Marketing Books

This book makes for some very compelling reading. It is not often that I read a book that delivers the goods... but these authors have nailed it. It uses both traditional and dot com companies to illustrate ways any company can leverage the Internet to gain customers at substantially reduced costs. This book has everything you need to implement a successful e-mail campaign. From how to identify good email lists to how to create the right message. Including dos and don'ts, front-end tips and back end response analysis. Has just the right balance of technical and practical information. I am a marketing manager working for a 'Fortune 500' company. The information in this book cost me hundreds of thousands of dollars to find out. Some things are so important, I wish I thought of them myself or discovered them sooner. I can't wait to try some of these techniques out and see the effect on my next campaign. I am recommending this book to everyone I know. Buy it!

These authors know their stuff. They've been very instrumental in helping Ancestry.com grow to over 320,000 paid subscribers over the past 18 months. Email Marketing is now one of our largest sources of subscriptions. I recommend this book for both beginner and expert alike.

I bought this book because I know the authors by reputation. My company was a traditional mail order company. We used to sell all of our products through our printed catalog. The Internet has changed all of that. Half our budget is now dedicated to e-mail marketing.

I applied the Author's recommendations and saw my e-mail response rates take off. On the most recent campaign, I saw a 247% lift in response resulting from the use of just one of their techniques.

The book is written in very clear and concise language. It's methodical and step-by-step method worked wonders for my company's program. I've read all the other books currently on the market, they just don't compare. If you're new to e-mail marketing or a serious pro, this book has information that you can put to use right away.

The tips and tricks in creating an e-mail program were dead on. I especially liked the chapters on the type of products that can be sold via the Internet and the characteristics of a successful Internet Buyer. The "Multi-Mailing" idea alone was worth the price of the book.

***** FIVE STARS***** Excellent..... If you are an executive looking for information on how email marketing will impact your business, you'll want to read this book.

If you want to know how the pros are using email marketing buy this book.

It details the differences between opt in permission based lists, and SPAM, and how to avoid the pitfalls that can literally kill your business. It comes complete with information on where you can find the best email lists and email marketing services in the business.

It identifies the different types of copy, formatting, text Vs HTML, rich media, etc, and provides insight into which may be best for your business. I've been asking everyone about timing of our messages. No one was able to give me a clear answer that made any sense. This book gave me great insight into the time and day that is best for me to do my email transmissions... and the auothor's information produced immediate positive results for us.

Aside from the practical knowledge, I also liked this book because the author's share the latest thinking about where this medium is going, and what steps to take today to make sure that your business reaps the rewards of the future.

This book is not just for dot comers. I would strongly recommend this book to anyone involved in the sales and marketing of their company's products and services.

This book is now the definitive resource on email marketing.

Any book that Bob Bly is associated with is bound to be good--no, great! And this one is no exception.

The author explores this new, exciting medium we call email and uncovers its powerful potential for direct response selling. It leads you through the basic techniques of marketing through email. What works and what doesn't. Most importantly, it steers you clear of potential pitfalls inherent in this new medium--like how to avoid spamming, etc..

A great book on email marketing that is thorough, timely, and bound to become a classic in its field.

I am a party consultant by trade with several large accounts, and this book has provided some fantastic new activities. It is difficult to think of new games and concepts when you have been in the business for a while, so it helps to have an outsider's ideas. The psychic and seance activities are unbelievably innovative! We have modified some of the activities to tone them down for corporate accounts, but the concepts are still very strong and easily adaptable. Considering my hourly charges, this book was a bargain.

I got tired of bikini contests, but it's really difficult to constantly think of new and fun things to do with people. So I did some homework and --tadah!-- I found this crazy book! In the past 4 months, I have worked non-stop and have enjoyed quite a success, due in part to inspiration and general kooky behavior described in this book! I now own TWO copies of "Make Some Noise", one which I carry with me to all gigs, and one that I leave at the club, and they're both well loved and dog eared. This book has been a source of ideas for mayhem and merriness for me, and I would like to keep on keeping on! I am anxiously awaiting the sequel... HIGHLY recommend this fun book to anyone in the entertainment business, whether you're a DJ, band, bar manager, or party planner. You won't be disappointed!

