Herd: How to Change Mass Behaviour by Harnessing Our True Nature

My book of the week is ‘Herd: How to Change Mass Behaviour by Harnessing Our True Nature‘ by Mark Earls, a highly original take on marketing, consumerism, and the way we are influenced by business (or not as it happens). This book turned out to be so compelling that I placed on hold my two other excellent holiday reads, Andrew Roberts’s ‘Masters and Commanders’ and ‘The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo’ by Stieg Larsson, in order to read it cover-to-cover in record time.

Earls’s theory is that rather than behaving always as rational and independent individuals, we are in fact much more influenced by those around us (family, friends, colleagues) than perhaps we realise. From his perspective as an expert marketeer, albeit one who displays a healthy scepticism of his own herd, Earls combines commentary on the works of social scientists such as Desmond ‘Naked Ape’ Morris et al with his own ideas (supported by plenty of examples) as to how businesses should really approach marketing and business management. At its heart is the contention that much as businesses would like to see their influence on potential customers as a straight line relationship: advertise, market, promote = sale, the reality is infinitely more complex and depends on much information, opinion, and recommendation flowing within informal networks around the potential customer only some of which will be directly influenced by the business itself.

You may not agree with all of the book’s conclusions, and from my own perspective it would have been good to have heard more about how to get the herd moving in favour of a nascent business like GazetMe, but it is without doubt one of the most original business books I have ever read. I recommend this book highly because it will make you think. I’ll be seeking to get the herd moving myself and will report further on this as I go.