July 6th, 2009
There has been a great deal of hype about Chris Anderson’s new book, Free. I’ve been waiting for this book for six months. Finally someone can make some sense out of what is happening in the music and publishing industries (and many other businesses as well) and to help me with some of my own decisions about the future for myself and my company. Anderson, the editor-in chief of Wired, made big waves with his previous book, The Long Tail. That book described how a company like Amazon makes it money. When we go digital there is one super advantage – we free up actually space. We can warehouse and distribute in a totally new way. Selling one book by an obscure author makes just as much money for Amazon as selling one book of a popular author. The Long Tail helped revolutionize our way of thinking about product development and distribution.
Now comes Free, an explaination of how things can be given away and still make money. The rock band gives away the music but makes it back, and more, through live performances and selling the T-shirts or exclusive editions of its music. Anderson explores the history of free and gives us lessons in economics on this issue. King Gillette discovered that giving away the razors made their customers dependent upon buying the blades. Free is hardly a new concept. Yet it has enormous implications.
My primary learning: Free can help you build reputation. As a generous person this approach appeals to me. I like to give away knowledge, ideas and suggestions. What is this blog more than my sharing what I read and know? I love it. But how do I earn a living off of it? Well, I can, as many others can, help build my reputation as a thoughtful, practical thinker and this increases my value in a market full of other consultants, writers and public speakers.
You can do this too. Give away the things that enchance your reputation, prove your expertise or give away a sample of what you do. And buy Free (!) if even just for the list of fifty business models build on the idea of Free. This is a book with many practical applications, but also a good share of history and economic theory. Intestesting and important – to say the least.
July 6th, 2009
Hmmm… seem to be doing a lot of reading about marketing. I thing the art of positive influencing is interesting and, of course, I understand the rules are changing in this new type of economy and I need to prepare myself. Jay Abraham is a long time guru in this field, one of world’s best self-promotors, best paid consultants and more authoritative in his field. Jay could probably help anyone make money on anything from rocks to air to pink candy shoe laces. He’s just given the whole field of marketing a lot of thought and seems to find his flow in helping others make huge turnarounds. I wish I could afford his help! But at least there are his books to read.
Getting Everything You Can Out of All You’ve Got is a tremendous inventory of good ideas for getting the most out of your products and ideas with every kind of twist you can conceive. Start by calculating the life time value of a client or customer. Maybe they make a $20 purchase today, but if you treat him or her well and they come back to you time and time again that first purchase could be worth hundreds or even thousands dollars of business. Test, test test – something I certainly don’t do, but how do you know which approach will work. Try out different headings for an ad, for example, and don’t forget to measure the results.
The Sticking Point Solution is Jay Abrahams latest collection of advice, very relevant for these uncertain times. Abraham knows his math and helps us to be better at analyzing what works and what to look out for. There are tons of good advice. A few examples:
“Don’t be afraid to say what your competition won’t. In any transaction, tell you client, “Here’s what you’re not being told.” “List you flaws.” “Continually add to your brand equity by doing more, caring more, contributing more.” “Form alliances and advisory boards. “Use endorsements and testimonials properly and often.” “Hire the brest. Pay them richly. But pay them mostly on performace.” “If you are invisible, you can’t necomre the go-to source. “Learn to project the image of success – long before you’ve fully achieved it.”
These phrases and words of advice don’t seem especially unusual or new, but Abraham puts them in a perspective that makes his advice seem imperative. “Just do it” may be easier said than done, but Abraham at least tells you what you need to do.
July 6th, 2009
David Meerman Scott sells himself as an expert on the new rules of marketing and PR. Indeed one of his most popular books is called The New Rules of Marketing and PR. In World Wide Rave the author discusses how to make your website or your product the talk of the town… er, web. Who wouldn’t want to creative buzz and make your idea (or yourself) hot. Yes, maybe you will need some luck with your timing and fitting into current (or coming) trends, but like most things you also need to put in a lot of time and effort. I sure wouldn’t mind that buzz for my Prepare and Share programs, but, geez, there are zillions of people out there like me looking for that same sort of buzz. So what can I do differently was the question I asked myself as I decided to buy and read this book.
