Book Description

"Building upon lessons learned for over a quarter century of theory and practice, Bill Brooks brings to the table the ultimate synthesis of selling and persuasion techniques. A must-read for serious business executives!"
–Richard Gimmel
President, Atlas Machine & Supply and
President, Industrial Compressor Distributors Association

"This powerful, easy-to-use program by Bill Brooks is the ultimate scientific synthesis of sales theory and practice. It is an essential tool for every professional whose pursuit is excellence in the art of persuasion and the science of selling."
–Steven Powell
Regional Sales Manager, First Citizens Bank

"Indeed, Bill Brooks has placed in perspective the essential lessons of a century of business history, and combined this intelligence with tools for effective professional sales management. The New Science of Selling and Persuasion awaits smart business managers who are seeking the ultimate sales solutions."
–Jack Perry
Senior Vice President, National Sales Development, Manulife Financial

"At a time in business history when increased competition, customer demands, and a constantly changing selling terrain are thebaneof all sales executives,Bill Brooks has combined, with remarkable clarity, principles underlying the art of persuasion with the science of selling. The New Science of Selling and Persuasion will surely empower the executive who plays to win."
–Bob Damstetter
Vice President, Sales, Townsend Engineering Company

"Bill Brooks’s well-researched book is a powerful tool for every sales force. It should be required reading for sales professionals who seek to develop the way of successful selling in a complex, demanding business arena."
–James Canale
CEO, Net2 Technology Group

"Bill Brooks has the uncanny ability to articulate the truth. I know his message is correct because it resonates with my own heretofore unspoken belief structure. Bill has simply and systematically provided the language that crystallizes thought, the prerequisite to action."
–Mike Pierson
Vice President, Beckwith & Kuffel, Inc. ... Read more

Reviews (6)

Breakthrough Book!
This book is one of the best I've read on sales management and overall business strategies in years.

The principles and ideas Brooks presents in "The New Science" are causing me to re-think the way I'm running my operation...and I've been running a sales-driven organization for over 30 years!

I'd highly recommend this book to anyone whose income and success are driven by the performance of a sales team.

More sales management than sales
This is a book about sales management and not as much about selling. It is also a commercial for these Trimetrics assessments that Mr. Brooks must market and sell. I can't imagine that past the first chapter or 2 a salesman would get much out of it. It is certainly a decent book for sales managers but not so much for sales people.

A must-have book
As a Sales Trainer for 22 years, I recommend this book as a must-have, must read book for any serious student of selling and sales management. I will recommend it in all of my seminars. Bill Brooks has shown again his grasp of what it takes to build a successful sales career and a successful sales organization.

helpful guide
A good, solid sales book, with key points that I'll be sure to review again later. I like that the writing style is not patronizing like other sales books I read from time to time.

Misleading Title
If you buy this book because you search for scientific thought in the field of sales methodologies or persuasion, you will be diasappointed. It contains nothing of that. Salespeople will find nothing of value. The books is about tips for sales managers, thus the two stars. ... Read more

Book Description

Emotional Branding Bonds Brands With Today's Savvy Consumers

A visionary approach to building powerful brand loyalty, this groundbreaking book shows marketers of any product or service how to engage today's increasingly cynical consumers on deeper emotional levels. Case histories from the author's high-profile client list analyze demographic and behavioral shifts in populations and retail distribution channels, then show how all five senses can be used as powerful marketing tools to respond to those trends. Chapters detail how to develop strong brand personalities, customize brand presence to different consumer groups, use brand strategies in packaging and display, and facilitate breakthrough strategies for the Web. Chapters detail how to:

* develop unforgettable brand personalities
* customize brand presence to different consumer segments
* incorporate brand strategies into product and retail architecture design
* facilitate interactive access to your products through the Internet.

Emotional Branding breaks new ground in proposing innovative ways to create powerful and effective branding programs for meeting the challenges and opportunities of the new emotion-based economy. ... Read more

Reviews (30)

How to Connect Brands to People
According to Gobe, "an Emotional Branding approach is quite simply the crucial defining element that separates success from indifference in the marketplace....[It] brings a new layer of credibility and personality to a brand by connecting powerfully with people on a personal and holistic level....Emotional Branding is more than a process or research technology; it is based on the connections between people that transcend charts and graphs. It is a culture and way of living; a fundamental belief that people are the real force in commerce and that business and the street cannot survive separately." I begin my review with this brief excerpt because, with these remarks, Gobe creates a frame of reference for his reader before providing information and insights which differentiate his book from any other on the same general subject.

After an Introduction ("Emotional Branding: Fuel for Success in the Twenty-first Century"), Gobe presents his material within four Sections and then provides a Conclusion in which he acknowledges that branding is not for everyone while asserting that branding is about cultural relevance and emotional connection, not hype. For those who are responsible for devising, launching, and then managing a successful, emotionalized brand, he suggests three "essential" ideas: 1. "Brands have life cycles. The future of a brand is defined by its relevance at any given time and by how well it can protect the values that made it great. 2. Brands are elected every day based on their emotional relevance with the public and its commitment to quality. 3. Real brands are about meaning and truth." Here are some of the questions to which Gobe responds:

1. How can a brand engage people on the level of their senses and emotions?

2. Which brands have done so most effectively? How?

3. What is the biggest misconception in branding strategies? Why?

4. What are "The Ten Commandments of Emotional Branding"?

5. Which values are unique to Baby Boomer (born 1946-64), Gen X (born 1965-76), and Gen Y (born 1977-94) consumers? So what?

6. Which values are unique to African-American, Hispanic, Asian-American, Gay, and Lesbian consumers? So what?

7. Why are Women "The New Shoppers in Chief"?

8. Why are sensorial experiences (i.e. sight, sound, touch, taste, feel, and smell) "the uncharted territory of branding"?

