Social Capitalists

I've finally finished Applebee's America (damn is it hard to find time to read these days). The book doesn't have much new to say, at least not if you've been paying attention to political/business strategy discussions or have spent any time reading about the GOP 2004 GOTV strategy.

In a nutshell - "Gut Values" connections, not policy proposals, are what win voters; people group by lifestyle affinities not ideology; and word of mouth trumps broadcast advertising. Essentially the book is a strategy memo about framing and community-building told in the language of cutting-edge corporate marketing.

If you have no idea what I'm talking about, then I suggest reading it. If my last paragraph sounded very familiar, you can probably pass on this book. There are some good case studies, and a few rudimentary how-tos, but mostly the book builds an argument in favor of life targeting as a tactic. By far the freshest piece of information, to me, was the description of mega churches. Sosnik, Dowd and Fournier tell a good tale about the rise and practices of mega-churches, and their descriptions definitely broke down some stereotypes I was holding onto.

Also interesting to me was the discussion of Millenials - or what the authors label "Generation 9/11." Find out why after the jump.