What Makes People Tick? 13 Great Books to Help You Understand People's behaviour.

By Francois Karstel - 6922 views

As a marketer it is essential to understand what makes people tick and the following books will help you to do exactly this.

	*1) Thinking, Fast and Slow* - Daniel Kahneman** Kahneman is the winner of the 2002 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences and his most notable work is based on the psychology of judgment and decision making. This book discusses the two main ways in which people think; slow being impulsive and fast being a more analysed way. Article: Concentration Budgeting
	*2) Influence* - Robert Cialdini** Everyone is in an influencing role from time to time. Marketers especially work to influence people and Influence focuses on the psychology of influence.
	*3) Drive* - Daniel Pink** Motivation is not as obvious as one might think, as this book clearly shows by discussing motivation and all that it involves. Articles: Motivate and be Motivated: Part 1 Motivate and be Motivated: Part 2 – Management & Leadership
	*4) The Power of Habit* - Charles Duhigg** Habits play a significant role in the direction that your life takes. This book teaches the mechanics of habits and how they actually work, as well as how to cultivate new habits and how to identify and modify bad habits.
	*5) Predictably Irrational* - Dan Ariely** People are incredibly irrational and this book discusses biases and other ways in which we deceive ourselves, which in the end leads to irrationality.
	*6) The Secret Language of Money* - David Krueger** Krueger discusses certain thought processes which enables you to discover your relationship with money. Focus is placed on the emotional aspects surrounding money which will enable you to understand your customers better. Article: Money: A Secret & False Extension of Self
	*7) Give and Take* - Adam Grant** Grant conducted extensive research substantiating his claim that generous people are more successful than selfish people. The book thus focuses on the relationship between generosity and success.
	*8) Switch: How to Change Things When Change is Hard* - Chip Heath** Switch discusses the psychology behind change. It discusses the components of change and how you can implement it, i.e. how change works.
	*9) Credibility: How Leaders Gain and Lose It, Why People Demand It* - James M. Kouzes and Barry Z. Posner** People spend a lifetime building credibility. This book discusses the things to prove in order to gain credibility. It as such investigates the elements of credibility. Credibility leads to trust and is one of the most important elements of a successful business or brand.
	10) Lying - Sam Harris Lying discusses how people twist the truth to suit their needs. People have a huge capacity to lie to themselves as well as others as all people lie, and most of the time they lie to themselves.
	11) Willpower: Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength - Roy F. Baumeister and John Tierney The book starts with an experiment in which children have a choice between one marshmallow or waiting a few minutes and then getting two marshmallows. Years later the same group was observed and those who (years earlier) had the willpower to wait for two sweets were highly successful while the opposite is true for the others. The book elaborates on the fact that successful people are those who use willpower to create new habits from which they receive long lasting value. Article: Is it Possible to Increase Your Own Willpower? Using Willpower to Create New Positive Habits
	12) The Speed of Trust: The One Thing that Changes Everything - Stephen R. Covey and Rebecca R. Merrill Without trust a person won’t achieve much, and neither will a business. The two main components of trust are also discussed - one is that you have the capability to do something; two is that you have the integrity and willingness to do something.
	13) The Procrastination Equation - Steel Piers If it was possible to calculate how much money is lost because of procrastination the figure would be very high. The book talks about how motivation works, how procrastination works and that the main driving force behind it is fear.

The human mind is complicated and as marketers we need to consider and understand all of the elements discussed in the above books to fully comprehend our customers.

Have any more book recommendations? Share them with me by commenting below or connect on Twitter @SoundIdeaDMA

Sound Idea Digital is a full service digital marketing agency that specialises in content marketing.

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