I have read this book, cover to cover, and continually use it as a reference guide to help me increase my club business in West Chester, PA. I would recommend this book to anyone, who wants to be successful in the club business.

I picked up this book a few months ago for some party game ideas to use at my DJ events. I have to tell you I've had things spilled on it, the pages are ratty, the cover is now torn, but I make sure I've always got it with me because I've used this book countless times. Some of these contests are hilarious. I've generated many referral sales and picked up a few nights at a local nightclub as a result of the chaos that the things in this book have caused! Make Some Noise is an invaluable resource for DJs and bars. Also recommend How To Be A DJ by same author - even more awesome marketing tips!

Forget about bikini contests, banana eating contests and all that silly stuff everyone else has been doing the past 10 years. It's no wonder the club business is suffering - it's been incredibly BORING! "Make Some Noise" finally brings some new and sometimes pretty wild contests and promotions to light. I run a mid-sized bar in the Philadelphia suburbs, and this book has been a big part of helping build some really fun nights. We're about to try "Midget Wrestling", and my advance ticket sales have been better than any band I've had here in years. "Barbie Girl" was a total scream! And the local police got involved with "The Sobriety Olympics", which they thought was a great idea to teach people how too much alcohol can impair your judgment. We've even had people go out to their cars, remove their spare tires for a prize! Most of these ideas are sooo out of the box that they're just perfect for this industry. I can't say enough good things about the insight provided by Make Some Noise. Definitely recommended reading for anyone looking for fun stuff to do. Two thumbs up; three if I had another!

I liked this book because it was extremely helpful, low-cost and also concise and to the point. Being new to a media relations position, I was happy to find such a great product that gave me insight into working the best way with the media from a pro who's been on both sides of the fence.

I could have skipped getting my master's degree in communications and just read this book. TONS of useful information and great tips from real journalists David has worked with. Appreciate David's real world experience on both the PR and journalism side.

Before I read this book, I had a very uneducated view of how to get on the news. This book has helped me get 2 different "earned" media coverages on my business in a matter of weeks! A must have for anyone who is running for office, owns a business, or somebody who just wants to get on the news.

If your business is dealing with the media, this is one of the best books you can find out there. It reviews, in a very modern way, how media relations should be practiced, with special attention as to what the reporters think from their end. PR folks can be pests at times, and this helps them keep focus on what's really important. It's a good book all the way through.

This book is filled with helpful information for those trying to connect with the media in one way or another. However, it is also helpful in the education process of understanding what we see when watching or reading news stories. If viewers and readers think it's only about the news, they are mistaken and Henderson explains why.

I took notes while reading this book, writing down information that will save me time and money when it comes to ways of doing promotions. Henderson has the experience and savvy of knowing how to reach the media and shares it implementing a compelling writing style that's easy to read.

Gone are the days of the newsboys in the street shouting, "Extra! Extra! Read all about it!" Or, maybe not. Maybe yesterday's newsboys are today's bloggers.

Being a blogger, when I think of it that way, I am filled with a sense of awe and responsibility.

Henderson's "Making News" is a helpful tool to bear that in mind.

The authors present a very well structured concept around the discovery of customer value, followed by various strategies to capture that value potential. Great balance between theory and case examples.

Solid book on CS- long read!
Many good points-
Wish there was a cliff notes version

This book provides comprehensive material on Relationship theory and how organizations can move from a product centered setup to a customer focused one. There are lots of very interesting examples. It is definitely worth a read for anyone interested in Customer Relationship management.

The book is voluminous and covers the concepts in about 500 pages. I felt though, that the same concepts were repeated over and over again many times. It could have been more concise to fit it in about half the number of pages.

Yet, if you read through the entire book patiently, you won't forget any of the key aspects of building a successful business that is oriented arounds its customers rather than just its products or services. You will learn how to manage your customers and the building blocks of of any relationship. I perform a Relationship manager's job in an organization that is already customer centric and does most of what the book recommends, and found this book to add very useful additional insights to what I am already doing in my work life.

