Conquest

Name: Conquest
ISBN: 9787553655932

邝大卫 / 张明敏Zhejiang Education Publishing House · ChinaDec 2021

3.4

Word count: 119K words
Chapters: 40
ISBN: 9787553655932

Report an error Find this book

Summary

When it comes to influencing and "manipulating" an audience in the most direct and effective way, magicians are second to none. Every great magician is a master of steering minds and moving crowds, and in this book David Kwong, one of Hollywood's most sought-after magicians, distills seven core magic strategies that anyone can use to influence others and shape their behavior with ease, so you can promote your ideas, products, and skills far more effectively. ● Kwong sees magic as an ancient art devoted to control—a "force for manipulating the human mind." In these pages you will meet leaders from business, politics, and the world of ideas who apply the strategies of magic to solve problems, inspire supporters, and advance step by step toward success. For example: How does IKEA use overt misdirection to send customers into a buying frenzy? And how does its covert misdirection keep shoppers lingering and returning? How does Disney use "information loading" to bring visitors back again and again? How does Coca-Cola use the alternative-choice method to boost sales? How do casinos use temporal misdirection to keep gamblers from wanting to leave? How does a certain figure use the gap of forgetting to make clients feel at home? How does Obama use storytelling to seem more presidential? What principle did the design of the iPhone 7 violate that set fans off?

Editor's review

This book breaks down the magician's art of "manipulating minds" into seven transferable strategies—a fresh angle that is also highly practical. Drawing on cases from IKEA, Disney, Coca-Cola, and casinos, the author shows how misdirection, information loading, alternative choice, temporal guiding, the gap of forgetting, and storytelling shape attention and decision-making. It offers the satisfaction of seeing through the tricks, and you can turn the same techniques toward creative promotion, product design, and communication. This is no success-formula chicken soup; it translates onstage attention management into the language of business and communication. Read it with concrete questions in hand: why do customers linger, why is certain information remembered, why are choices steered. Best read with your own projects open beside you, turning each strategy into an actionable checklist rather than stopping at an "aha" moment.

Who it's for

A good fit for

People in marketing, brand communications, and product operations who want their ideas to land more effectively
Managers and entrepreneurs who need stronger persuasive communication and want to guide others' attention
General readers curious about the intersection of magic, psychology, and business cases
Creative professionals in advertising, planning, and design looking for methods to draw on

Not a good fit for

Readers expecting systematic academic psychology or rigorous experimental evidence
Those who only want magic-performance secrets and don't want to connect them to business settings
People uninterested in marketing-case writing who prefer pure literary reading

Reading tips

Start with the overview of the seven strategies, then closely read and take notes on the two or three most relevant to your work.
For each case, write down one corresponding situation in your own projects and try reworking a single step.
Think about the "guiding" techniques alongside their ethical boundaries, so influence doesn't slide into deception.
After finishing, condense the strategies into a one-page checklist, keep it at your desk, and go through it item by item the next time you draft a plan.

About the publisher

Zhejiang Education Publishing House China · Founded in 1983

Zhejiang Education Publishing House is a professional publisher focusing on educational publishing while also serving general readers and academic accumulation, with publications covering textbooks, educational readers, popular science, and academic works. Judging from the more than 1,000 titles in the database, the press places considerable emphasis on classics and traditional culture for general readers: modern literature includes Lao She's Camel Xiangzi, Lu Xun's Call to Arms and Wandering and Wild Grass, Xiao Hong's The Story of Hulan River, and Zhu Ziqing's Back View; classical poetry includes Three Hundred Tang Poems and selections from the "Good Chinese Poetry" series, such as the Chu Ci and Qing ci anthologies. Related authors include modern writers such as Lao She, Lu Xun, Xiao Hong, and Zhu Ziqing, as well as classical literature selectors and annotators such as Hengtang Tuishi, Jin Xingyao, Jin Kaicheng, and Qian Zhonglian. Common categories in the database also include social novels, classic works, prose and miscellaneous writings, popular science, and inspirational growth, reflecting a publishing orientation that balances educational service with the popularization of public culture.

