EXCELLENT HISTORY OF ADVERTISING, 09 Nov 2008
This that rarest of books, one that educates and informs whilst being entertaining. Fletcher's wit and wisdom are not to be missed. His encyclopaedic knowledge and extensive personal experience of advertising mean that both the student and the general reader will be very pleased with their purchase whether for themselves or as a gift.

A must-read for all 'adlanders' and wannabes, 26 Jul 2008
It's not often that I read a business book cover-to-cover and in just a few days, and Winston Fletcher's 'Powers of Persuasion' is a rare pleasure as one of those. Although it is a history it's anything but dry, and that's because the author was one of the insiders as an agency owner, President of the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising and Chairman of the Advertising Association. So he brings to the narrative not only his personal knowledge and copious research, but also his own insights and observations - occasionally barbed, but that only adds to the enjoyment! The phrase 'must read' is an over-used one, but that shouldn't prevent it being employed when truly deserved, as in this case. Anyone already working in an agency or aspiring to do so, should buy this book, and the marketing and procurement professionals who are the clients of agencies will find it a rewarding read too.

Much more than a history, 14 Jul 2008
This is so much more than a history of advertising- though it is a very good history.Students will appreciate the way Fletcher captures the colour and flavour of the industry whilst advertising insiders will revel in reading about their strange genetic roots.A right riveting read.

Refreshing the parts..., 13 Jul 2008
You couldn't make it up, as they say. A chippy adman tries to buy a high street bank; a supermarket trolley maker becomes one of the world's biggest ad agency groups and a bunch of chimps sells all the tea in China. Winston Fletcher, one of British advertising's most astute practitioners and observers didn't need to make it up because the true story of British advertising is as colourful, quirky and thrilling as some of its most famous advertisements. Fletcher tells the tale with fine attention to detail and an insider's knowledge of many of the larger than life characters who led the ad industry in the late 20th century and early 21st. The meteoric growth of Saatchi and Saatchi through the 1970s and 80s is perhaps the most astonishing strand in the story. The agency's trauma at losing its founders and their re-emergence as the highly successful M&C Saatchi is the stuff of TV melodrama. Fletcher's touch is pacy and humourous but his message is serious. Amidst all the high drama, British advertising for many decades led the world in creative flair and proven effectiveness. It is to be hoped it will continue to do so without being bled to death by unwarranted and unworkable government intervention.

EXCELLENT HISTORY OF ADVERTISING, 09 Nov 2008
This that rarest of books, one that educates and informs whilst being entertaining. Fletcher's wit and wisdom are not to be missed. His encyclopaedic knowledge and extensive personal experience of advertising mean that both the student and the general reader will be very pleased with their purchase whether for themselves or as a gift.

A must-read for all 'adlanders' and wannabes, 26 Jul 2008
It's not often that I read a business book cover-to-cover and in just a few days, and Winston Fletcher's 'Powers of Persuasion' is a rare pleasure as one of those. Although it is a history it's anything but dry, and that's because the author was one of the insiders as an agency owner, President of the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising and Chairman of the Advertising Association. So he brings to the narrative not only his personal knowledge and copious research, but also his own insights and observations - occasionally barbed, but that only adds to the enjoyment! The phrase 'must read' is an over-used one, but that shouldn't prevent it being employed when truly deserved, as in this case. Anyone already working in an agency or aspiring to do so, should buy this book, and the marketing and procurement professionals who are the clients of agencies will find it a rewarding read too.

Much more than a history, 14 Jul 2008
This is so much more than a history of advertising- though it is a very good history.Students will appreciate the way Fletcher captures the colour and flavour of the industry whilst advertising insiders will revel in reading about their strange genetic roots.A right riveting read.

Refreshing the parts..., 13 Jul 2008
You couldn't make it up, as they say. A chippy adman tries to buy a high street bank; a supermarket trolley maker becomes one of the world's biggest ad agency groups and a bunch of chimps sells all the tea in China. Winston Fletcher, one of British advertising's most astute practitioners and observers didn't need to make it up because the true story of British advertising is as colourful, quirky and thrilling as some of its most famous advertisements. Fletcher tells the tale with fine attention to detail and an insider's knowledge of many of the larger than life characters who led the ad industry in the late 20th century and early 21st. The meteoric growth of Saatchi and Saatchi through the 1970s and 80s is perhaps the most astonishing strand in the story. The agency's trauma at losing its founders and their re-emergence as the highly successful M&C Saatchi is the stuff of TV melodrama. Fletcher's touch is pacy and humourous but his message is serious. Amidst all the high drama, British advertising for many decades led the world in creative flair and proven effectiveness. It is to be hoped it will continue to do so without being bled to death by unwarranted and unworkable government intervention.

Finally a real Global/international marketinga book, 13 Oct 2008
Finally I found a real global marketing book. This book has a much better global focus than most American books that are so clearly American. The Danish author Hollensen, manages to give this popular subject a fresh feel unlike so many of the books issued lately.
Kudos to you Mr.Hollensen.

Global Marketing: A Decision Oriented Approach, 24 Aug 2005
This is an excellent book. Having read management and marketing literature for 30 years I was surprised to find a new book, written in a fresh and easily-digested manner, which contained so many new ideas.

EXCELLENT HISTORY OF ADVERTISING, 09 Nov 2008
This that rarest of books, one that educates and informs whilst being entertaining. Fletcher's wit and wisdom are not to be missed. His encyclopaedic knowledge and extensive personal experience of advertising mean that both the student and the general reader will be very pleased with their purchase whether for themselves or as a gift.

A must-read for all 'adlanders' and wannabes, 26 Jul 2008
It's not often that I read a business book cover-to-cover and in just a few days, and Winston Fletcher's 'Powers of Persuasion' is a rare pleasure as one of those. Although it is a history it's anything but dry, and that's because the author was one of the insiders as an agency owner, President of the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising and Chairman of the Advertising Association. So he brings to the narrative not only his personal knowledge and copious research, but also his own insights and observations - occasionally barbed, but that only adds to the enjoyment! The phrase 'must read' is an over-used one, but that shouldn't prevent it being employed when truly deserved, as in this case. Anyone already working in an agency or aspiring to do so, should buy this book, and the marketing and procurement professionals who are the clients of agencies will find it a rewarding read too.

Much more than a history, 14 Jul 2008
This is so much more than a history of advertising- though it is a very good history.Students will appreciate the way Fletcher captures the colour and flavour of the industry whilst advertising insiders will revel in reading about their strange genetic roots.A right riveting read.

Refreshing the parts..., 13 Jul 2008
You couldn't make it up, as they say. A chippy adman tries to buy a high street bank; a supermarket trolley maker becomes one of the world's biggest ad agency groups and a bunch of chimps sells all the tea in China. Winston Fletcher, one of British advertising's most astute practitioners and observers didn't need to make it up because the true story of British advertising is as colourful, quirky and thrilling as some of its most famous advertisements. Fletcher tells the tale with fine attention to detail and an insider's knowledge of many of the larger than life characters who led the ad industry in the late 20th century and early 21st. The meteoric growth of Saatchi and Saatchi through the 1970s and 80s is perhaps the most astonishing strand in the story. The agency's trauma at losing its founders and their re-emergence as the highly successful M&C Saatchi is the stuff of TV melodrama. Fletcher's touch is pacy and humourous but his message is serious. Amidst all the high drama, British advertising for many decades led the world in creative flair and proven effectiveness. It is to be hoped it will continue to do so without being bled to death by unwarranted and unworkable government intervention.

Finally a real Global/international marketinga book, 13 Oct 2008
Finally I found a real global marketing book. This book has a much better global focus than most American books that are so clearly American. The Danish author Hollensen, manages to give this popular subject a fresh feel unlike so many of the books issued lately.
Kudos to you Mr.Hollensen.