Well David Meerman Scott has lots of good advice. For example, get out of the office and meet customers. Oh, you’ve heard that before, but how many business people actually do it? Solve problems for your customers. What? You’ve heard that before too? I know at least I get more caught up in self-promotion and production of products I like instead of solving a problem my potential customer experiences. Monitor blogs, chat rooms, forums and social networking sites. Geez, I write and review books, who has time for all that? I should… if I am serious about affecting the people that visit these places.
In other words this book is not just a good summary and reminder of the hundreds and hundreds of things you can actually do to create interest for what you have to offer, it also gives you a really bad conscience for not doing them… sorry, gotta go now and create some rave. HELP – spread my blog around the net. Thanks.
May 23rd, 2009
Martin Lindstrom, Dane with Australia as his base, is one of the world’s most dynamic thinkers, speakers and writers about the art of marketing. I’ve heard one of Martin’s speeches and it is not something you forgot – ever. Martin believes most marketers are barking up the wrong tree.
Marketers thing visually. Most of the successful brands gain recognition through other means. In his lecture, Martin illustrated how a blindfolded person could recognize the Coca-Cola bottle just by touch or how Singapore Airlines sprays it’s plains with a scent that is both recognizable and comforting.
In his book Buyology Martin Lindstrom has put together that tries to identify how the brain reacts to various signals. What works or doesn’t work in marketing and how can we learn from the way the brain processes information. Why in the world do the terrifying pictures and messages on cigarette packages have the opposite effect and actually encourage smoking?
This is must reading for anyone interested in the art and science of positive persuasion whether you are in marketing, leading groups or trying to influence decision making. It is a good combination of research, specific examples and good storytelling.
May 23rd, 2009
I am in a reading period right now and it is interesting to see the common themes in the books I happen to choose. Malcolm Gladwell is the author of two previous best sellers, The Tipping Point and Blink. Formally a business and science magazine writer, Gladwell analyzes research and explains trends in a simple, effective way. His new book is absolutely terrific with stories, statistics and explainations. Gladwell uses research and statistics to point out trends that we often are unaware of.
In this case Gladwell tries to explain that there is, in fact, a reason why people become successful and it doesn’t always have to do with personal perserverance and drive. That helps, of course, but it also helps to be born into the right types of families and the right time of the year or the right year. Bill Gates usually says he was lucky – and Gladwell explains that Gates, though clever, smart and a brilliant entreprenör, also happens to be born (along with other prominent computer experts) in the right year (1955-1956) and provided a unique opportunity to practice computer coding for an unlimited period of time long before most people could. He, and others like him, had the practice time that very few others were able to come by. And just like in the book Talent is Overrated, Gladwell points out the importance of practice, those 10000 hours that so called geniuses have put in that others haven’t. Combine all these factors – right time, year, lots of practice, right family, right place – and the chanses of super success suddenly explode. That is not to discourage others, but just to understand that there is more to success than simply being smart.
May 23rd, 2009
I seem to do a lot of business book reading and especially about marketing. I guess it has to do with my own personal quest to finally get published in English and to spread the word outside of my lovely Sweden. Jack Trout is one of the most respected marketing analysts around. Trout picks apart some of the common marketing practices of today. For example, he says the point of advertising is not to be funny and win prizes, but to sell the product. That’s obviously, but often overlooked. Firms changes their messages, logos and slogans just for the sake of change. Keep doing what works. Define your product and just don’t ad on more and more options. It is easy to see why General Motors has declined. It is hard to understand why there must be so many variations of Coke. While most examples are from big business, there are many important messages for small business people like me: define your message, the form of your message and fine tune the way you reach out. Look for simple and obvious solutions.
May 23rd, 2009
Seth Godin is one of my favorites. He seems to always have something fresh, trendy and exciting to say about marketing. He is one of the best selling authors in the field with iconoclastic books like Purple Cow (how ideas must stand out) and The Dip (how dropping things and failures can help you). In his latest book, Godin explains that the new media forms can let almost anyone with the energy and competence gather a following. You can gather a “tribe” that will follow you and your ideas with the help of of everything from Facebook to Ning and a myriad of other network building tools. Godin gives plenty of specific examples. Godin says: Publish a manifesto of your beliefs. Make it easy for your followers to connect to you. Make it easy for your followers to connect to one another. Relize that money is not the point of a movement, but a result. Track your progress. Your movement needs to be bigger than you. Good luck creating your tribe.