9. Which branding strategies based on sensorial experiences have proven most effective? Why?

10. What are the "Key Trends for the New Millennium"? Why?

These questions correctly suggest the scope and depth of Gobe's perspectives on emotional branding. Throughout the book, he cites and discusses examples of branding initiatives which either succeeded or failed. I am also grateful for the inclusion of highly innovative graphics which illustrate "thinking out of the box" while creating an advertising campaign. (See the Introduction to Section III.) Gobe concludes his book with this observation: "To get people interested in a long-term relationship, keep your ear to the ground and always be ready for any market changes. Change is good, but predicting change is better -- the answer is within people's hearts." In this remarkable book, Gobe does indeed offer a new paradigm for connecting brands to people.

Those who share my high regard for Emotional Branding are strongly urged to check out Levitt's The Marketing Imagination, Ries and Trout's Positioning (NOT the sequel, The New Positioning), Brands: The New Wealth Creators edited by Hart and Murphy, Schmitt's Experiential Marketing, and Pine and Gilmore's The Experience Economy. For those who wish to explore the subject in even greater depth, I highly recommend Daniel Goleman's Emotional Intelligence and his more recently published Working with Emotional Intelligence.

How to Market to the Heart as Well as the Head
This is a great book. If you feel that people largely buy products and services for emotional reasons, and you want to learn more about branding strategies that address consumer emotions, this is for you. I would recommend you first read Lisa Fortini-Campbell's exceptional little book, "Hitting the Sweet Spot", then Chapters 3 and 10 (on "Brand Design" and "Advertising Strategy", by Bobby Calder, Steven Reagan and and Brian Sternthal respectively) in the new book by Dawn Iacobucci, "Kellog on Marketing" and then finish with "Emotional Branding". The Gobe book pulls everything together, yet maintains an unwavering, retriever-like focus on leveraging buyer emotions. Some of the new books like Hill and Rifkin's "Radical Marketing" stress the importance of buyer empathy and passion for the brand, but I have yet to read a book as good as "Emotional Branding" which tells the reader HOW TO DO all of these things.

Title is prime example of subject
Problems: there is a lot of useless commentary; Gobe pushes political correctness in advertising; he generalizes about Baby boomers, Generations X and Y; he often supplies only anecdotal evidence for his ideas. On the other hand, he seems sincerely interested in the subject, and there's some real insight underneath all the BS. About what you would expect from an Ad executive.

extraordinary new insight on marketing
I recommend this book to anyone wants to follow the new marketing trend of approaching consumers not in a rational way, but rather through an emotional connection that allows identification and enhtusiasm... taste, feel, smell, touch, hear: approaching the consumers using all the senses, allowing an holistic brand experience. A great book that stands out of the group, if you have to buy one book on emotional marketing, this is the one you cannot miss.

Good book, but 50% too long
This is a good book that explains the importance of creating an emotional connection with the consumer when designing a brand. It is however too long as the same (good) concept is repeated many times in different words. ... Read more

Book Description

The guru of the Guerrilla Marketing series, with over a million copies in print, teaches entrepreneurs how to market aggressively without spending one cent.

Levinson, the authority on big-business marketing on a small-business budget, takes this concept one step further by offering scores of marketing ideas that are completely free. He proves that aggressive marketing doesn't have to be expensive if you use creative and unconventional means.

* Hold a giveaway contest. You'll attract customers and acquire names for your mailing list.

* Give free talks, consultations, and demonstrations. You'll establish yourself as an expert and publicize your business at the same time.

* Post on websites, bulletin boards, and other online communities. They offer countless opportunities for spreading your business message.

* Feed your clients. Sending cookies or offering free refreshments in your store can set you apart from the competition.

Levinson offers dozens of other tips -- some straightforward, many surprising -- in a unique, indispensable guide that proves you don't have to pay top dollar to improve your bottom line. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

A must have for the savvy marketer
All books from Jay are concise and precise and this one gives the reader a wealth of precious information.

I was a complete marketing failure until I read Jay's books on marketing and learned about all of his unconventional weapons & strategies. By far the most powerful marketing information ever revealed. A definite must have for any serious marketer!

Dan Hamilton,
Certified Guerrilla Marketer, proudly affiliated with Jay Conrad Levinson's Guerrilla Marketing Association

http://metamorphosis.0catch.com

A must have for any serious marketer
All books from Jay are concise and precise and this one is a good introduction to the concept of "Guerrilla Marketing".

I was a complete marketing failure until I read Jay's books on marketing and learned about all of his unconventional weapons & strategies. By far the most powerful marketing information ever revealed. A definite must have for any serious marketer!

Dan Hamilton,
Certified Guerrilla Marketer, proudly affiliated with Jay Conrad Levinson's Guerrilla Marketing Association
http://metamorphosis.0catch.com

Jay keeps getting better and better
Guerrilla Marketing for FREE shows why a handful of marketing authors enjoy a disportionate lead over all the others. For over twenty-five years, Jay Conrad Levinson's Guerrilla Marketing books have debunked "high-cost creativity" and described how profit-generating marketing doesn't have to cost an arm and a leg. Time after time, Jay's books have broken sales records, and he's help his readers break their own profit records.

Guerrilla Marketing for FREE is Jay at his best, encouraging, motivating and concisely synthesizing porofit-generating concepts into easy, actionable steps that any business owner can immediately put to work increasing their profits.

Like Jay's earlier books, Guerrilla Marketing for FREE replaces theory with specific steps and techniques which create maximum results from minimum effort.

Nobody else could write this book as well as Jay, but anyone with a business or a cause to promote can effectively profit from this book. ... Read more

Book Description

This book represents a new – some may say radical – approach to forecasting.The authors explain how:

Forecasting less, not more, can yield higher customer service and lower inventoriesTeamwork, good communications, and clear accountabilities are more important than complex statistical forecasting models,It’s more beneficial to pursue process improvement than to focus narrowly on forecast accuracy.

This is an exciting, new, breakthrough approach to a traditionally difficult and frustrating task. ... Read more

Amazon.com

Seth Godin, one of the world's foremost online promoters, offers his best advice for advertising in Permission Marketing. Godin argues that businesses can no longer rely solely on traditional forms of "interruption advertising" in magazines, mailings, or radio and television commercials. He writes that today consumers are bombarded by marketing messages almost everywhere they go. If you want to grab someone's attention, you first need to get his or her permission with some kind of bait--a free sample, a big discount, a contest, an 800 number, or even just an opinion survey. Once a customer volunteers his or her time, you're on your way to establishing a long-term relationship and making a sale. "By talking only to volunteers, Permission Marketing guarantees that consumers pay more attention to the marketing message," he writes. "It serves both customers and marketers in a symbiotic exchange."

