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Buying In: The Secret Dialogue Between What We Buy and Who We Are (Hardcover)
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Author: | Rob Walker |
Interesting book...here's a snippet from the Wall Street Journal review that prompted me to buy it:
Brands are dead. Advertising no longer works. Weaned on TiVo, the Internet, and other emerging technologies, the short-attention-span generation has become immune to marketing. Consumers are "in control." Or so we're told.
In Buying In, New York Times Magazine "Consumed" columnist Rob Walker argues that this accepted wisdom misses a much more important and lasting cultural shift. As technology has created avenues for advertising anywhere and everywhere, people are embracing brands more than ever before - creating brands of their own and participating in marketing campaigns for their favorite brands in unprecedented ways.
Increasingly, motivated consumers are pitching in to spread the gospel virally, whether by creating Internet video ads for Converse All Stars or becoming word-of-mouth "agents" touting products to friends and family on behalf of huge corporations. In the process, they-we-have begun to funnel cultural, political, and community activities through connections with brands.
Walker explores this changing cultural landscape–including a practice he calls "murketing," blending the terms murky and marketing - by introducing us to the creative marketers, entrepreneurs, artists, and community organizers who have found a way to thrive within it. Using profiles of brands old and new, including Timberland, American Apparel, Pabst Blue Ribbon, Red Bull, iPod, and Livestrong, Walker demonstrates the ways in which buyers adopt products, not just as consumer choices, but as conscious expressions of their identities.
Part marketing primer, part work of cultural anthropology, Buying In reveals why now, more than ever, we are what we buy–and vice versa. [more] |
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It's Not the Big That Eat the Small...It's the Fast That Eat the Slow: How to Use Speed as a Competitive Tool in Business
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Author: | Jason Jennings and Laurence Haughton |
It's a pretty simple concept: quick thinking and fast action replaces size as a competitive advantage. I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Thought provoking ideas and an easy read. Here's the dish from Amazon:
What do successful companies master that other ventures cannot? They are ready to face the 21st-century economy with an ability to adjust to change and a constant concern with providing first-rate customer service.
To find these companies, the authors traveled around the world to learn these secrets from such winning firms as H&M clothing stores, Charles Schwab, Hotmail and Telepizza. Among the smart strategies are spotting trends, testing products and getting to market quickly.
The authors offer lots of tips, interspersed with anecdotes about both successful and failing companies. While the information is excellent and the presentation clear, the content doesn't lend itself easily to audio.
The authors are fond of lists, such as "10 steps" obviously, people listening while driving or commuting will have to replay these sections if they want to take notes. In spite of this drawback, entrepreneurs willing to put in the effort will get some practical help from this book. [more] |
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The Back of the Napkin: Solving Problems and Selling Ideas with Pictures (Hardcover)
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Author: | Dan Roam |
I've always been a visual kinda guy and I love telling stories. Roam has a great writing style that'll hook you right away, as it did me. Great book for anyone who has to pitch or manage ideas and people. Here's the blurb:
The premise behind Roam's book is simple: anybody with a pen and a scrap of paper can use visual thinking to work through complex business ideas.
Management consultant and lecturer Roam begins with a watershed moment: asked, at the last minute, to give a talk to top government officials, he sketched a diagram on a napkin. The clarity and power of that image allowed him to communicate directly with his audience. From this starting point, Roam has developed a remarkably comprehensive system of ideas.
Everything in the book is broken down into steps, providing the reader with tools and rules to facilitate picture making. There are the four steps of visual thinking, the six ways of seeing and the SQVID - a clumsy acronym for a full brain visual work out designed to focus ideas.
Roam occasionally overcomplicates (GENE: maybe, but there's plenty here to digest - I didn't feel overloaded at all); an extended case study takes up a full third of the book and contains an overload of images that belie the book's central message of simplicity. Nonetheless, for forward-thinking management types, there is enough content in these pages to drive many a brainstorming session. [more] |
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Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die (Hardcover)
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Author: | Chip and Dan Heath |
The authors wrap everyhting around what they call "the six qualities of an idea that is made to stick": Simplicity, Unexpectedness, Concreteness, Credibility, Emotional, and Stories. I'm enjoying it...worth a look. Here's the blurb from Amazon:
Unabashedly inspired by Malcolm Gladwell's bestselling The Tipping Point, the brothers Heath-Chip a professor at Stanford's business school, Dan a teacher and textbook publisher-offer an entertaining, practical guide to effective communication.
Drawing extensively on psychosocial studies on memory, emotion and motivation, their study is couched in terms of "stickiness" - that is, the art of making ideas unforgettable. They start by relating the gruesome urban legend about a man who succumbs to a barroom flirtation only to wake up in a tub of ice, victim of an organ-harvesting ring. What makes such stories memorable and ensures their spread around the globe?
