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Pauline Brown
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Aesthetic Intelligence: How to Boost It and Use It in Business and Beyond Kindle Edition

by Pauline Brown (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 139 ratings
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Longtime leader in the luxury goods sector and former Chairman of LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton North America reinvents the art and science of brand-building under the rubric of Aesthetic Intelligence.

In a world in which people have cheap and easy access to most goods and services, yet crave richer and more meaningful experiences, aesthetics has become a key differentiator for most companies and a critical factor of their success and even their survival. In this groundbreaking book, Pauline Brown, a former leader of the world’s top luxury goods company and a pioneer in identifying the role of aesthetics in business, shows executives, entrepreneurs, and other professionals how to harness the power of the senses to create products, services, and experiences that stand out, resonate with their customers, and create long-term value for their businesses. The power is rooted in Aesthetic Intelligence—or “the other AI,” as Brown refers to it.

Aesthetic Intelligence can be learned. Indeed, people are born with far more capacity than they use, but even those that are naturally gifted must continue to refine their skills, lest their aesthetic advantage atrophy. Through a combination of storytelling and practical advice, the author shows how aesthetic intelligence creates business value and how executives, entrepreneurs and others can boost their own AI and successfully apply it to business. Brown offers research, strategies and practical exercises focused on four essential AI skills.

Aesthetic Intelligence provides a crucial roadmap to help business leaders build their businesses in their own authentic and distinctive way. Aesthetic Intelligence is about creating delight, lifting the human spirit, and rousing the imagination through sensorial experiences.

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  1. Print length
    293 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Sticky notes
    On Kindle Scribe
  4. Publisher
    Harper Business
  5. Publication date
    November 26, 2019
  6. File size
    1866 KB
  7. Page Flip
    Enabled
  8. Word Wise
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"[A] meditation on sensorial pleasure and the business opportunities it provides."

-- "Publishers Weekly"

About the Author

For more than 25 years, Pauline Brown has acquired, built, and led global luxury brands. In January of 2016, she joined the faculty of the Harvard Business School, where she introduced a new course for graduate students, called “The Business of Aesthetics."" Since 2016, she also has been hosting a weekly talk show on SiriusXM, called “Tastemakers,"" on which she interviews business leaders, innovators, and influencers in creative sectors. Prior to her career as a writer, speaker, and lecturer, Pauline was the Chairman of North America for the world's leading luxury goods company, LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, where she provided regional leadership for 70 brands in 5 sectors, including fashion & leather goods, watches & jewelry, perfumes & cosmetics, wines & spirits, and selective retailing. While at LVMH, Pauline also served on the Board of Directors of L Capital, a private equity fund backed by LVMH, as well as the Boards of several LVMH subsidiaries, including Donna Karan, Marc Jacobs, and Fresh Cosmetics.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B07P43NWF5
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Harper Business (November 26, 2019)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ November 26, 2019
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 1866 KB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 293 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 139 ratings

About the author

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Pauline Brown

Pauline Brown

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For more than 30 years, Pauline Brown has acquired, built, and led global luxury brands. In 2021, she launched an innovative e-learning platform, called Aesthetic Intelligence Labs, that teaches entrepreneurs and executives how to tap into and leverage their Aesthetic Intelligence to enhance their brands and grow their businesses. Pauline formerly was the Chairman of North America for the world’s leading luxury goods company, LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, where she provided regional leadership for 70 brands in 5 sectors, including fashion & accessories, watches & jewelry, perfumes & cosmetics, wines & spirits, and selective retailing. Earlier in her career, she held senior executive positions at leading beauty companies, including Estee Lauder and Avon, and was a Managing Director at the private equity firm Carlyle, where she invested in consumer businesses. She began her career as a Strategy Consultant at Bain. In 2016, she left the corporate arena for academia and joined the faculty of the Harvard Business School, where she introduced an innovative new course, called “The Business of Aesthetics.” She now teaches the course at Columbia Business School. Pauline also is a Board Member of Neiman Marcus Group and a Henry Crown Fellow at the Aspen Institute. She earned a BA in English from Dartmouth College and an MBA in Marketing from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

Customer reviews

4.4 out of 5 stars
4.4 out of 5
139 global ratings
Tools to make the world.more beautiful
5 Stars
Tools to make the world.more beautiful
I saw this book and it all clicked. Some people go for bare bones, not Apple sleek minimalist, but bare bones no design. I've never been one of those people. I think aesthetics matter and to see the value of aesthetics quantified by an industry expert just really helped me to categorize and explore the topic in relation to business. This is the first book I've read about the aspect of aesthetics in business and it's ROI. It's not just about how something looks, but rather how the physical details evoke feelings about the product. It's about how aesthetics evoke senses and emotions to tie consumers with products. Brilliant.
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Top reviews from the United States

Diana Jones
5.0 out of 5 stars Powerful insights to differentiate your business
Reviewed in the United States on December 30, 2020
Verified Purchase
Exceptional book. While I’ve heard others provide general advice on related topics, those discussions don’t reach the depth, clarity and structure offered here. I took pages of notes while reading and will refer back to them throughout my career.

The author is generous in sharing her expertise about the power of aesthetics and how “the other AI” can be used to propel your business. She also offers a framework for articulating your value proposition with guiding questions that walk you through how to convey your purpose and benefit to customers.

The insights and strategies presented are accessible to all types of readers and professionals, whether you’re at the helm of your company, or – like me – able to influence and implement within one or two segments of an organization. Many of the concepts discussed are brought to life with clear examples of aesthetic successes (and missteps) across companies, spanning industries from fashion, retail and cosmetics to food, transportation and outdoor gear.

