Mark Earls is one of the leading thinkers about brands, marketing and mass behaviour.

He has held senior positions in some of the largest and most influential communications companies in the world - his last job was as chair of Ogilvy's Global Planning Council, prior to which he was Planning Director at the revolutionary St. Luke's Communications in London.

His written work has regularly won awards from his peers and is considered by many to be amongst the most influential being written about consumer and mass behaviour today. His first book, Welcome to the Creative Age, was widely read and discussed and has been translated into several languages. HERD has received recognition and praise in a number of fields and Mark has travelled extensively to talk about HERD with audiences drawn from both the business and the public sector.

Mark lives in North London but would rather be watching cricket or fishing, ideally somewhere sunny.

Dedication.

About the Author.

Foreword by Russell Davies.

Notes on Paperback edition.

Introduction.

At the 'cellotaph'.

Ghostbikes.

So how are we to explain this kind of thing?

Bigger boys made me do it.

A book about mass behaviour.

Mass behaviour is hard to change.

Bad theory, bad plan. Better theory? Better plan?

Old news?

I and the other.

Market research and me.

We're all individuals - I'm not.

Understanding the how not just the what?

What the book will cover.

How to use this book.

Part One: A 'We-Species' with an illusion of 'I'.

1: The Super-Social Ape.

Tea and kindness.

Advertising works.

Even more advertising works.

We want to be together.

Say what you see.

A we-species.

Are we stardust?

The successful ape.

Homo or Pan?

When I grow up.

Primates are social.

Why the naked ape?

Sexuality.

The infant ape.

So why naked then?

The brain of a social ape par excellence.

How others shape us.

How we make each other unhappy.

The social brain.

The sound of the crowd.

The empathetic ape.

Language and stroking.

The loneliness of autism.

Collaboration: the keys to the kingdom.

Self-interest and collaboration.

Game on.

Game over and over.

Collaboration across the nation?

Learning from each other?

How collaboration built the world.

Shirts - the work of many hands.

Summary of this chapter.

Questions to ponder.

Questions and issues for marketers.

2: The Illusion of 'I'.

Pepper's ghost.

What does Pepper's ghost tell us?

I woke up this morning . . .

What it is - oh, I forgot.

Eternal sunshine and spotless minds.

False memories.

Monkey see.

Lazy minds.

Don't think too hard.

Retelling the story.

The big when.

The illusion of consciousness.

Depression and the distorted self.

Treatments.

Summary of this chapter.

Issues arising.

Questions and implications for marketers.

3: 'I' vs. 'Us'.

Yes we can.

Travelling for real.

Beware Greeks.

Ubuntu.

Peace and reconciliation.

Wo die Zitronen blühn.

Studying consumer tribal behaviour.

Beyond marketing.

Far from the madding crowds.

The politics of 'I'.

The collective mind.

No such thing as society.

Is the rest of the world so wrong?

'I' ideology.

How social psychology got individualized.

'I' research.

Expert opinion.

Heroes and villains, and other individuals.

Unhappy feet?

The curious tale of curious George.

What this chapter has demonstrated.

Some questions.

Issues for marketers arising from this chapter.

Part Two: The Seven Principles of Herd Marketing.

4: Key Principle No. 1: Interaction.

At the market.

At the urinal.

In the lecture theatre.

Complexity vs. complicated.

Complexity as a way of seeing the world.

Interactive animals.

Interactive humans.

Back to the football

Learning from the Mexican wave.

At the office.

Meanwhile, somewhere in Aberdeen.

Summary so far.

Every day, every day, in every way . . .

Crime and punishment.

New York, New York.

The physics of crime.

More crime, less physics.

Crims, saints and fl oaters.

Fighting on the beaches (and in the suburbs).

The facts.

Analysis.

What to do about such riots.

Markets and interaction.

Behavioural markets.

The challenge for market research.

Issues arising.

Implications and questions for marketing and business.

5: Key Principle No. 2: Influence.

Saturday night's all right.

Faces in the crowd.

1-2-3-4 . . .

Brainwashing.

Brainwashing and conformity.

Parallel lines.

Fear and needles.

Hands together, please.

The placebo effect.

What do you do to me?

Stupid boy.

Marky Mark is not Infl uential.

Why one-to-one is wrong.

Charidee, my friends.

Relation-canoes.

Relationships redux.

Channel tunnel vision.

From you to me to me and everyone I know.

Getting over yourself.

More influence.

The Milgram experiment.

Let the tapes roll.

How good people do bad things.

Born unequal?

Naturally infl uential?

Social infl uencers.

Connectedness.

Meet Lois.

Infl uence and infl uencers.

Researching influence.

Learning from Decision Watch.

The Infl uenced not the Infl uencer.

What this chapter has shown.

Some questions for marketing.

6: Key Principle No. 3: Us-Talk.

Don't believe the hype.

Children of the revolution.

So why is the record industry so scared?

Scary Mary.

What can we learn from the Arctic Monkeys' success?

Boom time for WoM Marketing.

What does Marketing (really) know about WoM?

WoM Fact 1. Word of mouth is seen by consumers to be more important than other infl uences on individual purchases.

WoM Fact 2. Word of mouth is seen to be getting more and more important over time.

WoM Fact 3. Word of mouth seems to operate in both B2B and B2C.

WoM Fact 4. Word of mouth is a global - and not just a North American - phenomenon.

Astroturfing.

I