版权信息
前言
策略1 知觉落差为用户创建购买的理由
魔术的影响力遍及所有领域
为用户填补落差，构建产品与结果的关联
像乔治·梅里爱一样设计产品
加入让用户感到惊奇的因子
警惕心灵感应与骗术，正确运用假象的力量
策略2 信息装载确保能达到预期结果
永远要至少领先用户一步
打造与众不同的产品特色
开始前就要预想最终结果和可能存在的障碍
像洛克菲勒一样挖掘用户和竞品信息
为行动设定计划、布置舞台
策略3 设计故事用反向设计构思让用户买单的故事
通过故事挖掘用户的情绪价值
情节，故事的重心
角色形象，用行动而非故事塑造
故事不能建立在谎言之上
像飞行宝宝眼镜一样，让用户成为故事的一部分
掌控故事“带出场”的主要信息
策略4 刻意引导让用户看到你想让他看的
对拍、掉拍交错运用：应该让用户注意与忽视什么
聚光灯效应：如何控制用户的注意力
认知偏差：如何在用户注意力之外进行调度
错误引导：如何恰当转移用户的注意力
策略5 选择暗示让对方以为有选择的自由
让对方化“被动选择”为“主动选择”
如何成为出色的选择设计师
策略6 习惯脱轨利用用户的熟悉感与好奇心
突破模式化与习惯化的桎梏
《机械姬》宣传策略：通过细节强化假象的力量
心灵柔道：找到吸引用户的隐藏模式
星巴克的发展之路：打破模式、偏离轨道的力量
策略7 安全退路任何时候都要准备好应变计划
过程中的失败，或许是一件好事
幸存者偏差：如何像硅谷教父一样让用户深信不疑
铺设安全退路的3种方式
紧急退场，当你已经用尽全力
结语

FAQ

Does this book teach people to "manipulate" others?

Drawing on magicians' experience in controlling audience attention, the book is about guiding attention, conveying information, and influencing choices more effectively. It is closer to a method of communication and persuasion than a lesson in deception. Readers should focus on understanding the mechanisms of attention and mind the ethical boundaries in real situations.

Can I understand it without a marketing background?

Yes. The book is built around cases and strategies in accessible language and does not require prior marketing theory. If you have some exposure to advertising, retail, or product promotion, it will be easier to map the cases onto your own experience; with no relevant background at all, you can still read it as stories first and digest the methods afterward.

Will the cases in the book become outdated?

The cases involve specific practices of brands such as IKEA, Disney, and Coca-Cola, and some situations will shift with the market, but what the author distills are underlying strategies like guiding attention, information loading, and alternative choice. Don't memorize case details; focus on how the strategies were designed, then judge whether they still apply today.

Is it suitable for a team to read together?

Yes. Marketing, product, design, and operations can each take what they need and discuss "where we could change" around the same case. It's more useful to pick one strategy at a time for a small trial change and then review the results than to read it all at once.

Comments

Find this book

This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.

About the author

邝大卫 Author

Public information about Kuang David is limited, and his nationality, birth and death years, and detailed biography cannot currently be confirmed. However, the two works held in the library offer a general sense of his writing direction. His published works include the six-volume Workplace Sprint Set and Conquer, both categorized under inspirational growth and applied psychology, suggesting that his focus is on themes close to daily life, such as career development, personal growth, and psychological adjustment. Judging from the titles and categories, his writing tends to use practical advice and case-based expression to help readers cope with pressure and challenges at work and in life, rather than abstract theoretical exposition. Such content offers some reference value for readers hoping to improve self-management skills and refine their workplace mindset. Because verifiable material is scarce, his specific writing style and full body of work remain to be presented through more works and information.

张明敏 Author

Zhang Mingmin is an author about whom limited public information is available; all that is currently known is that one work, Conquer, appears under this name, and that the book is classified as applied psychology. Because basic details such as dates of birth and death, nationality, and educational background cannot be verified, the existing materials do not allow for a full account of the author's life, and only the work itself offers a clue to the author's writing orientation. The title Conquer, combined with the category of applied psychology, suggests an author concerned with practical psychological issues, possibly touching on themes such as self-adjustment, changes in mindset, or behavioral improvement in everyday life. In terms of style, books of this kind tend to be plainly written and focused on practical steps, using cases or methods to guide readers through real difficulties. Although the scale of Zhang Mingmin's output and any later influence remain unclear, this work still offers readers an entry point into the author's areas of interest.