January 6, 2006
New Book Dissects Keys to Successful Innovation in the Era of Consumer Power

“Making Meaning” is a Groundbreaking Guide for Companies Looking to Create Meaningful Customer Experiences

Redwood Shores, CA., Jan. 9, 2006 – The customer is in control. It’s an acknowledged trend and the evidence is overwhelming – from consumer blogs and on-demand television to products and services that are evermore personalized. This trend demands that companies respect that consumers are bringing the lion’s share of the experience to the brand relationship. How, then, can companies develop products and brands that people connect with and value?

The answer is at the core of an important new book, Making Meaning: How Successful Businesses Deliver Meaningful Customer Experiences (New Riders Publishing; ISBN 0-321-37409-6) available in January.

Making Meaning authors Steve Diller, Nathan Shedroff and Cheskin CEO Darrel Rhea explain how companies can build and sustain strong customer relationships and fuel innovation by going beyond functional or emotional benefits and addressing consumers’ essential human need for meaning.

“We're now hip deep, if not drowning, in the experience economy," said Brian Collins, Executive Creative Director, Brand Integration Group, Ogilvy + Mather Worldwide.

“Here's the smartest book I've read so far that can actually help get your brand to higher ground, fast. And it's written by people who not only drew the map, but blazed these trails in the first place.”

Designers, strategists, researchers, and marketers are only just beginning to uncover the techniques and processes for understanding audiences at the level of meaning. Through examples and anecdotes, the authors show how some forward-thinking companies are already creating meaningful experiences, albeit often by chance rather than intent. This book takes it a step further, outlining a process the will help companies intentionally evoke meaningful experiences.

“The basic point of all innovation has always been to create value for customers,” said Darrel Rhea, Cheskin CEO. “But companies frequently fall short – often because they are consumed by internal concerns, but also because they simply don’t understand what’s meaningful to customers, and how to apply that information. Making Meaning is written as a practical guide that will help businesses understand just that.”

For more information about Making Meaning, please visit www.cheskin.com or www.makingmeaning.org.

About Cheskin
Cheskin is a consulting firm that guides innovation through a deep understanding of people, cultures and change. From a perspective grounded in research, design and marketing, Cheskin helps companies identify new markets, develop new products and services, and enhance brand experience.

Cheskin’s clients range from technology and finance to consumer goods and professional services, and include Microsoft, Nokia, AstraZeneca, Gap and Hormel. Cheskin, established in 1946 and based in Redwood Shores, CA, with offices in New York, Seattle, San Francisco and Mexico City, consults in over 20 countries.

About New Riders Publishing
New Riders Publishing, is an imprint of Peachpit, a group within Pearson Education, a Pearson (NYSE: PSO) company. New Riders Publishing provides a forum for the leading Voices That Matter in design and business across the landscape of Web, graphics, business, print, games, and rich media. The combined voices share unique visions, expertise and inspiration. Learn more at www.peachpit.com/newriders.