Also, you may find that some of the material in the book is more relevant if read a few years ago. Today, many companies are already in the type of customer oriented setup with a Customer manager assigned and empowered to make all decisions, so its likely that, like myself, you may be in an organization that is already organized in a customer centric manner. In this case, you'll have to skip or skim through the chapters that talk a lot about how existing organizations can move from a product centric setup to a customer centric setup. In other words, I felt the book is not 100% current given where Corporate America is. Further, there is a heavy dominance of recommendations more suited for a retail or product based organizations rather than services oriented type of organizations.

Regardless, a must read and offers great value to anyone buying it, especially for fundamentals on Relationship theory and management.

This book fills in the empty space of academic books in CRM. Most of the publications and articles I've read deal with research on the subject and companies selling their programs. In this book Peppers and Rogers compiled a comprehensive text with theory, research and contributions from other authors that are a valuable tool for the under and graduate level.

This very extensive text on customer relationship management leaves nothing unsaid or unexplained. Authors and editors Don Peppers and Martha Rogers tackle the subject with admirable organization, clarity and depth. They define every important term and do not lose the reader in marketing jargon - a rare virtue in a book about marketing. The text, including contributions from other well-known experts in the field, propounds a well-developed theory of customer relationship management (CRM) and sets out numerous examples to illustrate, explain and clarify the theory. Useful as a handbook, textbook or reference manual, the book covers - among many other core subjects - customer identification and differentiation, customer feedback, an analysis of retailing and basic tools for CRM. We highly recommend this book to service-oriented managers and executives. To form profitable relationships with your customers, first get friendly with Peppers and Rogers.

On the treadmill of front-line marketing, it's easy to get caught up in the never-ending lists and deadlines, rather than stepping back to think more broadly and deeply about who we really are, who we're trying to reach and what we're really trying to accomplish.

As I read the Zaltmans' Marketing Metaphoria, it felt like a sudden holiday getaway that whisked me away from my lists and deadlines and into a calmer, almost meditative place. Readable and engaging, this book helped me step back and reflect on the great metaphors that make humans tick. The Zaltmans' genius is in not only identifying these metaphors, but also helping the reader understand their relevance in marketing and communication strategy. The book does a beautiful job illustrating how "deep metaphors" are the story elements and images that create meaning and purpose in people's lives. With many great examples they also illustrate how insightful marketers can use these deep metaphors to create meaning and purpose for companies, brands and products in people's lives.

Like any great holiday getaway, at the end I was not only refreshed and rejuvenated, but I was changed for the better. This book's vivid examples and passion for the subject make it irresistible for marketing professionals to look for themselves, their customers, brands and companies amongst the metaphors - and to begin "deep thinking" about their work.

For anyone interested in more than just superficial communication, marketing, image or brand, this book will provide gratifying insights that change how you understand and craft the stories you tell.

The Zaltmans' new book can truly be described as insightful. By way of transparency, I should point out that I am priveleged enough to have Jerry Zaltman's endorsement on the back cover of my own recently released book, "Brand Meaning." Though I have never met him, I know Jerry to be an astute and visionary commentator on consumer behavior. Anybody who has read "How Customers Think" will know that. What "Marketing Metaphoria" illustrates so well is that only by probing deep into the way people think about and view the world around them can one hope to connect with consumers in a visceral and enduring way. The book provides a framework for identifying such "implicit cognitive influences" (see back cover) - here in the form of deep matephors - and that is what makes it important reading.Brand Meaning

...as a professional who has introduced neuroscience into leadership, I can personally attest to the importance of "thinking more about our thinking" when it comes to why we do what we do. Though we all on some level know this, Zaltman has written brilliantly and pragmatically these sometimes forgotten truths that truly affect decision making. This is a classic!

By way of full disclosure, I was a graduate assistant for Jerry Zaltman when he was a Professor at the University of Pittsburgh. Naturally, I've followed Jerry's many publications for these past 20 years and have never found the time I've invested in reading his latest ideas less than incredibly worthwhile.

