55 books like Consumer Tribes

By Bernard Cova, Robert Kozinets, Avi Shankar

Here are 55 books that Consumer Tribes fans have personally recommended if you like Consumer Tribes. Shepherd is a community of 10,000+ authors and super readers sharing their favorite books with the world.

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Book cover of Good Strategy Bad Strategy: The Difference and Why It Matters

Simon Court Author Of Founder's Legacy: 50 Game-Changing Leadership Lessons for Building a Great Business

From my list on books for founders trying to be in the 10% of businesses that succeed.

Why am I passionate about this?

For the last 25 years, I have been a coach to business founders, leaders, and leadership teams. My work has taken me to every continent from my base in London. A lot of my work is done behind closed doors, but I have been instrumental in building two unicorns in the last decade. I’m a founder myself and have always been fascinated by what it takes to succeed as a founder. I have a powerful conviction that learning to lead is the heart of it. The books I love are either based on real-world research or deeply practical and based on hands-on experience. Practice trumps theory every time in my world!

Simon's book list on books for founders trying to be in the 10% of businesses that succeed

Simon Court Why did Simon love this book?

This book makes strategy practical for founders, and strategy is so often done badly and contributes to business failure.

The essence of it is to recognize and solve the “decisive challenge.” For example, Elon Musk identified and solved the decisive challenge facing SpaceX when he made Falcon 9 the world’s first orbital class reusable rocket.

Back down to earth, strategy has to face the business challenges honestly and provide a coherent approach to tackling them. This book genuinely helps us to do just that.

By Richard Rumelt,

Why should I read it?

7 authors picked Good Strategy Bad Strategy as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

When Richard Rumelt's Good Strategy/Bad Strategy was published in 2011, it immediately struck a chord, calling out as bad strategy the mish-mash of pop culture, motivational slogans and business buzz speak so often and misleadingly masquerading as the real thing.

Since then, his original and pragmatic ideas have won fans around the world and continue to help readers to recognise and avoid the elements of bad strategy and adopt good, action-oriented strategies that honestly acknowledge the challenges being faced and offer straightforward approaches to overcoming them. Strategy should not be equated with ambition, leadership, vision or planning; rather, it is…


Book cover of The Post-Truth Business: How to Rebuild Brand Authenticity in a Distrusting World

Chris Buckingham Author Of Business Planning for Games

From my list on translating your great ideas into a winning games business.

Why am I passionate about this?

Games and playing have always played a part of my life. I have created games and businesses and been fortunate enough to have worked with both at various levels as a mentor and guide. For me, this is the gift that keeps giving. The tee-shirt wearing creatives and the suit folk with their business acumen we seek to help scale our ideas. I have worked for years at the nexus of these tribes, and still find it a thrill to learn about the visions people have for the wonderful world of games and play and the oblique outcomes we couldn’t have predicted.

Chris' book list on translating your great ideas into a winning games business

Chris Buckingham Why did Chris love this book?

Reading this book made me think hard about alternative truths and the consequences of these alternatives for communities everywhere.

From fake news, disinformation, and misinformation this book takes the reader on a fascinating journey where brands are having to face the reality that their marketing and communications. These are being eroded in ways brands find hard to manage.

Demonstrating authenticity is becoming more difficult as is persuading an audience that a brand knows best, that they are experts in their field and that they can be trusted. Purpose is at times in conflict with stakeholders needs and Chenecey quickly moves through the political and social aspects of these challenges while asking the reader to consider their own beliefs and knowledge within this context.

By Sean Pillot de Chenecey,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Post-Truth Business as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

FINALIST - Business Book Awards 2019 - Embracing Change Category Brands are built on trust, but in a post-truth world they're faced with a serious challenge: so much of modern life is defined by mistrust. A shattering of the vital trust connection between brands and consumers, together with the evaporation of authenticity as a core brand pillar, is causing enormous problems for businesses on a global scale. If a brand isn't seen as trustworthy, then when choice is available it will be rejected in favour of one that is. The Post-Truth Business provides a way forward for any organization wishing…


Book cover of Obliquity: Why Our Goals Are Best Achieved Indirectly

Chris Buckingham Author Of Business Planning for Games

From my list on translating your great ideas into a winning games business.

Why am I passionate about this?

