After Image: Mind-altering Marketing

by John Grant

John Grant has been part of the new marketing revolution since the mid-1990s when he co-founded the radical advertising agency St Luke's. His pioneering book, drawn from the latest findings in business theory, cognitive neuroscience and social research, proposes a whole new system for marketing. Instead of building false images, he argues, business should now direct its efforts at building shared meaning and learning.

Many brands using the old image approach - Levi's, Coca-Cola, Nike, Gap ... as well as numerous dot-coms - have run into trouble. The hottest categories now are those which have succeeded in building new knowledge cultures: like wine, personal IT, DIY, alternative medicine, male grooming, organic produce, MP3 music files and the gym. Brands can lead this process as Apple, Starbucks, IKEA and others have shown.

The trend has been hastened by a backlash against the values of the consumer society. In this context, brand-image advertising is the new junk mail. This is because business, society and media have already changed and marketing is struggling to keep up.

The new marketing system, based on interactive and non-traditional media, is richly illustrated here with case studies of well-known brands and practical applications of the theories to real-world marketing problems. The book is also stuffed with insights, trends and cultural anecdotes. Far from being a boring textbook, it is a fascinating and imaginative voyage into the future of marketing.

288 pages, Paperback

First published May 7, 2002

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

John Grant co-founded St Luke’s the innovative and socially aware London ad agency. Working with clients such as the Body Shop as well as mainstream brands, St Luke’s pioneered the view of a company’s “Total Role in Society” and operated as an employee shareholder democracy. Since leaving in 1999 he has worked as an independent consultant.

John’s previous books which all deal with ‘what’s new?’ have earned widespread praise, popularity and critical acclaim, and include 'The New Marketing Manifesto' (1999), 'After Image' (2002) and 'Brand Innovation Manifesto' (2006). John is also a prolific blogger and writer of articles and reports. His current thoughts on green marketing can be found at http://greenormal.blogspot.com and he is also the official blogger for the Green Awards.

Reviews

[mostly meri · Rating 4 out of 5]

In “After Image”, light becomes both witness and fugitive. Grant’s narrative follows a photojournalist adrift in the liminal space between sight and memory, where every captured moment turns into questions. The prose is a mosaic of chiaroscuro. Grief etched into negatives, revelation bleeding through darkroom chemicals. The past is not recalled but developed, each frame a fragile negotiation between presence and erasure. Grant’s lens lies on the ephemeral: how images haunt, how shadows hold stories tighter than light. A quiet exploration of impermanence, the book mirrors life’s darkroom where meaning emerges slowly, bathed in patience and paradox, before fading into what remains unspoken.