Interestingly, I bought this book based solely on the title and my expectation that it would be full of new ideas and insights about how using metaphors in marketing tactics would influence consumer behavior. While this book does cover material related to that sort of thing, it really covers so much more. The first two chapters on thinking deeply, "Workable Wondering" and focusing on consumer similarities set the stage for how to take the insights and ideas from the next 7 chapters (one per each deep metaphor) and incorporate them into your own thinking. The last chapter ties things together and presents a number of ideas for how Deep Metaphors may influence a number of marketing strategies and tactics.

This book is written to stimulate your thinking about how Deep Metaphors apply in many areas of marketing and consumer behavior. It doesn't present a list of "to dos" or lay out a plan of action that you should follow. Instead, you'll find yourself seeing what you, your consumers and your competitors do in a new light.

Another great book from Zaltman, with more excellent insights into the way people think.

I found it a more straightforward read than the excellent 'How Customers Think'. And it has an even blunter message for managers: "Start paying proper attention to how your customers really make their buying decisions, or miss out!"

As a metaphor elicitation specialist I was wowed by some of the fine detail, such as the description of the relationship between deep metaphor and emotion. But if most readers focus on the high-level message - the crucial importance of deep metaphor in guiding human behaviour - I'll be absolutely delighted!

If, like reviewer Dave Lakhani, you're disappointed by the book's lack of a detailed methodology for eliciting metaphors, why not check out a non-proprietary technique such as Clean Language? Though I suppose I would say that, wouldn't I... :-)

Simple, straithforward and to the point (hitting the mark). Good advice that does not just sound good, but is being presented in a very practical hands-on way. Very well written, very practical to implement (take your own step-by-step actions). A definite good buy and destined to become a classic.

As someone who coaches independent professionals on how to find new clients, I especially like the advice in this book on targeting. If you don't have a target you spread yourself too thin. There is much to be gained from this book. -- Henry DeVries, founder, New Client Marketing Institute

It's difficult to market a service - you're marketing the invisible. It's even more difficult to find a services-specific book on marketing. Anthony Putman cuts right to the bone with his ideas, approach and presentation. This is the best marketing book I have ever read. And, I have bought dozens to give to my friends in the service industries.

Of all the books I've read on "Marketing Your Services" this has to be the best. The reason is that Putman gives the most comprehensive, in-depth and holistic view of marketing I've ever seen in print. He looks at marketing your services not as a chore you need to get through but as a fun and challenging activity to improve the success of your business. Everything is covered here, from finding your niche to taking care of clients. The style is fun and informal and includes many stories and real life examples. This is a "must have" book if you want to attract new clients.

I read lots of business start-up books since I help people start successful businesses for a living. Finding a book written by someone who has something new to say is rare. This is a book which is not just a recycle of someone else's work.

Most books are written for product-based businesses so the 4 p's of marketing are applicable, but service businesses are really different. You can't taste, touch, or otherwise inspect a service before you buy.

Putman's chapter on pricing justifies the price of this book by itself. The book is also helpful in dealing with price objections, a critical part of any business. While it's pricing component is not new, the method provides a great baseline for your business.

I particularly liked the method by which Putman helps entrepreneurs creates benefit statements. People don't buy based on a feature list.

I am a Web analyst, and I strongly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in, or must report to management about their comapny's Web site. There are other great writers on the subject (Jim Sterne, Bryan Eisenberg, Jim Novo), but Hurol's book has the great advantage of being really to the point. This book WILL help you start an analysis practive whithin your company (which I urge you to do!). Once it's done, move on to the above mentioned authors. The book will tell you about filters (are they important!), actionable metrics, marketing issues, etc. This excellent work is really worth reading.

I can't believe I'm going to be the only fan of this book once its popularity spreads further out of the author's native Australia. It is the best book yet that I have read on the topic of Web site measurement and analysis. Admittedly there aren't that many out there yet on this increasingly hot topic but it is infinitely better than, say, "Web Site Analysis and Reporting" and soon I'll be able to judge how it compares to Jim Sterne's book "Web Metrics" which is just out.