In addition to her own credibility and experience as a business and thought leader, the author offers research findings that support and emphasize the importance of stimulating customers’ senses, making their experiences richer and more memorable – and therefore, your company more profitable. Great read.
2 people found this helpful
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Arca
5.0 out of 5 stars A well done and valuable addition to the conversation
Reviewed in the United States on August 30, 2020
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Taken objectively, this is perhaps one of the best business books I’ve read. Although some will find her opinions provocative, I think Brown makes a solid case for the importance of aesthetics in both personal and professional sectors.

The writing is generally quite good and clear, though repetitive in a couple of places. This is more an issue of editing, however, and doesn’t necessarily detract from the work as a whole.
One person found this helpful
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Global Biz
5.0 out of 5 stars Aesthestic is big business, and you will learn it from this audio book!
Reviewed in the United States on February 1, 2020
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Love all the real-world examples in the book, and how paying attention to aesthetic intelligence is important to your bottom line!
2 people found this helpful
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G Johnson
5.0 out of 5 stars Riveting and a pleasure to read!
Reviewed in the United States on September 8, 2023
I enjoyed this book as much as I would an amazing novel even though it’s a business book. It’s full of fascinating cases and stories, and it’s inspiring and helpful for everyone- be it an organization or an individual. Even my 8 year old daughter appreciated the advise - as she’s learning to navigate in the over saturated world of fashion, music, and anything related to self expression and taste.
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Lynn Anne Yori
3.0 out of 5 stars Pretty Obvious conclusions
Reviewed in the United States on July 1, 2021
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Used some pretty classic marketing case studies. If you are in the luxury industry already no revelations here. But a good review of company success stories and failures
3 people found this helpful
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Lauren Beauty
5.0 out of 5 stars A must read for anyone who wants to understand the luxury landscape
Reviewed in the United States on January 13, 2020
Pauline's direct and no nonsense approach is both refreshing and informative. Her anecdotes are relevant and engaging and for someone who has never worked in luxury she brings allows you a front row seat. She consistently stays true to her opinion that "each of us is a product of where we've been and what we've done -- and as we learn to tune in our past experiences and influences we develop the power to transform experience into things." This book is the product of Pauline's impressive and personal career path in the luxury world. Her first hand experiences and accounts of deal making and brand making as well as her reflection these events provides valuable insight for anyone who wants to understands the world of luxury. For anyone who could never get into her oversubscribed Fashion & Luxury class at Harvard Business School this book is a must read. 5 Stars
One person found this helpful
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Mitzi in Maryland
5.0 out of 5 stars Read This and Develop a New Super Power!
Reviewed in the United States on January 10, 2020
After you’ve read Aesthetic Intelligence, you’ll have a new super power. You’ll be aware of techniques and examples of how to make life more beautiful, more enchanting, and if you’re in business, how to make your products more appealing to your customers.

In addition to helping you develop your Aesthetic Intelligence, the book will also delight you with fascinating tidbits, such as why your shampoo is likely to smell much nicer than a similar product did a couple of generations ago.

The book itself is enchanting and beautiful. Through her book, you’ll get to know Pauline Brown, a woman whom you’re likely to wish were your new best friend.
5 people found this helpful
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jasond
1.0 out of 5 stars Arbitrary and snobby
Reviewed in the United States on January 7, 2020
I've made it about 1/2 way through this book and had to stop reading. The author's pitch is that success in new and existing product development is primarily about "taste", and to be specific, it's about "her taste", or people like her that have "good taste" (you of course do not have this, and most likely can not). The book reeks of snobbery and elitism. Her arguments could perhaps be true in the luxury categories in which the author has experience such as cosmetics, high end clothing and luxury foods (I found no proof of this in the first half of the book, just personal anecdotes). For the areas of product development where most of us work, the book makes it sound like success in any category is based on the arbitrary concept of taste and that there's no use for user centered design, design thinking, lean thinking, continuous discovery, customer feedback, usability, product management... the list goes on. Having worked in product and technology for two decades, I found nothing useful or actionable from this book. I have a similar background to the author, but I know several of the people that worked on products she's referring to, and the stories are a distortion of the reality to support a case based on personal preference. I highly recommend a better explanation of product success in the market is Jobs Theory (by Clayton Christensen from Harvard Business School). Check out Competing Against Luck for a better account of innovation and product success.
29 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

Cameron
2.0 out of 5 stars Leads Well, Follows Poorly
Reviewed in Canada on October 24, 2022
Verified Purchase
I read this with great excitement. The premise is original, important and fits what I believe to be an enormous gap in our understanding of business, products, services, and design. The book starts out very well and the first section is just what I had hoped for and will certainly use. The rest of the book starts to fall apart with what I think is poor editing, lousy organization, and a loss of focus over what the book was intended to do. Chapters seem stuck on as if there was a section of the course (which the book is based on) that featured an idea that the author felt needed to go into the book. The last two sections are a mish-mash of ideas, formatting, and recommendations that were hard to follow and didn’t offer me much to use. This would have been far better as a Harvard Business Review article than a book.
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Sarah
5.0 out of 5 stars One of the most important books I’ve read
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 29, 2021
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I’ve wanted to read this for a while and am so glad I did. I devoured it in two days and now am looking at ways to improve the aesthetics of every corner of my life. For me, aesthetics are important and this book provides the tools to harness that to improve my interior design, business and wardrobe.
2 people found this helpful
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Sam Grayston
5.0 out of 5 stars Good insight
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 9, 2020
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Nothing that I hadn’t thought before but, as always with this kind of book, had never written down before. And it was interesting to read this all together.
2 people found this helpful
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