Global Marketing: A Decision Oriented Approach, 24 Aug 2005
This is an excellent book. Having read management and marketing literature for 30 years I was surprised to find a new book, written in a fresh and easily-digested manner, which contained so many new ideas.

A refreshing and insightful account of the key issues in the globalisation debate, 02 Oct 2006
Pietra Rivoli's book offers a highly engaging and enlightening perspective on the key elements of the globalisation debate. Through a novel narrative - focussed on the journey of a single product (a t-shirt) through the global economy - Dr. Rivoli brings the current state of world trade and the attendant debates into sharp and human perspective. Once I picked up the book, I couldn't put it down.

The premise of the book is - in the author's own words - to "tell a story" of a simple t-shirt, from cotton-field to compost-heap, and in so doing to illustrate that at almost no stage in the t-shirt's life does it come into contact with really competitive markets. Dr. Rivoli traces the journey of her t-shirt with particular emphasis on the original cotton-farmers in Texas, the factory in China where the t-shirt was made, and the t-shirt's `afterlife' once it has been donated to a charity shop. Interspersed with the narrative brief histories of US trade policy, the global cotton-industry and Chinese cotton production.

Each step in the t-shirt's journey is enlightening. For example, we see how the US cotton industry, which has portrayed itself as a hapless victim of rampant globalisation, has in fact doubled in size since 1970 (with job losses being caused by improved production processes rather than foreign competition). Similarly, we are told how trade policies intended to protect the British woollen industry from foreign cotton in the 18th century actually stimulated entrepreneurial innovation (i.e., Schumpeter's `creative destruction') which led to cotton products being manufactured in the UK, thus sparking the industrial revolution. Dr. Rivioli is sanguine about the current state of world trade, lamenting the lack of genuinely competitive markets in the global economy. There is one rather ironic twist - once clothing is donated to a charity shop, it enters an incredibly fluid and well-functioning market, whereby it is sorted either sent to Africa for sale to discerning consumers, or turned into rags for use in factories. In this final stage, prices adjust quickly, all the players have good information, and in many countries there are virtually no trade barriers.

Throughout the book I was struck by the very human perspective Dr. Rivoli brings to a topic where writers often wallow in their own abstraction. The pen portraits of angry cotton-farmers, desperate lobbyists, hopeful factory workers and wily second-hand clothing traders serve both to make the book enjoyable to read and to reinforce one of its underlying messages - that reducing the debate to simple, stylized positions is unhelpful, and distracts us form the nuance and texture of reality.

The Travels of a T-shirt in the Global Economy is delightfully compelling to read, and has something to offer all readers - the generalist will find it an incredibly accessible, balanced and insightful account of globalisation, and the specialist will find a new and refreshing perspective on a well-rehearsed topic.


Completely fascinating, 10 Sep 2006
I picked this up due to wanting to learn more about the field of political economy without going to a textbook. Well, I got the perfect book. Although I didn't agree with every point Pietra Rivoli made, I found her book to be completely and refreshingly balanced, with none of the pro- or anti- free trade rhetoric you usually come across. The writing style is informal enough to be readable without being patronising, and detailed enough to be informative without feeling like you are being whacked over the head with a big book of graphs. What I appreciated the book most for was the way the author goes behind common myths and assumptions about global trade and shows a different side to the story. It's also a wide-ranging book including travels in America, China, Africa and even including musings on England and the industrial revolution.

Complaints? Well I had a nagging discomfort over the almost complete lack of discussion of environmental factors in global cotton trade (use of pesticides, effects of transporting cotton countless times across the globe etc) - maybe that would have made the book very different, and I guess you do have to focus your debate, but in these times of climate change it would have been good to see SOME recognition of such things - given that Rivoli's recognition of the other effects of global cotton trade was so extremely wide ranging.

Anyway, overall, I learned a lot - if only all academics could write books as readable as this. :)

READ THIS BOOK, 08 Jul 2005
I picked up this book at random in the airport and I so glad that I did. It really is the best business and econ book I have read in a long time. The story is very engaging and moves right along, but more important than that, the economic and business insights -- as well as the analysis -- are of very high quality. the author is not polemic on one side or the other of current debates, and folks from all points of view have much to learn from the book. If you are interested in international business and economics I highly recommend this book. It will get you thinking!

EXCELLENT HISTORY OF ADVERTISING, 09 Nov 2008
This that rarest of books, one that educates and informs whilst being entertaining. Fletcher's wit and wisdom are not to be missed. His encyclopaedic knowledge and extensive personal experience of advertising mean that both the student and the general reader will be very pleased with their purchase whether for themselves or as a gift.

A must-read for all 'adlanders' and wannabes, 26 Jul 2008
It's not often that I read a business book cover-to-cover and in just a few days, and Winston Fletcher's 'Powers of Persuasion' is a rare pleasure as one of those. Although it is a history it's anything but dry, and that's because the author was one of the insiders as an agency owner, President of the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising and Chairman of the Advertising Association. So he brings to the narrative not only his personal knowledge and copious research, but also his own insights and observations - occasionally barbed, but that only adds to the enjoyment! The phrase 'must read' is an over-used one, but that shouldn't prevent it being employed when truly deserved, as in this case. Anyone already working in an agency or aspiring to do so, should buy this book, and the marketing and procurement professionals who are the clients of agencies will find it a rewarding read too.

Much more than a history, 14 Jul 2008
This is so much more than a history of advertising- though it is a very good history.Students will appreciate the way Fletcher captures the colour and flavour of the industry whilst advertising insiders will revel in reading about their strange genetic roots.A right riveting read.

Refreshing the parts..., 13 Jul 2008
You couldn't make it up, as they say. A chippy adman tries to buy a high street bank; a supermarket trolley maker becomes one of the world's biggest ad agency groups and a bunch of chimps sells all the tea in China. Winston Fletcher, one of British advertising's most astute practitioners and observers didn't need to make it up because the true story of British advertising is as colourful, quirky and thrilling as some of its most famous advertisements. Fletcher tells the tale with fine attention to detail and an insider's knowledge of many of the larger than life characters who led the ad industry in the late 20th century and early 21st. The meteoric growth of Saatchi and Saatchi through the 1970s and 80s is perhaps the most astonishing strand in the story. The agency's trauma at losing its founders and their re-emergence as the highly successful M&C Saatchi is the stuff of TV melodrama. Fletcher's touch is pacy and humourous but his message is serious. Amidst all the high drama, British advertising for many decades led the world in creative flair and proven effectiveness. It is to be hoped it will continue to do so without being bled to death by unwarranted and unworkable government intervention.

Finally a real Global/international marketinga book, 13 Oct 2008
Finally I found a real global marketing book. This book has a much better global focus than most American books that are so clearly American. The Danish author Hollensen, manages to give this popular subject a fresh feel unlike so many of the books issued lately.
Kudos to you Mr.Hollensen.

Global Marketing: A Decision Oriented Approach, 24 Aug 2005
This is an excellent book. Having read management and marketing literature for 30 years I was surprised to find a new book, written in a fresh and easily-digested manner, which contained so many new ideas.

A refreshing and insightful account of the key issues in the globalisation debate, 02 Oct 2006
Pietra Rivoli's book offers a highly engaging and enlightening perspective on the key elements of the globalisation debate. Through a novel narrative - focussed on the journey of a single product (a t-shirt) through the global economy - Dr. Rivoli brings the current state of world trade and the attendant debates into sharp and human perspective. Once I picked up the book, I couldn't put it down.

The premise of the book is - in the author's own words - to "tell a story" of a simple t-shirt, from cotton-field to compost-heap, and in so doing to illustrate that at almost no stage in the t-shirt's life does it come into contact with really competitive markets. Dr. Rivoli traces the journey of her t-shirt with particular emphasis on the original cotton-farmers in Texas, the factory in China where the t-shirt was made, and the t-shirt's `afterlife' once it has been donated to a charity shop. Interspersed with the narrative brief histories of US trade policy, the global cotton-industry and Chinese cotton production.