Why do I like it? Hurol Inan, the author, spent eleven years at Andersen Consulting and Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, which helps ensure that the focus is a commercial one and based on a wealth of business experience. Furthermore, far from being too `management consulting' to be intelligible and practical, the book addresses operational and implementation issues as well as giving enough technical detail without being overwhelming.

That said, I found the first half of the book, which is more business and marketing in focus, to be superior to the second half which is a little light at times on the operational and implementation side of things. That does mean it is easy to read, however, and communicates the key concepts, practices and approaches clearly and succinctly.

Definitely worth a read. The accompanying Web site is also a good resource of supplementary information including vendor details.

Ashley Friedlein
CEO: e-consultancy
Author: 1) "Web Project Management: Delivering Successful Commercial Web Sites" 2) "Maintaining and Evolving Successful Commercial Web Sites: Managing Change, Content, Customer Relationships and Site Measurement" (pub. Oct 2002)

You are not going to find such an useful review of the state of the art in Web Metrics in any other book. The content is clear and structured. Perhaps the only weakness is the length of the book. Hurol Inan has knowledge enough on the subject to expand the information about specific metrics that are just defined, but not thoroughly explained in the book. Fortunately, the companion website helps to expand some of the topics in the book. Additionally, other books on the topic seems more like a presentation of the services provided by the author rather than a true explanation on web metric. Fortunately, Hurol Inan writes in a much more objective style.

In summary, an extremely useful introduction.

The information presented in this book, is like its style and presentation, simple, immediately accessible and implementable.

The book may not apply to highly trained and experienced web designers, but will serve as a terrific information source for non-ICT people that need to get an immediate grasp of the key concepts, the terminology, the possible applications and ultimately in implementing the strategies and ideas.

This is a terrific, and ongoing introduction into this important area of website marketing.

I am responsible for the web metrics in a financial corporation in California. This is the first book I have come across that brings the much needed business perspective to our online initiatives (not biased towards online marketing and advertising).

Equipped with the ideas and the framework put forward in the book, I was able to influence the direction of our web site. It was full with material that helped me raised the awareness of measurement across our organisation. Additionally, it also provided some starting points towards the implementation of web metrics.

This book is definitely one of the first when it comes to web site management.

I like the style of the book as well. Well written, to the point.

This book is so great I had a old copy that was my moms when she was litle then mine, so I bought a new one for my daughter it is GREAT, very interesting and good for the imagimation. However there were some coffe stains in the book when the seller listed it as new.

Over the years I continue to love this book. Part of the reason is that it is a well told story involving animals. I also love the drawings.
I recently purchased this book for my niece and for the older children of two families who will be having a new addition. When I was asked to present a child's book to my class in middle school this was the book I chose.

MY DAUGHTER LOVED THIS BOOK SO MUCH, THAT WHEN SHE WAS SELECTED TO READ TO OTHERS DURING LIBRARY WEEK, SHE CHOSE THE MITTEN. THIS HAS ALWAYS BEEN A FAVORITE OF OUR FAMILY'S AND NOW I AM ORDERING THIS ONE FOR MY FIRST GRANDCHILD. A READER FROM CA.

Even though I buy them for my daughter, I try not to review items that I owned or remember from my childhood as I feel I am biased towards them simply because of the nostalgic factor. However, I do think I would still love this book even if I had just recently come upon it. For starters it has such vibrant colors with the alternating turquoise background and the bright red and gold Ukrainian clothing. And what child wouldn't love the thought of woodland creatures taking refuge from the snow in his or her lost mitten, although the story is just folklore and the product of a child's imagination...or is it?

What a treasure: the illustrations and the story go hand in hand so wonderfully, quiet and witty and authentic. If you have Slavic roots, the Ukrainian illustrator's work may have extra resonance for you. Yaroslava drew the animals wearing Ukrainian costume, but with subtle touches of real life; this one's boots have creases, see the wrinkles in that one's heavy coat. I always wondered if there was an anti-Soviet subtext to the characters all insisting on sharing one living-space until it bursts at the seams (literally)...