Godin knows his stuff. He created Internet marketer Yoyodyne and sold it in 1998 to Yahoo!, where he is a vice president. Godin delves into the strategies of several companies that successfully practice permission marketing, including Amazon.com, American Airlines, Bell Atlantic, and American Express. Permission marketing works best on the Internet, he writes, because the medium eliminates costs such as envelopes, printing, and stamps. Instead of advertising with a plain banner ad on the Internet, you should focus on discovering the customer's problem and getting permission to follow up with e-mail, he writes. Permission Marketing is an important and valuable book for businesses seeking better results from their advertising. --Dan Ring ... Read more

Reviews (110)

Finally focused marketing on customer needs does exist...
Everyday your letterbox is full of leaflets you never read, your banker send you a new financial proposal you already have in your portfolio... All these papers will go directly to the trash can, but interrupt your customer's life: time, privacy and peace of mind. This is the waste created by the "interruption marketing", which is not using correctly customers' databases or is bombarding TV spots you do not watch during film breaks.

Is this time over? Not sure when you see all e-mails or phone calls you receive to promote products of no interest for you. How to get your Attention in the middle of this information overload? Simply by asking your permission.

Seth Godin, who created Internet marketer Yoyodyne and sold it in 1998 to Yahoo, where he is a vice president is explaining to us how to do it in "Permission Marketing". With practical examples he shows us how to start a relationship with a customer by offering added value. Main ideas are around personalization, long-term relationship and truth building. Customer then is expecting information from you focused on his own needs. The challenge is to move from market share to customer share.

But how is this possible? The use of New Information Technologies and Internet allows a one to one communication with a customer with focused information and at a low price. This is really the contribution from "New Economy" and Permission Marketing is giving the keys to understand how these New Information Technologies allow focusing on a customer more and more demanding. The traditional marketing is moving quickly to One to One marketing.

Do not read Permission Marketing if you want to lose your customers to the profit of your competitor knowing how to build long-term relationship with them. If you add One to One from Don & Martha Peppers to your readings, you will be well prepared to succeed in front of the marketing shift arriving with the "New Economy".

A watershed book--I recommend all my clients read it
Internet marketing and relationship marketing are the subject of numerous books, but Seth Godin's Permission Marketing does a better job of explaining the concepts better than any other single volume.

Permission Marketing explains the differences between Interruption Marketing (old-style newspaper, TV and radio ads) and Permission Marketing--where visitors ask to be kept informed and willingly share information about themselves and their purchasing needs. It reinforces the successes I've enjoyed in over twenty years of marketing and shows how customer relationship-building techniques that were previously inefficient and, thus, unaffordable are now within the reach of all.

Permission Marketing cuts through the clutter of marketing theory and web technology and provides a highly readable, jargon-free conceptual framework for viewing web marketing in an new light. Throughout, Permission Marketing emphasizes integrity and customer respect--in contrast to books which are often subconsciously predicated on an adversarial relationship with prospects and customers.

Permission Marketing will change the way you think about advertising and marketing and suggest a whole new approach to your web site. It will inspire you to break out of the mold of price advertising.

Excellent
I "stumbled" in to Search Engine Marketing and now "do it" for a living with car dealerships in the San Francisco Bay Area.

This book, in it's first few pages, helped me. NO I don't know the author :)

David Saunders, Concord, CA

Want to learn about true, effective marketing...read this!
Mr.Godin is an excellent teacher of how to market effectively. Before reading this I thought of marketing probably like most do. I thought to be successful in marketing and advertising, that big was the way to go...big magazine ads, t.v. spots, target a large audience and you're sure to get lots of customers, etc. WRONG!

Mr. Godin hits the bull's-eye on the type of marketing that it takes to acquire and keep customers in your business. It is not mass marketing to anyone and everyone that's going to do it. But rather, Mr. Godin shows you how to set up a specific strategy, a clever method in which to acquire the type of customer you want to your particular business. If you own a sports shop, then your ideal customer wouldn't be a chef or a construction worker who just happened to walk into your store...it would be the die-hard, sports enthusiast that you want to attract. Mr. Godin shows you how to attract your "ideal" customer; He teaches you how to get your ideal customer to come to you.

I didn't fully understand all that "Permission Marketing" was really about until Mr. Godin broke it down and explained it to a tee. If you can get a potential customer to say "yes" to you prior to the sale, your chances of acquiring them as an actual customer dramatically increases. This is what Mr. Godin shows you how to do. He is a wise marketer and you can be too! HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

read this review
So there are steps in every transaction. The whole point of this book is that you don't create lifelong relationships with strangers. Every sale consists of multiple mini sales.
turn the page
click the link...

You go to amazon
browse through books
see related books
browse through reviews
buy the book

While some of the data relating to the internet is outdated, the fundamental message of the book is still strong. Those who think traditional media outpace targeted ads are dead wrong. ... Read more

Book Description

In this path-breaking new book, best-selling author and leading go-to-market strategist Larry Friedman provides a practical and battle-tested approach for taking products, services, divisions, or even an entire company to market!

Drawing on dozens of examples and best-practices across a variety of industries, 'Go To Market Strategy' lays out a clear and actionable blueprint for building a winning go-to-market plan - one that will enable you to do more business, with more customers, more often, and more profitably.

In this book you'll find all of the techniques and tools you need to answer today's crucial go-to-market questions:

ú Which markets offer the best opportunities for profitable growth?

ú What do my target customers need?How can I do a lot more business with them?

ú What mix of channels and partners will help me reach and sell to the most customers at the lowest possible cost?

ú Do I have the right product or solution?How can I create broader customer interest in my offerings?

ú Do I have a winning value proposition?What would make the 'message' more compelling - and drive more purchasing activity?