Each step in the t-shirt's journey is enlightening. For example, we see how the US cotton industry, which has portrayed itself as a hapless victim of rampant globalisation, has in fact doubled in size since 1970 (with job losses being caused by improved production processes rather than foreign competition). Similarly, we are told how trade policies intended to protect the British woollen industry from foreign cotton in the 18th century actually stimulated entrepreneurial innovation (i.e., Schumpeter's `creative destruction') which led to cotton products being manufactured in the UK, thus sparking the industrial revolution. Dr. Rivioli is sanguine about the current state of world trade, lamenting the lack of genuinely competitive markets in the global economy. There is one rather ironic twist - once clothing is donated to a charity shop, it enters an incredibly fluid and well-functioning market, whereby it is sorted either sent to Africa for sale to discerning consumers, or turned into rags for use in factories. In this final stage, prices adjust quickly, all the players have good information, and in many countries there are virtually no trade barriers.

Throughout the book I was struck by the very human perspective Dr. Rivoli brings to a topic where writers often wallow in their own abstraction. The pen portraits of angry cotton-farmers, desperate lobbyists, hopeful factory workers and wily second-hand clothing traders serve both to make the book enjoyable to read and to reinforce one of its underlying messages - that reducing the debate to simple, stylized positions is unhelpful, and distracts us form the nuance and texture of reality.

The Travels of a T-shirt in the Global Economy is delightfully compelling to read, and has something to offer all readers - the generalist will find it an incredibly accessible, balanced and insightful account of globalisation, and the specialist will find a new and refreshing perspective on a well-rehearsed topic.


Completely fascinating, 10 Sep 2006
I picked this up due to wanting to learn more about the field of political economy without going to a textbook. Well, I got the perfect book. Although I didn't agree with every point Pietra Rivoli made, I found her book to be completely and refreshingly balanced, with none of the pro- or anti- free trade rhetoric you usually come across. The writing style is informal enough to be readable without being patronising, and detailed enough to be informative without feeling like you are being whacked over the head with a big book of graphs. What I appreciated the book most for was the way the author goes behind common myths and assumptions about global trade and shows a different side to the story. It's also a wide-ranging book including travels in America, China, Africa and even including musings on England and the industrial revolution.

Complaints? Well I had a nagging discomfort over the almost complete lack of discussion of environmental factors in global cotton trade (use of pesticides, effects of transporting cotton countless times across the globe etc) - maybe that would have made the book very different, and I guess you do have to focus your debate, but in these times of climate change it would have been good to see SOME recognition of such things - given that Rivoli's recognition of the other effects of global cotton trade was so extremely wide ranging.

Anyway, overall, I learned a lot - if only all academics could write books as readable as this. :)

READ THIS BOOK, 08 Jul 2005
I picked up this book at random in the airport and I so glad that I did. It really is the best business and econ book I have read in a long time. The story is very engaging and moves right along, but more important than that, the economic and business insights -- as well as the analysis -- are of very high quality. the author is not polemic on one side or the other of current debates, and folks from all points of view have much to learn from the book. If you are interested in international business and economics I highly recommend this book. It will get you thinking!

A terrific account, 14 Jun 2005
This book will change the way you view your breakfast cereal for ever! Never again will you chew your morning banana without questioning whether your really should have poured sugary yoghurt all over it! Seriously, this is a very useful account of the major fault-lines in contemporary food and health thinking. The absurdities of the food supply chain are laid bare. Food wars proposes that two emerging paradigms are now competing for which is to replace the mid-20th century paradigm that argued that public health and well-being would automatically follow from increasing food production.

EXCELLENT HISTORY OF ADVERTISING, 09 Nov 2008
This that rarest of books, one that educates and informs whilst being entertaining. Fletcher's wit and wisdom are not to be missed. His encyclopaedic knowledge and extensive personal experience of advertising mean that both the student and the general reader will be very pleased with their purchase whether for themselves or as a gift.

A must-read for all 'adlanders' and wannabes, 26 Jul 2008
It's not often that I read a business book cover-to-cover and in just a few days, and Winston Fletcher's 'Powers of Persuasion' is a rare pleasure as one of those. Although it is a history it's anything but dry, and that's because the author was one of the insiders as an agency owner, President of the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising and Chairman of the Advertising Association. So he brings to the narrative not only his personal knowledge and copious research, but also his own insights and observations - occasionally barbed, but that only adds to the enjoyment! The phrase 'must read' is an over-used one, but that shouldn't prevent it being employed when truly deserved, as in this case. Anyone already working in an agency or aspiring to do so, should buy this book, and the marketing and procurement professionals who are the clients of agencies will find it a rewarding read too.

Much more than a history, 14 Jul 2008
This is so much more than a history of advertising- though it is a very good history.Students will appreciate the way Fletcher captures the colour and flavour of the industry whilst advertising insiders will revel in reading about their strange genetic roots.A right riveting read.

Refreshing the parts..., 13 Jul 2008
You couldn't make it up, as they say. A chippy adman tries to buy a high street bank; a supermarket trolley maker becomes one of the world's biggest ad agency groups and a bunch of chimps sells all the tea in China. Winston Fletcher, one of British advertising's most astute practitioners and observers didn't need to make it up because the true story of British advertising is as colourful, quirky and thrilling as some of its most famous advertisements. Fletcher tells the tale with fine attention to detail and an insider's knowledge of many of the larger than life characters who led the ad industry in the late 20th century and early 21st. The meteoric growth of Saatchi and Saatchi through the 1970s and 80s is perhaps the most astonishing strand in the story. The agency's trauma at losing its founders and their re-emergence as the highly successful M&C Saatchi is the stuff of TV melodrama. Fletcher's touch is pacy and humourous but his message is serious. Amidst all the high drama, British advertising for many decades led the world in creative flair and proven effectiveness. It is to be hoped it will continue to do so without being bled to death by unwarranted and unworkable government intervention.

Finally a real Global/international marketinga book, 13 Oct 2008
Finally I found a real global marketing book. This book has a much better global focus than most American books that are so clearly American. The Danish author Hollensen, manages to give this popular subject a fresh feel unlike so many of the books issued lately.
Kudos to you Mr.Hollensen.

Global Marketing: A Decision Oriented Approach, 24 Aug 2005
This is an excellent book. Having read management and marketing literature for 30 years I was surprised to find a new book, written in a fresh and easily-digested manner, which contained so many new ideas.

A refreshing and insightful account of the key issues in the globalisation debate, 02 Oct 2006
Pietra Rivoli's book offers a highly engaging and enlightening perspective on the key elements of the globalisation debate. Through a novel narrative - focussed on the journey of a single product (a t-shirt) through the global economy - Dr. Rivoli brings the current state of world trade and the attendant debates into sharp and human perspective. Once I picked up the book, I couldn't put it down.

The premise of the book is - in the author's own words - to "tell a story" of a simple t-shirt, from cotton-field to compost-heap, and in so doing to illustrate that at almost no stage in the t-shirt's life does it come into contact with really competitive markets. Dr. Rivoli traces the journey of her t-shirt with particular emphasis on the original cotton-farmers in Texas, the factory in China where the t-shirt was made, and the t-shirt's `afterlife' once it has been donated to a charity shop. Interspersed with the narrative brief histories of US trade policy, the global cotton-industry and Chinese cotton production.

Each step in the t-shirt's journey is enlightening. For example, we see how the US cotton industry, which has portrayed itself as a hapless victim of rampant globalisation, has in fact doubled in size since 1970 (with job losses being caused by improved production processes rather than foreign competition). Similarly, we are told how trade policies intended to protect the British woollen industry from foreign cotton in the 18th century actually stimulated entrepreneurial innovation (i.e., Schumpeter's `creative destruction') which led to cotton products being manufactured in the UK, thus sparking the industrial revolution. Dr. Rivioli is sanguine about the current state of world trade, lamenting the lack of genuinely competitive markets in the global economy. There is one rather ironic twist - once clothing is donated to a charity shop, it enters an incredibly fluid and well-functioning market, whereby it is sorted either sent to Africa for sale to discerning consumers, or turned into rags for use in factories. In this final stage, prices adjust quickly, all the players have good information, and in many countries there are virtually no trade barriers.