The authors credit six key principles: simplicity, unexpectedness, concreteness, credibility, emotions and stories. (The initial letters spell out "success" - well, almost.) They illustrate these principles with a host of stories, some familiar (Kennedy's stirring call to "land a man on the moon and return him safely to the earth" within a decade) and others very funny (Nora Ephron's anecdote of how her high school journalism teacher used a simple, embarrassing trick to teach her how not to "bury the lead").
Throughout the book, sidebars show how bland messages can be made intriguing. Fun to read and solidly researched, this book deserves a wide readership. [more] |
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Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies (Hardcover)
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Author: | Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff |
Corporate executives are struggling with a new trend: people using online social technologies (blogs, social networking sites, YouTube, podcasts) to discuss products and companies, write their own news, and find their own deals. This groundswell is global, it s unstoppable, it affects every industry and it s utterly foreign to the powerful companies running things now.
When consumers you've never met are rating your company's products in public forums with which you have no experience or influence, your company is vulnerable. In Groundswell, Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff of Forrester, Inc. explain how to turn this threat into an opportunity. [more] |
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The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business is Selling Less of More (Hardcover)
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Author: | Chris Anderson |
Everyone you know is either reading it, has already read it, or has ordered it. Get it.
"The Long Tail" is a powerful new force in our economy: the rise of the niche. As the cost of reaching consumers drops dramatically, our markets are shifting from a one-size-fits-all model of mass appeal to one of unlimited variety for unique tastes.
From supermarket shelves to advertising agencies, the ability to offer vast choice is changing everything, and causing us to rethink where our markets lie and how to get to them. Unlimited selection is revealing truths about what consumers want and how they want to get it, from DVDs at Netflix to songs on iTunes to advertising on Google.
However, this is not just a virtue of online marketplaces; it is an example of an entirely new economic model for business, one that is just beginning to show its power. After a century of obsessing over the few products at the head of the demand curve, the new economics of distribution allow us to turn our focus to the many more products in the tail, which collectively can create a new market as big as the one we already know.
The Long Tail is really about the economics of abundance. New efficiencies in distribution, manufacturing, and marketing are essentially resetting the definition of whats commercially viable across the board. If the 20th century was about hits, the 21st will be equally about niches. [more] |
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Meatball Sundae: Is Your Marketing out of Sync? (Hardcover)
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Author: | Seth Goodin |
You either love him or you hate him. I kinda like his style and definitely like the way he thinks. Like me, I'll bet you come away with something new every time you pick it up. Check this one out, along with the rest of his books.
Godin's latest business handbook (after Small Is the New Big and The Dip) revisits some of his most popular marketing advice, while emphasizing that it can't just be applied willy-nilly.
In past decades, he says, companies were able to get rich by making average products for average people, but those markets have long since been sewn up; mass is no longer achievable [or] desirable. Rather than simply rely on mass media to raise product visibility, New Marketing treats every aspect of interacting with customers - including customer service and the product itself - as an opportunity to grow the organization.
In order to be successful with such marketing techniques, a company must change its practices across the board. Otherwise, you're just putting whipped cream on a meatball. Godin has a perspective on everything from blogs (don't bother unless you really have something to say) to the long tail (if it's as valuable to your company as the top sellers are, why aren't you paying more attention?). His arresting conversational style is sure to once again set the business world talking. [more] |
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Mobile Advertising: Supercharge Your Brand in the Exploding Wireless Market (Hardcover)
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Author: | Chetan Sharma, Joe Herzog, Victor Melfi |
If you're thinking about (or have already jumped in to) the mobile marketing space, this book will be very helpful.
There's plenty of buzz surrounding mobile advertising. The next step is transforming that buzz into real business. Mobile Advertising helps do that by covering the conceptual, analytical, and practical applications of mobile advertising, giving marketers, service providers, and investors in-depth guidance on tapping the full potential of mobile advertising.
Despite the excitement about mobile advertising,there are significant obstacles to overcome beforethe medium can become truly meaningful. Here, you'll find a detailed and honest analysis of the hurdles that remain, as well as perspectives on managing and solving them. The authors address direct response promotions and advertisements; search advertising and its pricing and auction derivatives; and brand-based campaigning. While there's work to be done, the authors remain bullish on the opportunity.
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Marketing to the Social Web: How Digital Customer Communities Build Your Business (Hardcover)
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Author: | Larry Weber |
Good selection for anyone moving toward the new mindset of actually communicating WITH consumers, not AT them.
The future of marketing is a two-way street, not a one-way message.
Marketers must look to the Web for new ways to find and communicate with customers, rather than at them. From MySpace and YouTube to blogs, social media on the Internet is the most promising new way to reach customers.