'Go To Market Strategy' is not about incremental change. As Friedman points out, it is for executives seeking nothing less than double-digit revenue growth and the slashing of at least 10-15 percent of selling costs - absolutely realistic results that go-to-market innovators have consistently achieved. This book lays out all of the techniques used by the world's top go-to-market leaders, so you too can achieve those kinds of results, and gain a real go-to-market competitive advantage in your markets.

New thinking from the author of 'The Channel Advantage'Offers ready made go-to-market strategic planning for any organizationPractical advice and a revolutionary strategic approach to creating and retaining customers using new technologies and new channel mixes for faster, more efficient routes to market. ... Read more

Reviews (10)

Well done!
Good luck finding a better book on how to pick your markets and successfully capture and serve customers, because you probably won't. This is the definitive text, EASILY one of the five or ten top marketing or general strategy books of the last ten years. The chapter on market selection has no equal in helping you understand the EXACT process to use to identify and evaluate different market segments. The chapters on channels and channel integration are the first clear explanation I've seen on the whole topic. It's just a great, great book - buy it.

The "Bible" Of Channel Strategy???????
My boss (the vice president of marketing, for a Fortune 200 media company) handed me this book and said: Read this; it is the bible of channel strategy. I noticed one of the other reviewers here also called it the Bible. Well, there is only one Bible, so let's not overdo it, people! Please! The book is impressive so far, though. I have read five chapters of nine as of this review. Go To Market Strategy's best characteristic is that it is very well written and articulate, and also, that it has a huge amount of information and new ideas for product marketing and management. There are many strategies and practical tools that my team can use immediately to improve the launch of new media services into key market segments. I do have a criticism, and that is that I do not think the author sufficiently considers the role of pricing strategy as part of a go to market strategy. For a marketing book said to be of biblical proportions, I would have expected to see more on pricing; while not completely absent, I would have to say that pricing is not the author's favorite topic. Also, some more treatment of international partnering and the global aspects of product launches would have been helpful, since most new product initiatives involve a heavy dose of int'l partnering issues. Aside from those concerns, Go To Market Strategy does live up to its reputation for being the best book in its field and the one that everybody seems to be reading. Friedman is influential as a marketing and channels theorist and practitioner, and it is clear why when reading this book. If you buy it, read the footnotes, because half of them are like little "time-outs" with amusing observations. Recommended.

can't go wrong
Attended the author's strategy workshop in NYC in December, got a freebie copy of the book...can't argue with that! Best biz book of last 3-4 years, hands down...the "Bible" of go to market. 360 degree view of market / channel / sales / partnering strategy. Shows how all pieces of puzzle fit together. Really, really, really, really like the chapters on partnering, channel integration. A+++

very helpful
This very helpful book is by author L. Friedman, whose book The Channel Advantage from 1998 or 1999 is still appreciated for its comprehensive look at channel programmes and management. This new book is broader in theme and less focused on channels as it is on general strategy issues one must confront successfully to take a product or service to the market place. As with The Channel Advantage, few business practitioners or students will be disappointed and many will appreciate the inclusion of important new ideas and concepts for managing channels and developing a comprehensive go to market programme. I found it very worthwhile reading.

Great marketing book
This is a great marketing book. No hype and no b.s., just a lot of sound, practical ideas for connecting better with your customers and doing more business with them. The theoretical ideas are very well supported by practical advice and what must be 25 or 30 useful cases examples from Corporate America (and Europe - some Asian examples would have been nice too). I thought the chapters on choosing markets and aligning with customers were especially well written and useful. I also thought the part on value propositions was eye opening and likely to lead more than a few executives to rethink whether they really have a winning message. For a marketing book, you always have to wonder whether it's serious or if it's just a bunch of stupid McKinsey 2x2 matrices. This book is one of the rare ones that trades in all those tired "cash cow" pedantics for practical, sales-oriented advice. So I give this book a solid 5 stars because I don't know what more you could want from a marketing book. Finally, the two chapters on channels are detailed, complete, well written, and full of important post dot-bomb ideas for building a new channel strategy. These two chapters alone would be well worth the cost of the book. ... Read more

Book Description

Consumers, 2/e, by Arnould, Price and Zinkhan, analyses how and why consumers purchase and consume the way they do. It outlines both the individual and social factors that influence these processes.The text presents a global, behavioral, and multi-disciplinary coverage of consumer behavior. Consumers is praised as the most current text in the field in the areas of technology, research, and illustrative examples. ... Read more

Book Description

"If you work with the affluent, you will most certainly benefit from Matt's work. This book is a must-read!"
—Ray Scalfani, Managing Director, AllianceBernstein

"Specific, thoughtful, supported with evidence and practical, it deserves to be read and reread by salespeople targeting the affluent."
—George W. Dudley, scientist/author, Coauthor, The Psychology of Sales Call Reluctance: Earning What You're Worth in Sales

"Oechsli's book is an ideal road map if you want to reach the affluent and become affluent. . . . I highly recommend it."
—Rich Santos, Group Publisher, Primedia Business Magazines & Media

"Nobody knows more about the affluent market than Matt Oechsli. His research is impeccable, and his strategies are real-world. They work!"
—Bill Cates, President, Referral Coach International

"Matt Oechsli's The Art of Selling to the Affluent is specific, practical, supported by the latest independent research, and will help anyone attempting to market their services to the affluent."
—Ron Carson, Senior Vice President, LPL, President, Peak Productions

"Matt Oechsli's well-documented work will become the primary source for selling to the affluent. Fail to read this at your own risk."
—Bill Brooks, author, The New Science of Selling and Persuasion

"Matt has done it again. His combination of research with practical how-tos has created a must-read book for anyone working with the affluent."
—Steve Binder, Regional President, Wachovia Securities

"Anyone actively applying the methodology and techniques learned from Matt will become as affluent as the affluent they serve—so be warned!"
—Paul W. Chan, CFP, CPA, ChFc, CLU, CEO, S&P NewWorth Advisors, Malaysia ... Read more

Reviews (6)

a must read for CEO's
As the CEO of a software company, I have been searching for PRACTICAL advice for enhancing the experience for our customers. Most books I have seen are full of theory and are basically worthless. If you don't walk away from this book with a list of action items, then you obviously don't care about serving your customers.