Throughout the book I was struck by the very human perspective Dr. Rivoli brings to a topic where writers often wallow in their own abstraction. The pen portraits of angry cotton-farmers, desperate lobbyists, hopeful factory workers and wily second-hand clothing traders serve both to make the book enjoyable to read and to reinforce one of its underlying messages - that reducing the debate to simple, stylized positions is unhelpful, and distracts us form the nuance and texture of reality.

The Travels of a T-shirt in the Global Economy is delightfully compelling to read, and has something to offer all readers - the generalist will find it an incredibly accessible, balanced and insightful account of globalisation, and the specialist will find a new and refreshing perspective on a well-rehearsed topic.


Completely fascinating, 10 Sep 2006
I picked this up due to wanting to learn more about the field of political economy without going to a textbook. Well, I got the perfect book. Although I didn't agree with every point Pietra Rivoli made, I found her book to be completely and refreshingly balanced, with none of the pro- or anti- free trade rhetoric you usually come across. The writing style is informal enough to be readable without being patronising, and detailed enough to be informative without feeling like you are being whacked over the head with a big book of graphs. What I appreciated the book most for was the way the author goes behind common myths and assumptions about global trade and shows a different side to the story. It's also a wide-ranging book including travels in America, China, Africa and even including musings on England and the industrial revolution.

Complaints? Well I had a nagging discomfort over the almost complete lack of discussion of environmental factors in global cotton trade (use of pesticides, effects of transporting cotton countless times across the globe etc) - maybe that would have made the book very different, and I guess you do have to focus your debate, but in these times of climate change it would have been good to see SOME recognition of such things - given that Rivoli's recognition of the other effects of global cotton trade was so extremely wide ranging.

Anyway, overall, I learned a lot - if only all academics could write books as readable as this. :)

READ THIS BOOK, 08 Jul 2005
I picked up this book at random in the airport and I so glad that I did. It really is the best business and econ book I have read in a long time. The story is very engaging and moves right along, but more important than that, the economic and business insights -- as well as the analysis -- are of very high quality. the author is not polemic on one side or the other of current debates, and folks from all points of view have much to learn from the book. If you are interested in international business and economics I highly recommend this book. It will get you thinking!

A terrific account, 14 Jun 2005
This book will change the way you view your breakfast cereal for ever! Never again will you chew your morning banana without questioning whether your really should have poured sugary yoghurt all over it! Seriously, this is a very useful account of the major fault-lines in contemporary food and health thinking. The absurdities of the food supply chain are laid bare. Food wars proposes that two emerging paradigms are now competing for which is to replace the mid-20th century paradigm that argued that public health and well-being would automatically follow from increasing food production.

Excellent community/economic development primer, 07 Jan 1999
Kotler, et al have defined the marriage between the public and private sectors in terms that make sense to both partners. While the implication that the private sector tends to get it right most of the time signals a weakness that haunts the writings of Harvard's Michael Porter("Competitive Advantage of Inner Cities"), the fundamental notions contained in this work seem sound.

Students of city planning, urban affairs, etc., might conclude that the emerging field of hotel, motel, and resort management may offer a more relevant practical model of city management than the current curriculums offer. When it's all said and done what's the significant difference between managing a city and managing a total service resort? As the politics of citys, space, become more rationalized in the larger systems of global markets and international trade, local decision making is increasingly becoming influenced by the factors that Kotler, et al raise in their book.

It's no surprise that my friends in the private sector find "place marketing" the newest fad in the consulting field. In truth, I've been pleased to see the social planners and business planners find common ground in the models and ideas that Kotler, Porter, et al have managed to present.

EXCELLENT HISTORY OF ADVERTISING, 09 Nov 2008
This that rarest of books, one that educates and informs whilst being entertaining. Fletcher's wit and wisdom are not to be missed. His encyclopaedic knowledge and extensive personal experience of advertising mean that both the student and the general reader will be very pleased with their purchase whether for themselves or as a gift.

A must-read for all 'adlanders' and wannabes, 26 Jul 2008
It's not often that I read a business book cover-to-cover and in just a few days, and Winston Fletcher's 'Powers of Persuasion' is a rare pleasure as one of those. Although it is a history it's anything but dry, and that's because the author was one of the insiders as an agency owner, President of the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising and Chairman of the Advertising Association. So he brings to the narrative not only his personal knowledge and copious research, but also his own insights and observations - occasionally barbed, but that only adds to the enjoyment! The phrase 'must read' is an over-used one, but that shouldn't prevent it being employed when truly deserved, as in this case. Anyone already working in an agency or aspiring to do so, should buy this book, and the marketing and procurement professionals who are the clients of agencies will find it a rewarding read too.

Much more than a history, 14 Jul 2008
This is so much more than a history of advertising- though it is a very good history.Students will appreciate the way Fletcher captures the colour and flavour of the industry whilst advertising insiders will revel in reading about their strange genetic roots.A right riveting read.

Refreshing the parts..., 13 Jul 2008
You couldn't make it up, as they say. A chippy adman tries to buy a high street bank; a supermarket trolley maker becomes one of the world's biggest ad agency groups and a bunch of chimps sells all the tea in China. Winston Fletcher, one of British advertising's most astute practitioners and observers didn't need to make it up because the true story of British advertising is as colourful, quirky and thrilling as some of its most famous advertisements. Fletcher tells the tale with fine attention to detail and an insider's knowledge of many of the larger than life characters who led the ad industry in the late 20th century and early 21st. The meteoric growth of Saatchi and Saatchi through the 1970s and 80s is perhaps the most astonishing strand in the story. The agency's trauma at losing its founders and their re-emergence as the highly successful M&C Saatchi is the stuff of TV melodrama. Fletcher's touch is pacy and humourous but his message is serious. Amidst all the high drama, British advertising for many decades led the world in creative flair and proven effectiveness. It is to be hoped it will continue to do so without being bled to death by unwarranted and unworkable government intervention.

Finally a real Global/international marketinga book, 13 Oct 2008
Finally I found a real global marketing book. This book has a much better global focus than most American books that are so clearly American. The Danish author Hollensen, manages to give this popular subject a fresh feel unlike so many of the books issued lately.
Kudos to you Mr.Hollensen.

Global Marketing: A Decision Oriented Approach, 24 Aug 2005
This is an excellent book. Having read management and marketing literature for 30 years I was surprised to find a new book, written in a fresh and easily-digested manner, which contained so many new ideas.

A refreshing and insightful account of the key issues in the globalisation debate, 02 Oct 2006
Pietra Rivoli's book offers a highly engaging and enlightening perspective on the key elements of the globalisation debate. Through a novel narrative - focussed on the journey of a single product (a t-shirt) through the global economy - Dr. Rivoli brings the current state of world trade and the attendant debates into sharp and human perspective. Once I picked up the book, I couldn't put it down.

The premise of the book is - in the author's own words - to "tell a story" of a simple t-shirt, from cotton-field to compost-heap, and in so doing to illustrate that at almost no stage in the t-shirt's life does it come into contact with really competitive markets. Dr. Rivoli traces the journey of her t-shirt with particular emphasis on the original cotton-farmers in Texas, the factory in China where the t-shirt was made, and the t-shirt's `afterlife' once it has been donated to a charity shop. Interspersed with the narrative brief histories of US trade policy, the global cotton-industry and Chinese cotton production.

