The Branded Gentry

David Hopper, Charles Vallance

Why I looked at this book

Free market economics says that people will set up their own business when they expect it to make more for them than working for someone else. But what really motivates people to put so much work into trying to make a successful enterprise. Is it the money? Is it important to be well known? The latter is especially important now that the elite of society - that is the collection of people everyone knows about - has changed from gentry to celebrities, including enterpreneurs. I'm hoping this book will tell me more about these questions

First impressions

I was a bit disappointed with the sample, which starts with something of a nostalgia trip of the authors recalling brands they encountered in their youth. It does get on to the first chapter, about Lord Bell of Belgravia, but I felt that he was included not so much because he has a well know brand, but because he runs a PR firm and deals with well known brands. This makes it look like the book is going to be about chatting with Marketing and PR people, rather than what I thought it was supposed to be about. This actually put me off continuing with the book for some time, but the contents indicate that at least some of the chapters do what they should, so I eventually carried on.