Marketing to the Social Web helps marketers and their companies understand how to engage customers, build customer communities, and maximize profits in a time of marketing confusion. Author and social media guru Larry Weber describes newly available tools and platforms, and shows readers how to apply them to see immediate results and growth.
In order to use the Internet to its full marketing potential, executives must open their minds to new possibilities, embrace social change, and rethink best practices. Rather than broadcast messages to audiences, savvy marketers will participate in, organize, and encourage social networks to which people want to belong, striking up a dialog with and between customers. Networking sites like MySpace, Facebook, and even Flickr are the perfect forums for this new dialog; Marketing to the Social Web shows you how to tap into it.
Today, marketing is exploding with possibilities and complexities as it reaches out into new forms, media, and models. Marketing to the Social Web presents an exceptional opportunity to use these new tools and models to reach new markets, even in today's fragmented media environment. [more] |
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Web Analytics: An Hour a Day (Paperback)
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Author: | Avinash Kaushik |
Kaushik's definitely got the chops to write a book like this. It's loaded with pearls, so if you're trying to get a handle on your data, this book will show you how to turn it into gold.
Written by an in-the-trenches practitioner, this step-by-step guide shows you how to implement a successful Web analytics strategy. Web analytics expert Avinash Kaushik, in his thought-provoking style, debunks leading myths and leads you on a path to gaining actionable insights from your analytics efforts. Discover how to move beyond clickstream analysis, why qualitative data should be your focus, and more insights and techniques that will help you develop a customer-centric mindset without sacrificing your company's bottom line. [more] |
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The Search: How Google and Its Rivals Rewrote the Rules of Business and Transformed Our Culture (Paperback)
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Author: | John Battelle |
I'm enjoying this book. Battelle has an engaging style and the book is an easy read. Jammed full of great information about the rise of Google and search in general. Here's the blurb:
Rather than write a book strictly about the rise of Google as a business, technology journalist Battelle targets his research on the concept of Internet search, beginning the book with a discussion of an abstract idea he terms the "Database of Intentions," defined as the sum total of all queries that pour into search engines daily, revealing the intricacies and idiosyncrasies of our culture.
Though most of the book is devoted to the search engine giant (which Battelle reports corners 51 percent of the search engine market), the author also includes chapters on "Search, Before Google" and the "Who, What, Where, Why, When. And How (much)" of search. Battelle is at his best when describing the creation of Google, especially through the yin-yang personalities of its founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, and in describing the company's culture.
Though Battelle's descriptions of Internet search technology can get too technical for readers without a computer science background, the book is a deeply researched and nimbly reported look at how search has defined the Internet and how it will continue to be a tremendous reflection of culture. [more] |
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The New Rules of Marketing and PR: How to Use News Releases, Blogs, Podcasting, Viral Marketing and Online Media to Reach Buyers
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Author: | David Meerman Scott |
I was a bit skeptical at first, but this book has grown on me. It's got a lot of good information and I like Scott's writing style. I think it'll be a good addition to anyone's marketing toolkit, even if you're a seasoned vet. Amazon blurb:
Though it may not yet have affected the value of 30 seconds of Super Bowl advertising, PR insider Scott argues that understanding the growing irrelevance of marketing's "old rules" is vital to thriving in the new media jungle.
Already apparent in newspapers and magazines (with sharp downturns in circulation and ads), radio (on the losing end of the iPod revolution) and direct mail (digitally replaced by spam), the imminent fall of traditional mass media marketing means new opportunities for legions of smaller companies and independent professionals who need to reach niche markets cheaply and effectively.
The way Scott sees it, this is also good news for consumers: the online culture of integrity and information tends to produce quality content for less, as opposed to the vapid, one-sided and pricey advertising of print media and television. Scott provides the technical novice a thoughtful and accessible guide to cutting-edge media arenas and formats such as RSS, vodcasts and viral marketing, without neglecting the fact that technological wizardry can't substitute for a well-thought out marketing program.
Besides emphasizing fundamentals like defining one's audience, Scott also drills home the ethos and etiquette of the web, encouraging content that's both useful and unobtrusive. This excellent look at the basics of new-millennial marketing should find use in the hands of any serious PR professional making the transition. [more] |
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| The Disturbing Truth About Metrics | posted by: Gene.DeLibero |
| Lost in a sea of reporting data? Here's what you need to know about the current confusion and controversy surrounding online audience measurement. |
| [imediaconnection.com] | posted: Aug 13, 2008 |   |
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| found in: Analytics Measurement/Metrics |
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| Facebook Adopts New Metric for Widgets | posted by: Gene.DeLibero |
| Facebook took a step toward standardizing the wild world of Web metrics by switching its engagement rating for applications from reporting daily usage to measuring monthly active users. |
| [adweek.com] | posted: Aug 13, 2008 | |
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| found in: Measurement/Metrics |
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digital media marketing