Each step in the t-shirt's journey is enlightening. For example, we see how the US cotton industry, which has portrayed itself as a hapless victim of rampant globalisation, has in fact doubled in size since 1970 (with job losses being caused by improved production processes rather than foreign competition). Similarly, we are told how trade policies intended to protect the British woollen industry from foreign cotton in the 18th century actually stimulated entrepreneurial innovation (i.e., Schumpeter's `creative destruction') which led to cotton products being manufactured in the UK, thus sparking the industrial revolution. Dr. Rivioli is sanguine about the current state of world trade, lamenting the lack of genuinely competitive markets in the global economy. There is one rather ironic twist - once clothing is donated to a charity shop, it enters an incredibly fluid and well-functioning market, whereby it is sorted either sent to Africa for sale to discerning consumers, or turned into rags for use in factories. In this final stage, prices adjust quickly, all the players have good information, and in many countries there are virtually no trade barriers.

Throughout the book I was struck by the very human perspective Dr. Rivoli brings to a topic where writers often wallow in their own abstraction. The pen portraits of angry cotton-farmers, desperate lobbyists, hopeful factory workers and wily second-hand clothing traders serve both to make the book enjoyable to read and to reinforce one of its underlying messages - that reducing the debate to simple, stylized positions is unhelpful, and distracts us form the nuance and texture of reality.

The Travels of a T-shirt in the Global Economy is delightfully compelling to read, and has something to offer all readers - the generalist will find it an incredibly accessible, balanced and insightful account of globalisation, and the specialist will find a new and refreshing perspective on a well-rehearsed topic.


Completely fascinating, 10 Sep 2006
I picked this up due to wanting to learn more about the field of political economy without going to a textbook. Well, I got the perfect book. Although I didn't agree with every point Pietra Rivoli made, I found her book to be completely and refreshingly balanced, with none of the pro- or anti- free trade rhetoric you usually come across. The writing style is informal enough to be readable without being patronising, and detailed enough to be informative without feeling like you are being whacked over the head with a big book of graphs. What I appreciated the book most for was the way the author goes behind common myths and assumptions about global trade and shows a different side to the story. It's also a wide-ranging book including travels in America, China, Africa and even including musings on England and the industrial revolution.

Complaints? Well I had a nagging discomfort over the almost complete lack of discussion of environmental factors in global cotton trade (use of pesticides, effects of transporting cotton countless times across the globe etc) - maybe that would have made the book very different, and I guess you do have to focus your debate, but in these times of climate change it would have been good to see SOME recognition of such things - given that Rivoli's recognition of the other effects of global cotton trade was so extremely wide ranging.

Anyway, overall, I learned a lot - if only all academics could write books as readable as this. :)

READ THIS BOOK, 08 Jul 2005
I picked up this book at random in the airport and I so glad that I did. It really is the best business and econ book I have read in a long time. The story is very engaging and moves right along, but more important than that, the economic and business insights -- as well as the analysis -- are of very high quality. the author is not polemic on one side or the other of current debates, and folks from all points of view have much to learn from the book. If you are interested in international business and economics I highly recommend this book. It will get you thinking!

A terrific account, 14 Jun 2005
This book will change the way you view your breakfast cereal for ever! Never again will you chew your morning banana without questioning whether your really should have poured sugary yoghurt all over it! Seriously, this is a very useful account of the major fault-lines in contemporary food and health thinking. The absurdities of the food supply chain are laid bare. Food wars proposes that two emerging paradigms are now competing for which is to replace the mid-20th century paradigm that argued that public health and well-being would automatically follow from increasing food production.

Excellent community/economic development primer, 07 Jan 1999
Kotler, et al have defined the marriage between the public and private sectors in terms that make sense to both partners. While the implication that the private sector tends to get it right most of the time signals a weakness that haunts the writings of Harvard's Michael Porter("Competitive Advantage of Inner Cities"), the fundamental notions contained in this work seem sound.

Students of city planning, urban affairs, etc., might conclude that the emerging field of hotel, motel, and resort management may offer a more relevant practical model of city management than the current curriculums offer. When it's all said and done what's the significant difference between managing a city and managing a total service resort? As the politics of citys, space, become more rationalized in the larger systems of global markets and international trade, local decision making is increasingly becoming influenced by the factors that Kotler, et al raise in their book.

It's no surprise that my friends in the private sector find "place marketing" the newest fad in the consulting field. In truth, I've been pleased to see the social planners and business planners find common ground in the models and ideas that Kotler, Porter, et al have managed to present.

An absolute cast-iron must-read, 09 Nov 2006
If you have anything to do with marketing, mobile, advertising or the media this is essential reading.
It's a wake-up call for anyone who thinks today is just like yesterday, just a little bit faster.
Read it and you WILL want to change the way your business functions.


a treasure trove of ideas and killer facts, 14 Jul 2005
As someone who works in the marketing communications industry, I've found this book a great source of ideas, killer facts and stealable quotes with which to pepper a presentation. More fundamentally it is a well argued, powerful case that the 'old world order' in marketing is being fundamentally changed. You may disagree with some or all of it you'll still have to deal with the themes they highlight.

Incredibly practical business book on hot topics of 2005, 27 Apr 2005
This is the first book I have seen to take a wholistic view of the disruptive forces in business and tie it together with the new emerging customer. While many books have examined mobile phones or blogging or gaming, this is the first to examine the connected customer community broadly and comprehensively.

The book continually impresses with vivid expert opinions, quotes and stats, and page after page of thoroughly documented examples. The book proceeds logically through the major trends in society from technology, disruptive forces facing business, the convergence and divergence opportunities and threats from fragmentation and media, to how customers are changing and evolving. The book discusses the current crisis in marketing communications, TV, press, advertising and branding. Then it proceeds to show the power of communities finishing with valid and practical advice on how to engage those new customers and communities. The last three chapters build on the earlier ones and leave the reader stunned by how extensive a change is already happening with global brands like Adidas, Red Bull, Boeing and Ford.

The authors manage to keep the book timely and incredibly insightful by examining three distinct groups of communities in great depth. They cover bloggers and the blogosphere as the most influential community right now. They discuss the virtual world and multiplayer videogaming communities which are most evolved into the community-spirit and new rules. And they explain the growing relevance of the largest digital community, the smart mobs connected by mobile phone.

The book includes insightful and immediately usable theories. I particularly liked the Four C's, Alpha Users, Engagement Marketing and Generation-C. And to top it off they have included 13 case studies that are remarkably revealing. Read the Oh My News Korea, Twins Hong Kong, or Habbo Hotel Finland cases and see what is obviously the near future of business.

The book is thought-provoking and as it proves every point with expert opinions and real live business examples, it makes a very believable case. When comparing it with say Howard Rheingold's Smart Mobs or John Grant's After Image, this book is much more immediately practical, written by clearly practical business executives for business executives. I thoroughly enjoyed the book, am now rereading it, and recommend it to anyone in business.

EXCELLENT HISTORY OF ADVERTISING, 09 Nov 2008
This that rarest of books, one that educates and informs whilst being entertaining. Fletcher's wit and wisdom are not to be missed. His encyclopaedic knowledge and extensive personal experience of advertising mean that both the student and the general reader will be very pleased with their purchase whether for themselves or as a gift.

A must-read for all 'adlanders' and wannabes, 26 Jul 2008
It's not often that I read a business book cover-to-cover and in just a few days, and Winston Fletcher's 'Powers of Persuasion' is a rare pleasure as one of those. Although it is a history it's anything but dry, and that's because the author was one of the insiders as an agency owner, President of the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising and Chairman of the Advertising Association. So he brings to the narrative not only his personal knowledge and copious research, but also his own insights and observations - occasionally barbed, but that only adds to the enjoyment! The phrase 'must read' is an over-used one, but that shouldn't prevent it being employed when truly deserved, as in this case. Anyone already working in an agency or aspiring to do so, should buy this book, and the marketing and procurement professionals who are the clients of agencies will find it a rewarding read too.

