The Physical Attractiveness Phenomena. Patzer,Gordon L. New York: Plenum Press, 1985. 308 Pp. $39.50

This paper presents integrated marketing communication (IMC) and brand identity as critical components of the firm's brand equity strategy. Specifically, the authors provide a brand equity strategy schematic that details (1) the role of IMC in creating and maintaining brand equity, and (2) the role of brand identity in informing, guiding, and helping to develop, nurture, and implement the firm's overall IMC strategy. The authors also present a conceptual framework with testable research propositions toward IMC theory development. Finally, a discussion of implications for academics and practitioners is provided, and opportunities for future qualitative and quantitative research are suggested.     

Richard Sennett. The Culture of the New Capitalism. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2006. 214 pp. ISBN 0-300-10782-X, $25.00 (paper).

Richard Sennett is among the most prominent sociologists ofwork and labor in the English-speaking world, and he has writtenanother in his recent series of books on how major changes incorporate culture are effecting the personal experience andsocial outlook of workers of various kinds. Given the importanceof his focus on human impacts in a time when most economic discussionis about technology and money, it is hard to pass up this book.At the same time, it is equally hard to believe that one willlearn anything new. We     

New Product Development. Gruenwald,George. Chicago: Crain Books, 1985, 414 Pp. $34.95

A core value throughout much of American history, frugality received official sanction during World War II when the U.S. government, to mobilize the home front, launched poster campaigns that preached being thrifty with goods and services, recycling metals and other materials, growing and storing food at home, obeying price and ration controls, and buying war bonds. This paper examines the consumption context, implementation, creative execution, and impact of government-sponsored poster advertising during this important turning point in the history of American consumer culture. The final section considers the significance of these campaigns in consumption and poster history, as well as some implications for reinspiring frugal values and behaviors.     

Paul Sabin. Crude Politics: The California Oil Market, 1900-1940. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2004. xx + 307 pp. ISBN 0-520-24198-3, $39.95 (cloth).

Champions of the oil industry have long claimed that oil isthe cheapest form of energy. Why is it so cheap? The conventionalanswer emphasizes oil’s natural abundance and the wondersof market supply and demand. Most historians who study the industryat least implicitly accept this explanation. But is not resourceabundance a socially constructed concept? Can we so easily isolatemarket forces from politics and government policy in explainingthe cost and price of oil? These     

Marketing in an Electronic Age. Buzzell,Robert D. (Ed.). Boston,MA: Harvard Business School Press, 1985. 404 Pp. $32.50

Abstract

American and Japanese print ads were content analyzed to examine how advertising expression and content differed in the two cultures. The degree of emotional appeals, informativeness, and comparativeness of advertising were the dimensions studied. As hypothesized, Japanese ads were evaluated as more emotional and less comparative than American ads. In contrast to a priori notions, Japanese ads were found to contain at least as many information cues as American ads.     

Carl A. Zimring. Cash for Your Trash: Scrap Recycling in America. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2005. xi + 220 pp. ISBN 0-8135-3686-3, $39.95.

Paul Revere rode to Concord on a horse shod with shoes re-forgedfrom scrap iron. New York City’s Mayor, Michael Bloomberg,misstepped when he decided that residents would sort only thoserecyclables that actually had a market, rather than the beveragecontainers that went straight to the landfill. During the intervening226 years, Americans recycled for reasons of economy, and ontothat base we recently have grafted a goal of recycling to promoteenvironmental quality. Carl Zimring’s Cash For Your Trashlinks     

Robert P. Bremner. Chairman of the Fed: William McChesney Martin, Jr., and the Creation of the Modern Federal Reserve System. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2004. vi + 357 pp. ISBN 0-300-10508-8, $38.00.

Two men headed the Federal Reserve System for 40 percent ofits history. One was Alan Greenspan, who served from 1987 to2006. The other was William McChesney Martin, Jr., who chairedthe U.S. central bank from 1951 to 1970. Although there areother contenders, both Martin and Greenspan have their backersfor designation as America’s greatest central banker.Hence, as the Greenspan era at the Fed ends, it is more thanappropriate that Robert Bremner’s excellent biographyof Martin appears. Because it contains insights into