I found this book to be very helpful in writing fiction. It can be applied to other styles of writing besides romance

This was a great help and a wonderful crutch for any writer to lean on! I would suggest it to anyone trying to write a romance novel. Award-winning novelist Leigh Michaels makes each stage of the writing process easier to understand throughout the book. I have written 2 novels and am working on my third. This book was a great help to me. Thank you Ms. Michaels!

It's a easy to read book. My mother language is not English and I had a great time to read and to understand and to follow the theme. Now I'm writing on my first romance novel my self and very excited.

This is one of the best books I've seen on how to write a romance. It walks you through the whole process from beginning to end and tells you how to market your work. If I were a newbie I'd want to have this book on my shelf.

This book is filled with good instuctions and serves as a excellent reference that you can use when starting to write your novel as well as a refresher as you continue with other books or novels.

Although my manuscript was already finished before I brought this book, I wanted to compare my manuscript against the expertise of a professional. I found out that I was a writer on the right track and it also alerted me to important points that I overlooked which only makes me a better writer.

If you want to be better at your writing, add this book to your collection.

Benita Pagoria

I am afraid that I have been dilatory in reading and reviewing this book. At the time of the offer, I appreciated the chance to read the text. It sounded like something that I would like and I always enjoy discovering a new author. Unfortunately, I went through a bad place where I started to hate all business books. I had the feeling that everything I read was more or less the same. I also started to feel as though most business books begin with a single good idea. Sometimes the exploration of that idea is worth an entire book. Mostly, however, I had the feeling that I was reading a puffed-up magazine article.

I was very pleasantly surprised by Dr. Herman's book. I found it smart (maybe because I intuitively agreed with many of his ideas) and quite readable. There is a nice assortment of exercises, ideas and examples that flow together well. I found it useful to gain insight into the success of my own company's brand.

Best of all, I found that it earned its 253 pages. There was very little puffery, if any.

I would recommend it to others who are looking to build or develop their business. Well done. The best business book that I have read in a while.

Masters degrees in Business Administration (MBA) are not only being taught in elite schools, but in nearly every university, college, and diploma mill that can find some way to get accreditation. Most of the programs teach their students similar concepts in the core subjects of Financial and Management Accounting, Finance, Economics, Statistics, Operations, Organizational Behavior, Information Systems, Marketing and Corporate Strategy. If everyone has the same tools and book of tactics, including how to differentiate your company and create a competitive advantage, how can you actually compete and win in the real world? Worse, these kinds of programs train these managers to work, think, and fit in to the large companies that hire MBAs by the campusfull. That is why this book refers to MBA Clones and provides an approach that takes a different tack than standard MBA thinking would see.

It isn't that what you learn as an MBA isn't valuable, it's that learning the core of a business program provides you with only a basic toolset. You still need to learn to apply them. However, if you apply them like everyone else (the problem with `best practices') you aren't creating a compelling advantage. The best business folks are artists and use their toolsets in powerfully creative ways to win in the marketplace.

Dan Herman is a Ph.D. and CEO (and co-owner) of Competitive Advantages Ltd. Through which he and his team serve companies all around the world. Their goal is to help their clients identify growth opportunities and creating `unfair' competitive advantages. Along with this Advantagizing they help create powerful and compelling brands and profitable business models.

In part 1 of this book provides a look at what Herman's views on some common myths of Competitive Advantage (that you have to be better than your competitors, that you have to endear yourself to as many customers as possible, and that your competitive edge is to be found on a parameter that is important in your business category. He then provides a secret to Differentiation and uses examples from Virgin, Google, Starbucks and others to show you what he is after.

Part 2 explains their O-Scan (opportunity scan) method. It is about identifying insights about customers and what they are GOING to want (rather than what they are demanding today). You also learn to use a customers 15 stage consumption process to find points of pain and opportunity, to provide more consumer benefits, and seeing the hidden rules your competitors are using to win.