Much more than a history, 14 Jul 2008
This is so much more than a history of advertising- though it is a very good history.Students will appreciate the way Fletcher captures the colour and flavour of the industry whilst advertising insiders will revel in reading about their strange genetic roots.A right riveting read.

Refreshing the parts..., 13 Jul 2008
You couldn't make it up, as they say. A chippy adman tries to buy a high street bank; a supermarket trolley maker becomes one of the world's biggest ad agency groups and a bunch of chimps sells all the tea in China. Winston Fletcher, one of British advertising's most astute practitioners and observers didn't need to make it up because the true story of British advertising is as colourful, quirky and thrilling as some of its most famous advertisements. Fletcher tells the tale with fine attention to detail and an insider's knowledge of many of the larger than life characters who led the ad industry in the late 20th century and early 21st. The meteoric growth of Saatchi and Saatchi through the 1970s and 80s is perhaps the most astonishing strand in the story. The agency's trauma at losing its founders and their re-emergence as the highly successful M&C Saatchi is the stuff of TV melodrama. Fletcher's touch is pacy and humourous but his message is serious. Amidst all the high drama, British advertising for many decades led the world in creative flair and proven effectiveness. It is to be hoped it will continue to do so without being bled to death by unwarranted and unworkable government intervention.

Finally a real Global/international marketinga book, 13 Oct 2008
Finally I found a real global marketing book. This book has a much better global focus than most American books that are so clearly American. The Danish author Hollensen, manages to give this popular subject a fresh feel unlike so many of the books issued lately.
Kudos to you Mr.Hollensen.

Global Marketing: A Decision Oriented Approach, 24 Aug 2005
This is an excellent book. Having read management and marketing literature for 30 years I was surprised to find a new book, written in a fresh and easily-digested manner, which contained so many new ideas.

A refreshing and insightful account of the key issues in the globalisation debate, 02 Oct 2006
Pietra Rivoli's book offers a highly engaging and enlightening perspective on the key elements of the globalisation debate. Through a novel narrative - focussed on the journey of a single product (a t-shirt) through the global economy - Dr. Rivoli brings the current state of world trade and the attendant debates into sharp and human perspective. Once I picked up the book, I couldn't put it down.

The premise of the book is - in the author's own words - to "tell a story" of a simple t-shirt, from cotton-field to compost-heap, and in so doing to illustrate that at almost no stage in the t-shirt's life does it come into contact with really competitive markets. Dr. Rivoli traces the journey of her t-shirt with particular emphasis on the original cotton-farmers in Texas, the factory in China where the t-shirt was made, and the t-shirt's `afterlife' once it has been donated to a charity shop. Interspersed with the narrative brief histories of US trade policy, the global cotton-industry and Chinese cotton production.

Each step in the t-shirt's journey is enlightening. For example, we see how the US cotton industry, which has portrayed itself as a hapless victim of rampant globalisation, has in fact doubled in size since 1970 (with job losses being caused by improved production processes rather than foreign competition). Similarly, we are told how trade policies intended to protect the British woollen industry from foreign cotton in the 18th century actually stimulated entrepreneurial innovation (i.e., Schumpeter's `creative destruction') which led to cotton products being manufactured in the UK, thus sparking the industrial revolution. Dr. Rivioli is sanguine about the current state of world trade, lamenting the lack of genuinely competitive markets in the global economy. There is one rather ironic twist - once clothing is donated to a charity shop, it enters an incredibly fluid and well-functioning market, whereby it is sorted either sent to Africa for sale to discerning consumers, or turned into rags for use in factories. In this final stage, prices adjust quickly, all the players have good information, and in many countries there are virtually no trade barriers.

Throughout the book I was struck by the very human perspective Dr. Rivoli brings to a topic where writers often wallow in their own abstraction. The pen portraits of angry cotton-farmers, desperate lobbyists, hopeful factory workers and wily second-hand clothing traders serve both to make the book enjoyable to read and to reinforce one of its underlying messages - that reducing the debate to simple, stylized positions is unhelpful, and distracts us form the nuance and texture of reality.

The Travels of a T-shirt in the Global Economy is delightfully compelling to read, and has something to offer all readers - the generalist will find it an incredibly accessible, balanced and insightful account of globalisation, and the specialist will find a new and refreshing perspective on a well-rehearsed topic.


Completely fascinating, 10 Sep 2006
I picked this up due to wanting to learn more about the field of political economy without going to a textbook. Well, I got the perfect book. Although I didn't agree with every point Pietra Rivoli made, I found her book to be completely and refreshingly balanced, with none of the pro- or anti- free trade rhetoric you usually come across. The writing style is informal enough to be readable without being patronising, and detailed enough to be informative without feeling like you are being whacked over the head with a big book of graphs. What I appreciated the book most for was the way the author goes behind common myths and assumptions about global trade and shows a different side to the story. It's also a wide-ranging book including travels in America, China, Africa and even including musings on England and the industrial revolution.

Complaints? Well I had a nagging discomfort over the almost complete lack of discussion of environmental factors in global cotton trade (use of pesticides, effects of transporting cotton countless times across the globe etc) - maybe that would have made the book very different, and I guess you do have to focus your debate, but in these times of climate change it would have been good to see SOME recognition of such things - given that Rivoli's recognition of the other effects of global cotton trade was so extremely wide ranging.

Anyway, overall, I learned a lot - if only all academics could write books as readable as this. :)

READ THIS BOOK, 08 Jul 2005
I picked up this book at random in the airport and I so glad that I did. It really is the best business and econ book I have read in a long time. The story is very engaging and moves right along, but more important than that, the economic and business insights -- as well as the analysis -- are of very high quality. the author is not polemic on one side or the other of current debates, and folks from all points of view have much to learn from the book. If you are interested in international business and economics I highly recommend this book. It will get you thinking!

A terrific account, 14 Jun 2005
This book will change the way you view your breakfast cereal for ever! Never again will you chew your morning banana without questioning whether your really should have poured sugary yoghurt all over it! Seriously, this is a very useful account of the major fault-lines in contemporary food and health thinking. The absurdities of the food supply chain are laid bare. Food wars proposes that two emerging paradigms are now competing for which is to replace the mid-20th century paradigm that argued that public health and well-being would automatically follow from increasing food production.

Excellent community/economic development primer, 07 Jan 1999
Kotler, et al have defined the marriage between the public and private sectors in terms that make sense to both partners. While the implication that the private sector tends to get it right most of the time signals a weakness that haunts the writings of Harvard's Michael Porter("Competitive Advantage of Inner Cities"), the fundamental notions contained in this work seem sound.

Students of city planning, urban affairs, etc., might conclude that the emerging field of hotel, motel, and resort management may offer a more relevant practical model of city management than the current curriculums offer. When it's all said and done what's the significant difference between managing a city and managing a total service resort? As the politics of citys, space, become more rationalized in the larger systems of global markets and international trade, local decision making is increasingly becoming influenced by the factors that Kotler, et al raise in their book.

It's no surprise that my friends in the private sector find "place marketing" the newest fad in the consulting field. In truth, I've been pleased to see the social planners and business planners find common ground in the models and ideas that Kotler, Porter, et al have managed to present.

An absolute cast-iron must-read, 09 Nov 2006
If you have anything to do with marketing, mobile, advertising or the media this is essential reading.
It's a wake-up call for anyone who thinks today is just like yesterday, just a little bit faster.
Read it and you WILL want to change the way your business functions.


a treasure trove of ideas and killer facts, 14 Jul 2005
As someone who works in the marketing communications industry, I've found this book a great source of ideas, killer facts and stealable quotes with which to pepper a presentation. More fundamentally it is a well argued, powerful case that the 'old world order' in marketing is being fundamentally changed. You may disagree with some or all of it you'll still have to deal with the themes they highlight.