Games and playing have always played a part of my life. I have created games and businesses and been fortunate enough to have worked with both at various levels as a mentor and guide. For me, this is the gift that keeps giving. The tee-shirt wearing creatives and the suit folk with their business acumen we seek to help scale our ideas. I have worked for years at the nexus of these tribes, and still find it a thrill to learn about the visions people have for the wonderful world of games and play and the oblique outcomes we couldn’t have predicted.

Chris' book list on translating your great ideas into a winning games business

Chris Buckingham Why did Chris love this book?

When we put our ideas out there in the real world, we take a risk.

It is an element of being entrepreneurial. But sometimes we can do something in service to others that creates value way beyond what we imagined. Something that has a good impact for those we serve. But this something may have been unpredicted, unseen in the planning stages.

Obliquity teaches us we can focus on the features or the benefits of what we do. This may not result in wealth for the founder, it may not mean a mega exit for the company in a few years. But equally, it may mean a bigger impact for the communities we serve and greater cohesion among those people than we had predicted when writing our business plans.

By John Kay,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Obliquity as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

"John Kay tells a fast-paced detective story as he searches for the surprising secret to success...Brilliant."
-Tim Harford, author of The Logic of Life

In this revolutionary book, economist John Kay proves a notion that feels at once paradoxical and deeply commonsensical: the best way to achieve any complex or broadly defined goal, from happiness to preventing forest fires, is the indirect way. We can learn how to achieve our objectives only through a gradual process of risk taking and discovery-what Kay calls obliquity. The author traces this seemingly counterintuitive path to success as it manifests itself in nearly every…


Book cover of The New Games Book

Chris Buckingham Author Of Business Planning for Games

From my list on translating your great ideas into a winning games business.

Why am I passionate about this?

Games and playing have always played a part of my life. I have created games and businesses and been fortunate enough to have worked with both at various levels as a mentor and guide. For me, this is the gift that keeps giving. The tee-shirt wearing creatives and the suit folk with their business acumen we seek to help scale our ideas. I have worked for years at the nexus of these tribes, and still find it a thrill to learn about the visions people have for the wonderful world of games and play and the oblique outcomes we couldn’t have predicted.

Chris' book list on translating your great ideas into a winning games business

Chris Buckingham Why did Chris love this book?

My copy is from 1976. It is a timeless classic that speaks to the human at the center of everything we play together.

This book serves to remind us that games don’t have to be digital experiences. Sometimes exploring ideas and being creative can lead to new paradigms of seeing each other as contributors to our joy and excitement of playing games.

I never tire of reading this book and learning of the scale and scope for being players and playing well together. The games in this book are co-created with a community of players, isn’t that the way it should be?

As game designers, when we pitch to investors, we often forget to include the joy and love that our customers, players, and users find in our games. 

By New Games Foundation, Andrew Fluegelman (editor),

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The New Games Book as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

More than sixty games in which two to two hundred players can participate all require elements of trust and cooperation


Book cover of Consumer Behavior

Frank R. Kardes Author Of Handbook of Research Methods in Consumer Psychology

From my list on consumer psychology.

Why am I passionate about this?

Frank R. Kardes, Ph.D. is the Donald E. Weston Professor of Marketing and Distinguished Research Professor at the Lindner College of Business at the University of Cincinnati. He is a recipient of the Distinguished Scientific Achievement Award of the Society for Consumer Psychology, and a Fellow of five national professional societies. His research focuses on omission neglect, consumer judgment, and inference processes, persuasion and advertising, and consumer and managerial decision making. He was Co-Editor of Advances in Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Psychology, the Handbook of Consumer Psychology, and Marketing Letters, and serves or has served on seven editorial boards. He has published nine books and over 100 articles and chapters on consumer psychology.

Frank's book list on consumer psychology

Frank R. Kardes Why did Frank love this book?

This textbook is scientifically grounded but highly readable. This book offers an information-processing perspective to help us get inside the head of the consumer and to understand how attention, memory, judgment, and inference processes operate in concert to influence consumer decision making. Consumers are frequently unaware of these influences on their thinking and reasoning.

By Maria Cronley, Thomas Cline, Frank R. Kardes

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Consumer Behavior as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

This wide-ranging yet focused text provides an informative introduction to consumer behavior supported by in-depth, scientifically grounded coverage of key principles and applications.