I believe that this book will be on my desk as a reference for a long time. It will take a couple of years to implement all that I learned.

Definitely worth the read!

Not just philosophy, but how to design around the customer
Unlike others in the field, Wheeler and Smith lay out what you need to do to consciously design a business that consistently gives the customer an experience that lives up to their brand. In the rush to cost control, we often forget that it's easy to make life difficult for the customer, and the result is massive damage to the brand, even to the point of destroying the organization.

A must read, especially in uncertain times, where the tendency will be to cut, without regard for the customer.

Managing the Customer Experience
We all know that the customer has already become the decision maker of company operations in the digital economy. Without custmers, no company can survive. Shaun's book certainly uncovers the secrets on how to sustain the performance and growth of the company. He illustrates his proven model with a number of cases we can benchmark. In this regard, I dare to say that this book may be used by all business people as the bible of management.

Managing the Customer Experience
This is a must-read book for executives and managers seeking to improve customer loyalty. The authors convincingly demonstrate how branded customer experience drives customer loyalty to create a sustainable competitive advantage. The book is well researched and contains dozens of examples of companies who have met the loyalty/branding challenge. The stories behind the success of Harley Davidson, Amazon.com, Virgin, Home Depot and many others are fascinating and highly instructive. The ideas and perspectives covered in this book are both insightful and pragmatic. It is an excellent resource.

Practical Insight
This book is definitely worth the read. It does a nice job of quickly building the case as to why delivering an exceptional customer experience is the key issue for many companies today, especially service firms. More importantly it provides a clear example of how to get it done, so for internal practioners this book can serve as a straightforward roadmap for implementation. I also thought the examples were good, especially as they related to the issue of senior leadership engagement. Overall I would highly recommend this book to anyone else interested in this subject since I have not found a lot of material that actually describes what to do to deliver a branded customer experience. ... Read more

Book Description

Out of nowhere, a brand like Red Bull, The Blair Witch Project, or even the Howard Dean campaign takes off with little or no conventional marketing.How do these "accidents" really happen, and why do they ultimately succeed or fail?

Welcome to marketing without marketing: the emergence of the hijacked brand. Don't let the all-too-clever subtitle fool you. Far from representing the absence of marketing, this book describes the most complex sort of marketing possible, as well as the least understood.

Brand Hijack offers a practical how-to guide to marketing that finally engages the marketplace. It presents an alternative to conventional marketing wisdom, one that addresses such industry crises as media saturation, consumer evolution, and the erosion of image marketing.

Fair warning: this book is not for everyone.It proposes untraditional, even counterintuitive practices: Let the marketplace take over. Stop clamoring for control and learn to be spontaneous. Be bold enough to accept a certain degree of uncertainty in the definition of your brands.

Brand hijacking relies on a radical concept: letting go. What a frightening, yet oddly liberating thought.

Marketing without Marketing: A Brand Hijack Manifesto

- Let go of the fallacy that your brand belongs to you. It belongs to the market.

- Co-create your brand by collaborating with your consumers.

- Scrap the focus groups, fire the cool chasers, and hire your audience.

- Facilitate your most influential and passionate consumers in translating your brand's message to a broader audience.

- Be patient. Your brand initiative could take years to take off -or weeks.

- Be flexible. Carefully plan every step, but be totally open to having the story rewritten along the way.

- Lose control. Free yourself to seize sudden opportunities that only last for moments.

- Resist the paranoid urge for consistency. Embrace the value of being surprising and imperfect.

- Respect your community. Draw the line between promotion and the adbusting trinity of manipulation, intrusion and co-option.

Let the market hijack your brand.
... Read more

Reviews (8)

One idea made into a dog that don't hunt
There is more than one way to successfully promote a product. If you find a way that has not, up to now, been incorporated into a text book, then use it as long as it works.

That is the substance of the 260 pages of the book. There a few examples, ridden to death, of underground/hippie/counter-culture advertising successes. The point of each is that the advertising was not done in the mainstream, dump a zillion bucks into TV and/or magazine ads manner.

How do you Hijack a brand? You don't. That's the whole point of the concept -- sometimes a subset of the general population will latch onto a product for its own reasons (think Doc Maartens) and propel it to success. The subset "hijacked" the brand, at least in the authors parlance. Another phrase that covers the same ground is "niche marketing." That, of course, derives from the notion of a biological niche. All the plants and animals on the planet live in a niche. How novel, to rename "niche marketing" to "Brand Hijack."

My personal good news is that I was able to read the book in about 90 minutes, minimizing the time wasted.

sets the bar mighty high....
I too read a lot of business books...especially those on marketing.As a pretty small book and magazine publisher (ie old media), I have to be 3 steps ahead when it comes to things. I found myself nodding in agreement with every page I turned.

I recommend reading this book along with Seth Godin's Purple Cow and Free Prize Inside.

The great thing about having a very small budget for marketing is that it forces you to think and be highly creative. Sure, big companies will always have more money....but they may not be able to have more creativity or freedom.

And that's why this book is so useful. It is a blueprint for change that small companies can really embrace...if they choose to.

Should be mandatory reading in business school.
This is one of the best business books I have read in some time - and I read a lot of business books.I picked this book up at a retail store and, being intrigued by the jacket verbiage, actually paid full retail price - something I don't often do.

Wipperfurth has created a terrific read that anyone from an upstart-entrepreneur to a seasoned brand manager or marketing executive will undoubtedly find fascinating and eye-opening.

The best brands are those that develop the highest quality affiliation between the product or service and the mind of the consumer (see the critical research and analysis done by the Gallup Organization's William J. McEwen and John Fleming "Customer Satisfaction Doesn't Count" in which the authors conclude that satisfying customers without creating an emotional connection with them has no real value.Indeed the only thing that matters in the end is the strength or quality of that relationship - something they refer to as customer "engagement").Great brand managers attempt to create, promote and maintain this relationship.But what if the market runs off with your brand?Or, perhaps more importantly, how can you get the market to run off with your brand?