Part 3 is provides Herman's views of Branding. First you have to understand the consumer's mind. I found this discussion of how the consumer experiences things, what they are trying to do, and how they for their beliefs to be quite interesting. Herman also rejects the idea that Branding creates brands. He says that it is the real success factors that you have identified previously that will provide substance and power to your brand. He provides the ABCDE of Brand Success: Attribution of benefit, Believability, Craving, Differentiation, and Ease of acting upon their desire.

For Herman, brands are more about expectations, anticipations, and dreams that take them out of their hum-drum reality. It is about adventure, temptations, testing limits, nostalgia, and much more. The goal is to make your marketing electrifying to your customers. He also provides interesting chapters on developing marketing hits and how you can drive your consumers crazy about your brand.

Is all this absolutely original and unique? Look, I have an MBA from the University of Michigan Business School and what he says here is consistent with what I learned there. The expectation I had upon graduation was to use what I learned creatively. What Herman does is help those interested in turning the toolkit you were given into a weapons system. And I think that is very worthwhile.

Reviewed by Craig Matteson, Ann Arbor, MI

"Outsmart the MBA Clones" by Dan Herman should definitely be considered as a textbook for business programs. This book uses real-life recent examples of companies, products, and services we know, explains how their creative innovations worked, and how some were imitated. Many companies and their products provide examples throughout this book. Starbucks, Google, Tower Records, Virgin, RIM's BlackBerry, etc. The days of Marlboro Man ads that go on year after year without adapting, are over.

Most businesses are more similar than different. I'll go as far to say, they're basically the same.

Not to be negative towards MBA programs, but many programs produce sheep. They are educational *institutions.* Mills. Fair enough. The knowledge and skills attained in these programs are needed and these courses often focus on graduates entering positions in established companies. Outsmart the Clones can enable you to be more innovative, adaptable, and think outside of the box. It's about tomorrow, not just today.

Successful concepts and products can often, but not always, be mimicked. Today, there are often multiple brands competing for consumers in the same market niche. Herman notes the "Commoditization of Brands," where products are so similar consumers have trouble telling them apart. Obviously, once an idea or item that's copyable is produced, many others will duplicate and follow.

There are sixteen chapters and three parts in Clones: 1) The debunking of Competitive Advantage. Today the focus should be on *Renewable* Competitive Advantage 2) O-scan, which focus on what customer will consume in the future 3) Branding.

The benefit of this book is that you don't have to be in marketing, advertising, or management to benefit from it. There are also good quality illustrations, throughout.

One concept noted by Herman is about the consumer (us humans), stated on page 243: "consumers live their lives, and in the frame of everything they do and go through they are constantly on the lookout for new opportunities to improve their existence. They search for solution to their problems, ways to prevent unwanted situations and experiences, opportunities to develop, improve, and advance themselves and their circumstances, and chances to have fun and enjoy live with their loved ones."

Great point. And, a great book.

Long-term strategies have been replaced by ones that adapt and change as opportunities are identified.

"Launch and forget" brands today, such as Marboro, are rare. They have been replaced by visual identities and advertising styles that change rapidly. To succeed over the long-term managements must succeed in the short-term time after time.

Dan Herman, citing observations from Copernicus Marketing Consulting, argues brands are becoming like commodities. Consumers can no longer differentiate them from sugar, corn or cement. They are created by marketers who employ the same data, the same focus groups and data analysis. The marketers have become indistinguishable.

In this new environment, Herman observes:

1. Porter, Kotler, Aaker and Ries and their rules are obsolete.
2. Marketers need to understand nature's rules. They need to be able to devise alternatives paths to the same goals.
3. Theoretical concepts are tools for thinking about reality. They are not reality itself.

If you are a seasoned marketer, this book is different from another you have read. Herman's fresh thinking about competitive advantage, marketing, customer segmentation, differentiation and branding will challenge your thinking. It is worth every penny of its cover price.

This book, which I was privileged to read as a review copy of the publisher, contains a totally new approach to marketing, one that is not taught in business schools, one that is geared to today's changed consumer environment. For example, to read the author's description of the Joe Boxer phenomenon is for old fogies like me to have a lightbulb on the culture suddenly turn on.

The book is full of extraordinary insights. A true page-turner, I highly recommend it.