CONSUMER BEHAVIOR, Second Edition, devotes ample attention to "classic" consumer behavior topics, including consumer information processing, consumer decision making, persuasion, social media and the role of culture and society on consumer behavior. In addition, this innovative text explores important current topics and trends relevant to modern consumer behavior, such as international and ethical perspectives, an examination of contemporary media, and a discussion of online tactics and branding strategies. This versatile text strikes an ideal balance among theoretical…


Book cover of Small Data: The Tiny Clues That Uncover Huge Trends

Wayne Moloney Author Of The Wentworth Prospect: A novel guide to success in B2B sales

From my list on B2B salespeople to stay relevant and successful.

Why am I passionate about this?

Everyone survives by selling something whether we wear the title or not. Selling has been my career, even before I was a salesperson. I started my career in engineering but quickly realised my passion was in developing business, not designing industrial ventilation systems. Helped by a boss who also saw I was better suited to roles other than engineering (he wasn’t so polite) I went on to enjoy a successful career spanning 4 decades working in Australian, Asian, and European markets that embraced all facets of sales and business development. Helped by great mentors and learning from the experience of others, I have endeavoured to give back by mentoring business owners, salespeople, and writing.

Wayne's book list on B2B salespeople to stay relevant and successful

Wayne Moloney Why did Wayne love this book?

The business world is obsessed with big data and artificial intelligence. 

Big data is collected for analysis. Analysis through AI. It lacks to ability to capture emotion and to be successful long-term, businesses need to connect with their markets at an emotional level.

Lindstrom uses real-life case studies to show how looking at the little things; how people use items and why, and observing what others don’t see in a home, a workplace, or a community can help better deliver concepts that big data just can’t see.

By Martin Lindstrom,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Small Data as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The New York Times Bestseller named one of the "Most Important Books of 2016" by Inc, and a Forbes 2016 "Must Read Business Book"

'If you love 'Bones' and 'CSI', this book is your kind of candy' Paco Underhill, author of Why We Buy

'Martin's best book to date. A personal, intuitive, powerful way to look at making an impact with your work' Seth Godin, author of Purple Cow

Martin Lindstrom, one of Time Magazine's 100 Most Influential People in The World and a modern-day Sherlock Holmes, harnesses the power of "small data" in his quest to discover the next…


Book cover of The Attention Merchants: The Epic Scramble to Get Inside Our Heads

Keith L. Downing Author Of Gradient Expectations: Structure, Origins, and Synthesis of Predictive Neural Networks

From my list on to keep an AI researcher awake at night.

Why am I passionate about this?

I've been working in the field of AI for 40 years, first in graduate school and then as a professor. For the most part, I have had my head in the sand, focusing on the minutiae that occasionally lead to publications, the coins of the academic realm. When deep learning started exhibiting human-level pattern recognition abilities, the number of AI books for the general public began to swell.  Unfortunately, the science-fiction scenarios were a bit much. Since understanding, recognizing, and admitting problems are vital steps toward a solution, I find these books to be the most important warnings of the impending tech-dominated future.

Keith's book list on to keep an AI researcher awake at night

Keith L. Downing Why did Keith love this book?

Although it is now a well-known fact that many actors are fighting for our online attention, and will do just about anything to get and keep it, Wu puts it all in historical perspective by going back to the 1800’s and the beginning of print advertising. 

He then traces our relationships with ads across a century and four screens: movies, television, home computers, and finally the cell phone. For the same reason that I enjoy reading history books to try to make some sense of the world’s current political chaos, this masterpiece by Wu should ensure you that nothing about human greed has changed in any major way: the tools of exploitation just get more powerful and more addictive.

By Tim Wu,

Why should I read it?

7 authors picked The Attention Merchants as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Attention merchant: an industrial-scale harvester of human attention. A firm whose business model is the mass capture of attention for resale to advertisers.
In nearly every moment of our waking lives, we face a barrage of advertising enticements, branding efforts, sponsored social media, commercials and other efforts to harvest our attention. Over the last century, few times or spaces have remained uncultivated by the 'attention merchants', contributing to the distracted, unfocused tenor of our times. Tim Wu argues that this is not simply the byproduct of recent inventions but the end result of more than a century's growth and expansion…


Book cover of Decoding the New Consumer Mind: How and Why We Shop and Buy

Marty Neumeier Author Of The Brand Gap

From my list on brand strategy.

Why am I passionate about this?

In my younger days I was a graphic designer and copywriter, approaching brands largely from a creative viewpoint. Over the years I’ve discovered that creative work is much more powerful when harnessed to business strategy, and business strategy is much more powerful when combined with exceptional creative work. I’ve characterized the gulf between strategy and creativity as the “brand gap,” which has led to eight books on branding and a school for professional mastery called Level C.