In Brand Hijack, Wipperfurth examines certain brands that have gone a step past the usual brand management tactics - brands that have actually been "hijacked" by consumers - some serendipitously while others have been carefully orchestrated and costly marketing campaigns.Some have failed and some have succeeded and Wipperfurth does a brilliant job of accounting for the difference.As great as it would be to have a marketing windfall in the form of a serendipitous brand hijack, most of us will have to actually make it happen or, at least, attempt to make it happen.But the path is fraught with pitfalls and strewn with the corpses of brand managers who have tried and failed.You will need a guide to climb this mountain and Wipperfurth has here created the equivalent of the Lonely Planet guide to brand hijacking.

The case studies are engrossingly interesting.You may want to read this book with highlighter in hand.Profound insights reside on nearly every page.

I am currently launching a new business and will certainly use what I have learned in this book to better my business plan, my marketing campaigns and my overall approach to customer engagement.

Thanks Alex Wipperfurth for a wonderful read.

Wow... he's captured the uncapturable
Ever read a book and, as you're reading it, you go 'oh.. YEA.. that's RIGHT isn't it".This book if full of those moments.It's rare that I'll pick up a marketing focused book like this and read it in one sitting, but this one did it to me.I literally couldn't put it down.Wipperfurth's insights and observations are dead on.

And the warnings inside the front cover are right: This book is not for everyone.If you're a good solid marketing citizen, particularly one in the corporate world, don't waste your time.You won't get it.But, if you've got at least a tiny streak of the truly creative "f**k em, let's do it this way, it just seems right' in you, read this book.It'll help you validate those innate insights you've had and give you examples of people and companies that have acted on them, and succeeded wildly.It will also lay out how you can really screw up this very real and underutilized approach to marketing, this, well, for lack of a better term "anti-marketing marketing".

Sell all of your other marketing books.
Tucked away, towards the back of Brand Hijack is an inspiring nugget of surprise rarely found in most chartbuster marketing books. "Too often we try to borrow authenticity rather than earn it," Wipperfurth says. "Companies [are] eager to be associated with black culture... [and] in their rush to capitalize on it, they reduce black culture to fashion, buzzwords and trends-raiding it for `everything but the burden.'" Is this a book about marketing and ethics? You bet it is-but Wipperfurth is as invested in new ways to rethink and save the discipline of marketing from its pitfalls as he is interested in cultural theft and racial profiling by those in his line of work. His main point? Marketers are too busy scheming to tell consumers who they are instead of working with consumers to create brand identities.

The result is a must-read for an entire spectrum of 21st-century style-chasers to corporate protesters-from every Sergio Zyman worshipper to Naomi Klein "no-logo" policefolk. But, most of all, this book is for the traditional marketing agency-and anyone who wants to emulate them. A letter to the editor of the New York Times sets the context for Brand Hijack: "We have a message for the movers and shakers of Madison Avenue-`Tone down the relentless yammering; you're talking too loud for us to listen.'"

The subtitle's premise of Marketing Without Marketing is somewhat simple, but like a Paula Z exercise video, it requires remembering to do it everyday to bring around real change: marketers must understand the consumer as a "cultural producer"-an innovative, creative person that is not an empty receptacle for advertisements. Wipperfurth asks marketers to: stop chasing the new cool ("it belongs to the market"), think of marketing as facilitation (treat consumers as peers), "act like an anthropologist when uncovering market opportunity," and give consumers the opportunity to encode their meanings on products instead of having them jammed down their throat. Not easy, but he gives a plethora of examples-from Doc Martens to Napster, and from Pabst Blue Ribbon to Ipods. And, he's full of surprises-anthropological models, cultural studies-type analyses, and the occasional pop-psychological remedy/self-help pick-me-up (e.g., "letting go of an idea").

The advice is ethical: don't tell people who they are, and think about the cultural context of your products. Make moral decisions based on your marketing plan's contents, and figure out ways that your consumers can be "art directors." The real academic and practical theory of Wipperfurth's splendid and well-written work is his ability to draw on academic models and anthropological studies of the consumer, and he explains how to shift from individual-psychological advertising models towards the future of engaging in marketing conversations with consumers in cultural ways, letting brand-hijacks to take over.

An absolute must-read. ... Read more

Book Description

Proven guerrilla marketing tactics specifically designed for consultants

Jay Conrad Levinson’s Guerrilla Marketing revolutionized the way marketers do business by defying the conventional wisdom that effective marketing means spending big bucks. He devised highly successful marketing strategies that rely on creativity, imagination, and energy–instead of money–to get the job done. Now, Guerrilla Marketing for Consultants applies the power of guerrilla marketing to the hypercompetitive business of consulting.

"Wow! If you’re the sort of person who tells someone how to build a watch when they ask you what time it is, this is the book for you. No baloney, essential, useful hands-on advice for anyone who’s serious about being a consultant."
–Seth Godin, author of Free Prize Inside

"Great consultants don’t just talk about marketing, they do it–every day. That’s why they win. Follow the marketing advice in this book, and you’ll outsell, outperform, and outlast your competitors."
–Jeffrey Fox, marketing consultant and author of How to Become a Marketing Superstar

"Mike McLaughlin and Jay Levinson are two of the smartest, street-savvy marketers around. Guerrilla Marketing for Consultants distills their collective wisdom into a practical field guide, chock-full of practical tips and tactics."
–Harry Mills, author of The Rainmaker’s Toolkit and Artful Persuasion ... Read more

Book Description

This concise and well written book integrates logistics into a supply chain management context. Current events, along with new theory and practice make it a valuable reference for industry practitioners, and compliment material on the basics in warehousing, transportation, inventory, and packaging and material handling. More in-depth coverage includes service response logistics, logistics accounting, and reverse logistics. Also featured, are important chapters on service response logistics, logistics accounting, and reverse logistics. For logistics analysts and managers, distribution analysts, warehouse managers, transportation analysts, supply chain management managers, and purchasing managers.

