Business Book Review: “Enchantment” by Guy Kawasaki

Enchantment by Guy Kawasaki

Enchantment: The Art of Changing Hearts, Minds and Actions

There is more to creating a powerful brand experience than designing innovative products backed by big marketing budgets. Companies like Apple, Coca-Cola and Virgin have started movements around their brands. They have transformed customers into a cult-like following by creating an emotional experience they identify with and believe in. While these brands stand out in our minds for qualities that separate them from the rest, it seems the attributes that define their uniqueness are often overlooked by many business books.

Until now.

I was excited when Guy Kawasaki sent me an advance copy of his newest book, Enchantment: The Art of Changing Hearts, Minds, and Actions. Kawasaki, the former Chief Evangelist of Apple who also wrote Reality Check, The Art of the Start, and The Macintosh Way, argues that in business and personal interactions, the goal is to influence and transform others by building trust and rapport, and by aligning goals and desires with causes that can easily be embraced, therefore bringing about voluntary, enduring and “delightful” change.

As an entrepreneur and corporate brand consultant, I’ve read a long list of inspirational business books over the years and I admire Kawasaki for taking the branding and marketing fundamentals a step further, to describe how companies create emotional connections by establishing deep, lasting bonds with their customers.

“Want to change the world? This takes more than run-of-the-mill relationships. You need to convince people to dream the same dream that you do,” Kawasaki writes. This can take several forms like building mutual trust, securing market position and establishing a community around a product.

Although some of these ideas aren’t new, Kawasaki concisely summarizes decades of proven methodologies and effectively combines them with modern day insights on the digital age. Not only does he discuss building relationships along with ecosystems, he also examines using push versus pull technology to build an audience. (Push technology brings your story to people, i.e. Twitter/emails. Pull technology brings people to your story, i.e. Facebook/blogs.) His sense of humor shines throughout, (covering everything from cussing etiquette to smiling techniques), keeping the reader engaged while clearly conveying main points. Kawasaki also breaks each chapter down with easy-to-follow bullet points and anecdotes for quick reference and readability.

Guy Kawasaki

Enchantment succeeds at illustrating the important fundamentals behind connecting brands and people in meaningful ways, and picks up where most other business books leave off. Not only was Enchantment both informative and insightful, I also found it was a refreshing review on many business strategies I’ve studied over the years.

I recommend this book as an effective business tool for any entrepreneur, manager or employee who wants to create a transformational experience around their brand and build loyalty beyond the initial transaction.

Enchantment is for companies who want to convert customers into believers.

Ryan Hattaway is the President of Mogul PR, Mogul Web and ecosystM Media