects on our transition from "Prada" to "Prana" sensibilities and simultaneously unravels the mysteries of how we ought to survive in the midst of all this chaos, confusion and potential short circuitry. Melinda uses wit, rhyme and a poetic verse that is uniquely her own to admit that, yes... these are in fact "scary" and often confusing times, but Melinda also assures us that they are exciting, and we ought to be "in the know" both personally and professionally.

visionary, but overpowering
The deftness in which Melinda writes is encouraging. Her vision of our future seems to be on target and on the fore front. I thought she spent too much time making this a "self-help" book rather than a business tool. It wasn't until the tenth chapter that she actually explained how to apply her philosophies in the marketing of products. In addition, her fervent writing style began to weigh me down. She either has a great deal of enthusiasm or she's trying too hard to prove her point. The net net: I really enjoyed the book although it wasn't exactly what I expected.