Incredibly practical business book on hot topics of 2005, 27 Apr 2005
This is the first book I have seen to take a wholistic view of the disruptive forces in business and tie it together with the new emerging customer. While many books have examined mobile phones or blogging or gaming, this is the first to examine the connected customer community broadly and comprehensively.

The book continually impresses with vivid expert opinions, quotes and stats, and page after page of thoroughly documented examples. The book proceeds logically through the major trends in society from technology, disruptive forces facing business, the convergence and divergence opportunities and threats from fragmentation and media, to how customers are changing and evolving. The book discusses the current crisis in marketing communications, TV, press, advertising and branding. Then it proceeds to show the power of communities finishing with valid and practical advice on how to engage those new customers and communities. The last three chapters build on the earlier ones and leave the reader stunned by how extensive a change is already happening with global brands like Adidas, Red Bull, Boeing and Ford.

The authors manage to keep the book timely and incredibly insightful by examining three distinct groups of communities in great depth. They cover bloggers and the blogosphere as the most influential community right now. They discuss the virtual world and multiplayer videogaming communities which are most evolved into the community-spirit and new rules. And they explain the growing relevance of the largest digital community, the smart mobs connected by mobile phone.

The book includes insightful and immediately usable theories. I particularly liked the Four C's, Alpha Users, Engagement Marketing and Generation-C. And to top it off they have included 13 case studies that are remarkably revealing. Read the Oh My News Korea, Twins Hong Kong, or Habbo Hotel Finland cases and see what is obviously the near future of business.

The book is thought-provoking and as it proves every point with expert opinions and real live business examples, it makes a very believable case. When comparing it with say Howard Rheingold's Smart Mobs or John Grant's After Image, this book is much more immediately practical, written by clearly practical business executives for business executives. I thoroughly enjoyed the book, am now rereading it, and recommend it to anyone in business.

Excellent insight into alternative marketing, 23 Jan 2001
Usunier focuses on culture and how marketing cannot be a globalized process due to the cultural differences that exist. The book offers an excellent alternative view to the conventional orthodox history of marketing which uses realist ontology, positivist epistemology and nomothetic methodology. Culture is the main emphasis of marketing and its importance can be seen clearly in the first three chapters of the book. An overall mind opening book for anyone in the marketing field that seeks alternative routes to the conventional approach.

EXCELLENT HISTORY OF ADVERTISING, 09 Nov 2008
This that rarest of books, one that educates and informs whilst being entertaining. Fletcher's wit and wisdom are not to be missed. His encyclopaedic knowledge and extensive personal experience of advertising mean that both the student and the general reader will be very pleased with their purchase whether for themselves or as a gift.

A must-read for all 'adlanders' and wannabes, 26 Jul 2008
It's not often that I read a business book cover-to-cover and in just a few days, and Winston Fletcher's 'Powers of Persuasion' is a rare pleasure as one of those. Although it is a history it's anything but dry, and that's because the author was one of the insiders as an agency owner, President of the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising and Chairman of the Advertising Association. So he brings to the narrative not only his personal knowledge and copious research, but also his own insights and observations - occasionally barbed, but that only adds to the enjoyment! The phrase 'must read' is an over-used one, but that shouldn't prevent it being employed when truly deserved, as in this case. Anyone already working in an agency or aspiring to do so, should buy this book, and the marketing and procurement professionals who are the clients of agencies will find it a rewarding read too.

Much more than a history, 14 Jul 2008
This is so much more than a history of advertising- though it is a very good history.Students will appreciate the way Fletcher captures the colour and flavour of the industry whilst advertising insiders will revel in reading about their strange genetic roots.A right riveting read.

Refreshing the parts..., 13 Jul 2008
You couldn't make it up, as they say. A chippy adman tries to buy a high street bank; a supermarket trolley maker becomes one of the world's biggest ad agency groups and a bunch of chimps sells all the tea in China. Winston Fletcher, one of British advertising's most astute practitioners and observers didn't need to make it up because the true story of British advertising is as colourful, quirky and thrilling as some of its most famous advertisements. Fletcher tells the tale with fine attention to detail and an insider's knowledge of many of the larger than life characters who led the ad industry in the late 20th century and early 21st. The meteoric growth of Saatchi and Saatchi through the 1970s and 80s is perhaps the most astonishing strand in the story. The agency's trauma at losing its founders and their re-emergence as the highly successful M&C Saatchi is the stuff of TV melodrama. Fletcher's touch is pacy and humourous but his message is serious. Amidst all the high drama, British advertising for many decades led the world in creative flair and proven effectiveness. It is to be hoped it will continue to do so without being bled to death by unwarranted and unworkable government intervention.

Finally a real Global/international marketinga book, 13 Oct 2008
Finally I found a real global marketing book. This book has a much better global focus than most American books that are so clearly American. The Danish author Hollensen, manages to give this popular subject a fresh feel unlike so many of the books issued lately.
Kudos to you Mr.Hollensen.

Global Marketing: A Decision Oriented Approach, 24 Aug 2005
This is an excellent book. Having read management and marketing literature for 30 years I was surprised to find a new book, written in a fresh and easily-digested manner, which contained so many new ideas.

A refreshing and insightful account of the key issues in the globalisation debate, 02 Oct 2006
Pietra Rivoli's book offers a highly engaging and enlightening perspective on the key elements of the globalisation debate. Through a novel narrative - focussed on the journey of a single product (a t-shirt) through the global economy - Dr. Rivoli brings the current state of world trade and the attendant debates into sharp and human perspective. Once I picked up the book, I couldn't put it down.

The premise of the book is - in the author's own words - to "tell a story" of a simple t-shirt, from cotton-field to compost-heap, and in so doing to illustrate that at almost no stage in the t-shirt's life does it come into contact with really competitive markets. Dr. Rivoli traces the journey of her t-shirt with particular emphasis on the original cotton-farmers in Texas, the factory in China where the t-shirt was made, and the t-shirt's `afterlife' once it has been donated to a charity shop. Interspersed with the narrative brief histories of US trade policy, the global cotton-industry and Chinese cotton production.

Each step in the t-shirt's journey is enlightening. For example, we see how the US cotton industry, which has portrayed itself as a hapless victim of rampant globalisation, has in fact doubled in size since 1970 (with job losses being caused by improved production processes rather than foreign competition). Similarly, we are told how trade policies intended to protect the British woollen industry from foreign cotton in the 18th century actually stimulated entrepreneurial innovation (i.e., Schumpeter's `creative destruction') which led to cotton products being manufactured in the UK, thus sparking the industrial revolution. Dr. Rivioli is sanguine about the current state of world trade, lamenting the lack of genuinely competitive markets in the global economy. There is one rather ironic twist - once clothing is donated to a charity shop, it enters an incredibly fluid and well-functioning market, whereby it is sorted either sent to Africa for sale to discerning consumers, or turned into rags for use in factories. In this final stage, prices adjust quickly, all the players have good information, and in many countries there are virtually no trade barriers.

Throughout the book I was struck by the very human perspective Dr. Rivoli brings to a topic where writers often wallow in their own abstraction. The pen portraits of angry cotton-farmers, desperate lobbyists, hopeful factory workers and wily second-hand clothing traders serve both to make the book enjoyable to read and to reinforce one of its underlying messages - that reducing the debate to simple, stylized positions is unhelpful, and distracts us form the nuance and texture of reality.

The Travels of a T-shirt in the Global Economy is delightfully compelling to read, and has something to offer all readers - the generalist will find it an incredibly accessible, balanced and insightful account of globalisation, and the specialist will find a new and refreshing perspective on a well-rehearsed topic.


Completely fascinating, 10 Sep 2006
I picked this up due to wanting to learn more about the field of political economy without going to a textbook. Well, I got the perfect book. Although I didn't agree with every point Pietra Rivoli made, I found her book to be completely and refreshingly balanced, with none of the pro- or anti- free trade rhetoric you usually come across. The writing style is informal enough to be readable without being patronising, and detailed enough to be informative without feeling like you are being whacked over the head with a big book of graphs. What I appreciated the book most for was the way the author goes behind common myths and assumptions about global trade and shows a different side to the story. It's also a wide-ranging book including travels in America, China, Africa and even including musings on England and the industrial revolution.

