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Rating: 
Summary: Loved it!
Review: Great info. A fun and creative way to look at market profiles. Only problem is that an update is needed as my copy was published in 1994, pre-Internet, etc.
Rating: 
Summary: Why a book so good can be out of print so soon?
Review: Michael Weiss's earlier book, The Clustering of America, was a very enlighting look on the social settings of America. It was tops, but he even did one better with LATITUDES & ATTITUDES. I have walls covered with books but this is one of the most coveted books of my guests once they open it. It is a reference book that you return to over and over. Bless Michael and all his loved ones!
Rating:
Summary: Eye-Opening
Review: This book is a survey of American marketing surveys. Through its detailed maps, we can see associations between products and behaviors, attitudes, and income. The book has two major sections. The first half is comprised of maps showing us such information as the regions in which baking from scratch is popular and the regions where it is not, or juxtapositions of the regions where heavy metal music is preferred as opposed to where gospel music rules. The maps are drawn not on a state-wide scale, but rather using the more detailed ADIs (Arbitron's Areas of Dominant Influence), which divide up the US into some 211 markets. Underneath each map is a short article describing the topic in more detail, and mentioning other related correlations. The maps are organized by topic, including chapters on food, drink, leisure activities, home, health, sports, cars, television, music, periodicals, and politics. The second half of the book takes up each ADI in turn from Abilene-Sweetwater, Texas to Zanesville, Ohio, providing a short description of the market including total population, median income, median house price, median education level, primary age groups, major employment options, a list of hot and not-hot topics (such as car brands, TV shows, magazines, foods, and political views) as well as a one-paragraph overview of the community. At the very end of the book are charts reviewing the information from the maps in graphical form. There is no index.
The book is filled with amazing bits of information, some predictable, and others quite surprising. For example, we learn that pro-lifers also tend to be staunch supports of the death penalty. Filmgoers tend to be more highbrow than video renters, since filmgoers also attend plays, concerts, and art openings at above average rates, while video renters have less money, more kids, and typically watch more than seven hours of TV every weekday. We can see a huge cluster of National Enquirer readers in the Southeast, while the Simpsons are popular on the West Coast. Weiss doesn't provide us with maps of educational attainment or income levels. But in the text, he manages to slip in some eyebrow-raising details, such as "Southerners...have low rates of mobility and college attendance," the appeal of both Donahue and Oprah in the South is "understandable, given the region's dubious distinction as having the lowest high school completion rate in the nation." We can see how the relative burden of housing costs varies across the nation, with houses in Davenport, Iowa going for only 1.6 times local salaries, while houses in Santa Barbara cost 6.4 times local salaries.
Presenting this information in book form brings with it certain technical limitations. In the interests of clarity, Weiss never juxtaposes more than 2 sets of survey results at once. However, in flipping from page to page, repeated patterns begin to emerge, and the reader will probably wish the book could have been printed with loose transparent maps that could be over-layed according to interest. Even better would be a CD-ROM that would allow readers to play with the data themselves, but that might be asking too much since the information came from proprietary sources. There are some topics that beg for broader comparisons, such as considering both European and American markets. For example, in considering cigarette smokers, Weiss notes that "today's smokers tend to be downscale and poorly educated blue-collar residents of farms and inner cities." Such correlations are not however, universal, as an examination of European smokers would show that smoking is quite popular there amongst highly educated academics. What marketing forces could explain such a difference in smoking practices?
The regional descriptions of the ADIs at the end of the book could potentially be used by people interested in re-locating to identify regions where their own values and preferences are popular. However, I'm not convinced that this information is accurate for every ADI. For example, most of Vermont is grouped into one ADI together with a large chunk of upstate New York. Those of us who live in the region have a gut feeling that Vermonters and New Yorkers are two distinct populations. Our houses look different, we work for different kinds of employers, and we eat different foods. Much of the text summarizing marketing data for this ADI sounded quite surprising to me- -it made the region sound more like New York than Vermont. Perhaps it was easier to accurately characterize some of the smaller, more cohesive, or more homogenous regions, but in general, I would take the information in this section with a grain of salt.
This book was written by a marketing specialist and it summarizes information that is well-known (or should be well-known) to marketers, but it's written for general audiences. Through reading this book, you will not only get to know your fellow Americans better, but you will also get an inkling of the kinds of information that marketers use when planning campaigns to sell stuff to you.
Rating:
Summary: Amusing AND Useful!
Review: This is a fun book, great entertainment (I was laughing like crazy when I was looking through it at the bookstore). The main reason I bought it was because my husband and I plan to move within the year, and I thought the book would be a good resource for helping us choose where to live--it is!The book uses the 213 American consumer markets--the way the market research folks have sectioned off the country by consumer trends. For example, there's Northern Maine, Central Maine, Southern Maine/Vermont, about 12 sections in Calfornia, New Mexico is all one, and about 10 in Florida. The first half of the book is maps with the sections color coded as to inhabitants' preferences for things like: fresh croissants vs. white bread, bagels, twinkies, books vs. tv, owners of power tools, owners of personal computers, cats, dogs, different kinds of cars, political leanings, what they watch on tv, what kind of car they drive, et cetera. There are 87 maps and 11 categories (eg Food, Sports, Cars, Television). Each map includes a commentary so we can learn why exactly snack nuts are much more popular north of the Mason-Dixon line and The Simpsons are more popular in the West. The second half of the book highlights each of the 213 sections (half a page for each), telling what's hot and what's not, along with commentary on the general mood of the place,and statistics about socioeconomic makeup, median income and house price. The consumer market designated as Seattle-Tacoma, Washington (actually most of the Western half of the state), is described (in part) thusly: "Locals have the money to enjoy the 'good life': traveling abroad, enjoying gourmet cuisine--especially espresso from numerous coffee bars--and investing in stock, bonds, and real estate at some of the highest rates in the nation." For Bangor, Maine (which includes the central portion of the state), the author says, "The sterotypical New Englander--aloof, curt, idiosyncratic--is what you'll find in Bangor. Many are independent-minded professionals, retirees, and assorted blue-collar workers who keep to themselves." The book also serves as a kind of armchair traveler--or a guidebook in knowing what to expect of the natives when traveling through the U.S. All in all, LATITUDES AND ATTITUDES is an entertaining way to learn more about the people of America--or to help choose a new place to live! (and yes, we are now very happy in our new home state of Oregon :) Kimberly Borrowdale - Under the Covers Book Reviews
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