Book Description

Praise for Jim Holden’s World Class Selling "World Class Selling is a must for any company executive and sales professional committed to achieving world class supremacy. Jim Holden has surpassed himself." —George E. Harvey President, Business Group AT&T Canada "The Holden Corporation and its value concept teachings are not new to the Microsoft OEM division. For the past three years we have worked with them, immersing ourselves in their value management methodology, applying it to a variety of scenarios in our business, with excellent results. For us, World Class Selling is another great extension of what we have been practicing for some time. I’m sure it will make us an even better organization to reckon with." —Joachim Kempin Senior Vice President, OEM Division, Microsoft "In World Class Selling, Jim Holden adds another dimension to his teaching effectiveness. The real-life highs, lows, threats to, and accomplishments of Mary Gagan establish the drama of what selling has become…an outstanding book which addresses a very complicated subject in a very interesting and comprehensive way." —William Y. O’Connor Chairman, CEO, and President, GTECH Corporation "The concepts put forth in World Class Selling, created by linking critical sales and sales-related areas of a business, will drive any company’s ability to change as market circumstances change. Holden Corporation has been a strong, passionate, and value-focused partner to ALLTEL. Their proven processes are helping to link every employee, everywhere in the company, directly or indirectly to providing value to our customers." —Jeff Fox President, ALLTEL Information Services "Using the methods Jim Holden spells out in World Class Selling, we at Origin were able to use one common language and professionalize our sales process and sales force, resulting in an increased hit rate and lower sales cost." —Peter Overakker Executive Vice President Origin International (The Netherlands) ... Read more

Reviews (8)

Outstanding
World Class Selling does a masterful job of not only focusing on what salespeople need to do to be successful, but on what a salesperson's company needs to do. For example, if my company's marketing is not aligned with sales, it makes my job twice as difficult.

I also very much enjoyed the real life scenario that runs through the book, espically the ending.

Don't Bother
This is worse than a complete waste of time -- it is nothing more than an infomercial for the sales training program run by the same group. It is filled with Capitalized Letters and Italicized Jargon that are part of the cute terminology. The book is written around some styalized characters who walk through a script -- it is impossible to read, and even less possible to gain any valuable insight, it is so annoying. I wish that I could get my money back. The worst part is that it seems like there might be some good ideas underneath, if you could just get to them.

Definitive approach to transform a company's sales culture.
"Not adequate! Superb selling skills are not adequate to ensure success in today's topsy-turvy global marketplace. Winning companies will intimately understand their customers' goals, their strengths, and their weaknesses. They will distill this information into a detailed understanding of solutions that provide the highest value leverage. Solutions are more than products and supporting services. They are the tangible intangibles that derive from the total company-to-company relationship. Having a company internalize the new paradigm that the entire organization - not just the sales department - is responsible for securing and retaining key customers will usually require a radical culture change. Jim Holden, in World Class Selling, almost brutally represents the horror story that can result from not making the paradigm shift. This book will be of limited value to a sales force if sales leadership does not 'sell' every member of the executive leadership team on reading this book, discussing the implications, and then using its concepts as the basic framework to transform the organization into a well-oiled value selling machine."

Jim Holden solves the modern sales problems of today.
Jim Holden has applied the research necessary to identify the sales and marketing problems faced by fortune 500 companies today. Not only does he identify the problems, but he carefully and entertainingly takes the reader through a real life example and solution to the problems.

This is a must read for every professional marketer and sales manager today, as well as the CEO's and CFO's. The helps every one understand and work together to solve the modern problems in this competitive environment.

"World Class Selling" is a great textbook and a great read!
"World Class Selling" is to "Power Base Selling" as HDTV is to analog TV. Jim Holden's new release brings added dimension to his proven techniques, with illustrations of where and how to use them . It will become a "must" for marketing and sales professionals, as well as management executives and technology developers. As a setting, he develops a storyline all can relate to, and at the same time, he instructs. The result is a Systems Engineering Masters Course for Business Development. Take the suggestion to visit efox and you will experience the future...with "just-in-time" learning , and on-line proficiency refreshment, using state-of-the-art access tools. ... Read more

Book Description

Marketing is the most important thing that you do in business today, even if your job title doesn't have the word marketing in it. That is because marketing, in all its varied forms, is concerned with things like attracting customers, and

• Getting them to buy your product
• Making sure that they are happy with their purchases
• Persuading them to come back for more

What could be more important? Ever try to run a business without customers?

Marketing encompasses several specialized fields – from advertising to public relations, from selling to strategy, from database management to packaging and product design. How can you possibly be an expert at even half of these tasks? But at some point, anyone who wears a marketing hat has to handle problems in these areas and more. Marketing For Dummies shows you how.

While this guide delves deep into the classic four components of marketing – product, price, placement, and promotions – it reaches beyond the basics of how to design a simple marketing program and gives you insight into

• Creating a compelling Internet strategy
• Succeeding at trade shows
• Producing interesting labeling, billboards, and print ads
• Understanding point-of-purchase advertising

Sure, marketing can be a great deal of fun – it is, after all, a rare aspect of business where creativity is not only tolerated but essential to success. Yet in the long run, marketing is all about the bottom line. And Marketing For Dummies has a great many solutions of use to anyone who faces the challenge of finding and satisfying customers. ... Read more

Reviews (6)

Alex Hiam is the MAN!
I loved this book. Very accessible for non-MBAs, engaging and utterly readable. I got lots of ideas. Made me want to look into Hiam's other books.

A helpful basic marketing book
I have worked in marketing for many years and bought this book when I first started working in a marketing job. It was a refresher book for me after the marketing education I received. In general, this is a good basic "what is marketing?" book that I would recommend to a non-marketing person who wants to learn about marketing or else to someone who's just begun working in a marketing role.

Good book for students studying marketing
I bought this book to reinforce what I was tought in the classroom, and it did just that. It's a good overview of the marketing mix and never gets too technical. Great for students who are studying marketing in college.

Good for the Non-Marketer
"Marketing for Dummies" is the Marketing 101 of how-to books. It never gets very deep into any one area, and has lots of helpful tips in many different areas. While I'm not going to make a banner or awning for my office, and don't have the money for an all-out market research effort, I was reminded of the sorts of creativity and actions the competition can and does take.