Complaints? Well I had a nagging discomfort over the almost complete lack of discussion of environmental factors in global cotton trade (use of pesticides, effects of transporting cotton countless times across the globe etc) - maybe that would have made the book very different, and I guess you do have to focus your debate, but in these times of climate change it would have been good to see SOME recognition of such things - given that Rivoli's recognition of the other effects of global cotton trade was so extremely wide ranging.

Anyway, overall, I learned a lot - if only all academics could write books as readable as this. :)

READ THIS BOOK, 08 Jul 2005
I picked up this book at random in the airport and I so glad that I did. It really is the best business and econ book I have read in a long time. The story is very engaging and moves right along, but more important than that, the economic and business insights -- as well as the analysis -- are of very high quality. the author is not polemic on one side or the other of current debates, and folks from all points of view have much to learn from the book. If you are interested in international business and economics I highly recommend this book. It will get you thinking!

A terrific account, 14 Jun 2005
This book will change the way you view your breakfast cereal for ever! Never again will you chew your morning banana without questioning whether your really should have poured sugary yoghurt all over it! Seriously, this is a very useful account of the major fault-lines in contemporary food and health thinking. The absurdities of the food supply chain are laid bare. Food wars proposes that two emerging paradigms are now competing for which is to replace the mid-20th century paradigm that argued that public health and well-being would automatically follow from increasing food production.

Excellent community/economic development primer, 07 Jan 1999
Kotler, et al have defined the marriage between the public and private sectors in terms that make sense to both partners. While the implication that the private sector tends to get it right most of the time signals a weakness that haunts the writings of Harvard's Michael Porter("Competitive Advantage of Inner Cities"), the fundamental notions contained in this work seem sound.

Students of city planning, urban affairs, etc., might conclude that the emerging field of hotel, motel, and resort management may offer a more relevant practical model of city management than the current curriculums offer. When it's all said and done what's the significant difference between managing a city and managing a total service resort? As the politics of citys, space, become more rationalized in the larger systems of global markets and international trade, local decision making is increasingly becoming influenced by the factors that Kotler, et al raise in their book.

It's no surprise that my friends in the private sector find "place marketing" the newest fad in the consulting field. In truth, I've been pleased to see the social planners and business planners find common ground in the models and ideas that Kotler, Porter, et al have managed to present.

An absolute cast-iron must-read, 09 Nov 2006
If you have anything to do with marketing, mobile, advertising or the media this is essential reading.
It's a wake-up call for anyone who thinks today is just like yesterday, just a little bit faster.
Read it and you WILL want to change the way your business functions.


a treasure trove of ideas and killer facts, 14 Jul 2005
As someone who works in the marketing communications industry, I've found this book a great source of ideas, killer facts and stealable quotes with which to pepper a presentation. More fundamentally it is a well argued, powerful case that the 'old world order' in marketing is being fundamentally changed. You may disagree with some or all of it you'll still have to deal with the themes they highlight.

Incredibly practical business book on hot topics of 2005, 27 Apr 2005
This is the first book I have seen to take a wholistic view of the disruptive forces in business and tie it together with the new emerging customer. While many books have examined mobile phones or blogging or gaming, this is the first to examine the connected customer community broadly and comprehensively.

The book continually impresses with vivid expert opinions, quotes and stats, and page after page of thoroughly documented examples. The book proceeds logically through the major trends in society from technology, disruptive forces facing business, the convergence and divergence opportunities and threats from fragmentation and media, to how customers are changing and evolving. The book discusses the current crisis in marketing communications, TV, press, advertising and branding. Then it proceeds to show the power of communities finishing with valid and practical advice on how to engage those new customers and communities. The last three chapters build on the earlier ones and leave the reader stunned by how extensive a change is already happening with global brands like Adidas, Red Bull, Boeing and Ford.

The authors manage to keep the book timely and incredibly insightful by examining three distinct groups of communities in great depth. They cover bloggers and the blogosphere as the most influential community right now. They discuss the virtual world and multiplayer videogaming communities which are most evolved into the community-spirit and new rules. And they explain the growing relevance of the largest digital community, the smart mobs connected by mobile phone.

The book includes insightful and immediately usable theories. I particularly liked the Four C's, Alpha Users, Engagement Marketing and Generation-C. And to top it off they have included 13 case studies that are remarkably revealing. Read the Oh My News Korea, Twins Hong Kong, or Habbo Hotel Finland cases and see what is obviously the near future of business.

The book is thought-provoking and as it proves every point with expert opinions and real live business examples, it makes a very believable case. When comparing it with say Howard Rheingold's Smart Mobs or John Grant's After Image, this book is much more immediately practical, written by clearly practical business executives for business executives. I thoroughly enjoyed the book, am now rereading it, and recommend it to anyone in business.

Excellent insight into alternative marketing, 23 Jan 2001
Usunier focuses on culture and how marketing cannot be a globalized process due to the cultural differences that exist. The book offers an excellent alternative view to the conventional orthodox history of marketing which uses realist ontology, positivist epistemology and nomothetic methodology. Culture is the main emphasis of marketing and its importance can be seen clearly in the first three chapters of the book. An overall mind opening book for anyone in the marketing field that seeks alternative routes to the conventional approach.

An absolute cast-iron must-read, 09 Nov 2006
If you have anything to do with marketing, mobile, advertising or the media this is essential reading.
It's a wake-up call for anyone who thinks today is just like yesterday, just a little bit faster.
Read it and you WILL want to change the way your business functions.


a treasure trove of ideas and killer facts, 14 Jul 2005
As someone who works in the marketing communications industry, I've found this book a great source of ideas, killer facts and stealable quotes with which to pepper a presentation. More fundamentally it is a well argued, powerful case that the 'old world order' in marketing is being fundamentally changed. You may disagree with some or all of it you'll still have to deal with the themes they highlight.

Incredibly practical business book on hot topics of 2005, 27 Apr 2005
This is the first book I have seen to take a wholistic view of the disruptive forces in business and tie it together with the new emerging customer. While many books have examined mobile phones or blogging or gaming, this is the first to examine the connected customer community broadly and comprehensively.

The book continually impresses with vivid expert opinions, quotes and stats, and page after page of thoroughly documented examples. The book proceeds logically through the major trends in society from technology, disruptive forces facing business, the convergence and divergence opportunities and threats from fragmentation and media, to how customers are changing and evolving. The book discusses the current crisis in marketing communications, TV, press, advertising and branding. Then it proceeds to show the power of communities finishing with valid and practical advice on how to engage those new customers and communities. The last three chapters build on the earlier ones and leave the reader stunned by how extensive a change is already happening with global brands like Adidas, Red Bull, Boeing and Ford.

The authors manage to keep the book timely and incredibly insightful by examining three distinct groups of communities in great depth. They cover bloggers and the blogosphere as the most influential community right now. They discuss the virtual world and multiplayer videogaming communities which are most evolved into the community-spirit and new rules. And they explain the growing relevance of the largest digital community, the smart mobs connected by mobile phone.

The book includes insightful and immediately usable theories. I particularly liked the Four C's, Alpha Users, Engagement Marketing and Generation-C. And to top it off they have included 13 case studies that are remarkably revealing. Read the Oh My News Korea, Twins Hong Kong, or Habbo Hotel Finland cases and see what is obviously the near future of business.

The book is thought-provoking and as it proves every point with expert opinions and real live business examples, it makes a very believable case. When comparing it with say Howard Rheingold's Smart Mobs or John Grant's After Image, this book is much more immediately practical, written by clearly practical business executives for business executives. I thoroughly enjoyed the book, am now rereading it, and recommend it to anyone in business.