Marty's book list on brand strategy

Marty Neumeier Why did Marty love this book?

Marketing psychologist Kit Yarrow explains how technology has rewired our brains, making us more individualistic, isolated, emotional, and distrustful. This is not a pessimistic book—it’s a practical guide to addressing customers’ desires and insecurities in a time of deep cultural shifts. Not only has she done her homework, but she also presents the results with lightness and clarity.

By Kit Yarrow,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Decoding the New Consumer Mind as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Take a glimpse into the mind of the modern consumer A decade of swift and stunning change has profoundly affected the psychology of how, when, and why we shop and buy. In Decoding the New Consumer Mind, award-winning consumer psychologist Kit Yarrow shares surprising insights about the new motivations and behaviors of shoppers, taking marketers where they need to be today: into the deeply psychological and often unconscious relationships that people have with products, retailers, marketing communications, and brands. Drawing on hundreds of consumer interviews and shop-alongs, Yarrow reveals the trends that define our transformed behavior. For example, when we…


Book cover of Why We Buy: The Science of Shopping

Mindy Weinstein Author Of The Power of Scarcity: Leveraging Urgency and Demand to Influence Customer Decisions

From my list on marketing mastery to better understand customers.

Why am I passionate about this?

Simply put, I am a marketer (for over two decades). Yet, I am fascinated with the human brain. In my opinion, the two go together. To create powerful marketing messages, we must understand the mind of our customers. While working on my doctorate in general psychology, I was able to dive deep into consumer behavior and the psychological factors that drive us. All of my recommended books touch on psychology in some way or another and will teach you how to motivate your customers to take action.

Mindy's book list on marketing mastery to better understand customers

Mindy Weinstein Why did Mindy love this book?

I read this book on an airplane and was asked by the person next to me why I needed to learn about why I buy things. Well, this book is for anyone interested in understanding consumer behavior and the psychology of shopping. It’s an in-depth exploration of how shoppers interact with products and environments and provides valuable insights into how businesses can improve their sales and customer satisfaction. Underhill backs up his observations with a wealth of research and data. 

By Paco Underhill,

Why should I read it?

3 authors picked Why We Buy as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Synopsis coming soon.......


Book cover of Contagious: Why Things Catch on

Marcus Collins Author Of For the Culture: The Power Behind What We Buy, What We Do, and Who We Want to Be

From my list on helping people get people to take action.

Why am I passionate about this?

I study cultural contagion and how it influences people to help bridge the academic-practitioner gap for companies (from “blue-chip” brands to non-profits) that aim to put ideas in the world that inspire people to take action. When I’m not putting ideas in the world as the Head of Strategy at Wieden+Kennedy New York, I put people in the world as a Clinical Marketing Professor at the Ross School of Business, University of Michigan. My entire career has centered on getting people to move, and I’ve been fortunate enough to work on some of the most notable campaigns in the past years that have created both cultural and commercial impact.

Marcus' book list on helping people get people to take action

Marcus Collins Why did Marcus love this book?

Where my scholarly diet provided perspective to help me see the world differently, Contagious provided a means to apply this perspective to the ideas I put in the world.

Jonah Berger’s academic work explores the science of why we share what we share and how ideas catch on.

His book, however, takes a step forward and provides a framework that can be leveraged to help engineer ideas in such a way that practitioners might increase the likelihood of their ideas spreading.

This book helped me communicate what previously felt like intuition and empowered me to do so with a level of rigor that enabled me to solicit buy-in for unconventional ideas.    

By Jonan Berger,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked Contagious as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Why are some products and ideas talked about more than others? Why do some articles make the most emailed list? Why do some YouTube videos go viral? Word-of-mouth. Whether through face-to-face conversations, emails from friends, or online product reviews, the information and opinions we get from others have a strong impact on our own behaviour. Indeed, word-of-mouth generates more than two times the sales of paid advertising and is the primary factor behind 20-50% of all purchasing decisions.It is between 8.5 and 30 times more effective than traditional media.But want to know the best thing about word-of-mouth? It's available to…


5 book lists we think you will like!

Interested in consumer behaviour, marketing, and psychology?

10,000+ authors have recommended their favorite books and what they love about them. Browse their picks for the best books about consumer behaviour, marketing, and psychology.

Consumer Behaviour Explore 28 books about consumer behaviour
Marketing Explore 183 books about marketing
Psychology Explore 1,714 books about psychology