Good for the person who dabbles in marketing and can't afford a real, live PR/Marketer.

great referance
i am a third year marketing student and found this book to be of great help. There came a time when i had to write a detailed marketing structure report, all i have to say is that i ACED it! ... Read more

Book Description

Can You Really Get Paid to Shop?If you are looking for a flexible, fun way to make extra money, mystery shopping may be for you! You can get paid to shop, eat in restaurants, get your hair cut, go to the movies and more . . . and Cathy Stucker will show you how.

This newly updated and expanded edition of the industry-favorite guide is jammed with tips and insider knowledge from mystery shopping companies. Both beginners and experienced mystery shoppers will become better, more successful shoppers with the information in this manual, including:

o Why businesses are willing to pay you to shop.

o A step-by-step plan to get started.

o Who hires mystery shoppers and how to contact them.

o What to do--and what not to do--when working with mystery shopping companies.

o Tips for shopping "undercover" without being discovered.

o What you should say in your reports and how to say it.

o How to get more mystery shopping assignments and how to get the best assignments. ... Read more

Reviews (14)

Don't "Shop" until you "Drop" the money for this book!
For someone who wants to cut through the hype and get to the nitty-gritty of mystery shopping, Cathy Stucker's "The Mystery Shopper's Manual (5th Edition) is the book for you.

I've been mystery shopping for three years now, and Cathy's book provided the information I needed to get started. None of the -"Get rich mystery shopping!"scams, or attempts to sell mystery shopping as a way to make easy money with little or no skills required--- graces the pages of this book. Not to mention the come-ons (I get e-mails daily on these) that promise that mystery shoppers keep designer clothes, eat in five-star restaurants or take home merchandise worth hundreds of dollars.

Her advice is sound (based on years of experience as a mystery shopper herself) and you know within a few pages that she knows that she's talking about! She views mystery shopping as a profession and offers practical advice to those who might want to get in the business as well as for those who already are. She points out common mistakes that shopper make, how to contact people who hire mystery shoppers, and how to get the prime assignments. Her book even features a mystery shopper application. Very helpful for someone who wants know exactly what are the requirements needed to become a mystery shopper.

In short, The Mystery Shopper Manual is a "how to" book written by someone who "did" it. And "does" it. Cathy continues to mystery shop and passes on what she has learned over the years.

On a personal note here: In August 2003 I attended the "Mystery Shopper Gold Certification Workshop" in Seattle and was surprised (and delighted)when I saw that it was Cathy who had developed the Mystery Shopping Providers Association workbook that I was holding in my hand.

A perfect match, I thought. The Mystery Shopping Provider Association having Cathy Stucker as spokeswoman as well has having her author the manual that was used as the "Bible" for the conference.

If you're serious about pursuing mystery shopping as a legitimate part-time income opportunity, I do believe that this is the book for you!

Great Info and Tons of Leads
This book made it so easy to get started--All the mystery shopping leads will keep me busy for a long time.I like that the information comes straight from mystery shopping companies, so I know that it's true.
The Action Plan, which outlined what I needed to do, step-by-step, was especially useful.Beth O'Malley

Perfect book for new mystery shoppers!
This book is very informative and I can attest to most of its accuracy. I have been mystery shopping for National Shopping Service for years and love it. They have some really fun mystery shopping opportunities and the pay is pretty good. This would be a great company to get started with as they are very big and have a ton of clients. You can sign up online on their website at http://www.nationalshoppingservice.com.

No real information
This book is over priced. There is nothing in it that can't be found for free by doing a basic search just using the words "mystery shopping"

Substantive, realistic and helpful
I read this book out of curiosity about what mystery shoppers do and who hires them. Cathy Stucker offers real-world knowledge about what mystery shoppers do, how to get such work, what you can expect in the way of earnings and much, much more. The book is also attractive and well-written and even includes an easy-to-use directory of companies looking for mystery shoppers. ... Read more

Book Description

Sales legend Bill Cates uses his experience and expert knowledge to show sales professionals how to work smarter (not harder) by employing "The Four Cornerstones of Referrals" --relationship building and customer service, creating referral alliances and networks, prospecting, and targeting niche markets. Using Cates's easy-to-master referral-based selling techniques, readers:

• Work less and earn more by getting existing customers to work for them generating high-quality referrals
• Turn every business contact into a relationship and every relationship into a sales success story

Reviews (8)

Thumbs up!
"Get More Referrals Now" offers practical techniques on how to meet qualified prospects. It has had a measurable impact helping us identify new business relationships and increase revenue. I highly recommend this book.

Buy this book now!
This straightforward and down-to-earth book provided me with the strategic advice I needed on how to change the way I do business, and it's made all the difference in generating quality leads that produce faster and easier sales. There's no mumbo-jumbo; just great ideas you can put to use right away.

Every chapter has real-life examples of Bill's concepts in action, and there's absolutely no doubt in my mind anyone looking to grow their business should read this book. With the results I've gotten I consider Bill a silent partner in my business, and I constantly refer back to this book when I have a problem to solve or need a new idea.

Buy this book now!

Your #1 Marketing Strategy
Almost everyone in business will acknowledge that the best way to gain new business is through referrals. Bill explains in easy-to-understand terms exactly how to transform your existing customers and clients into your business advocates. Most importantly, Bill shows us how to accomplish this without fear and in a manner that actually strengthens your customer relationships. This book is not just for sales people either, anyone in the organization that interacts with your customers should read this book.

Great book with many applications
This is a great book, and a wonderful sales tool. I personally believe that relationships are the key to success; especially job-hunting success, which this book is fully applicable. The reason is simple, when you are job hunting you are selling yourself, and you need referrals since most jobs are filled because someone knew someone. This book will help you get you the referrals necessary to land a great job. If you need job ideas you may want to invest in "How to find your dream job and make it a reality: solutions for a rewarding and meaningful career" by Jason McClure.

If you are job seeker Jason's book makes a wonderful companion to this book. If you are not job seeker, than this book stands on its own merit. Invest in this book today and you will not regret it.

The Perfect Sales Guide
This book is considered one