Lately, I've been receiving more free marketing books than I have the time to read, especially from McGraw-Hill. I figure some of them must be pretty good and I feel like I owe the publisher a bit of ink, but I just don't have the time to write proper reviews right now. So taking a page out of Darryl Ohrt's book (um, pun intended) but taking it one step closer to outright lazy, I want to at least let you know that these books are available.
If marketing books are your thing, here are a few you might want to check out.
First up, we have The BrandPromise: How Costco, Ketel One, Make-A-Wish, Tourism Vancouver & Other Leading Brands Make and Keep the Promise That Guarantees SUCCESS! Don't let the long title scare you off. Written by branding expert Duane E. Knapp explores the guiding principles that define 'genuine brands' -- those brands that optimize the emotional and functional benefits to consumers by delivering unique experiences, inspiring passion and providing customers with exceptional value. It looks like a pretty dense tome crammed with practical, real world case studies.
Next, there's Where's Your WOW? 16 Ways to Make Your Competitors Wish They Were You by Robyn Spizman and Rick Frishman. Now, you probably already wish you were me, but if you're looking for a bunch of practical tips that can help you stand apart from the crowd then you may want to give this one a read. Mostly focused on personal branding, it looks like at least some of the principles (and many of the examples) outlined in Where's Your WOW are equally applicable to whatever products and services you're hawking. As you might have guessed from the title, the book imparts 16 principles including success coach standards like "envision your success," "find your edge - and sharpen it," "hire people smarter than you," and "put people first."
And finally, we have Richard Laermer's new book, 2011: Trendspotting for the Next Decade. You might know Richard as the guy responsible for Trendspotting, Full Frontal PR, Punk Marketing and the Bad Pitch Blog. Now he turns his attentions to the trends that will shape the business world over the next few years. It looks like the book offers both a set of tactics any business person can use to understand trends and forecast their impact, and a boatload of Richard's own picks for the trends to watch. Of the three, this is the book I'm most likely to read. I've plowed through both Trendspotting and Punk Marketing -- Laermer's writing is funny, smart and accessible and see tends to take a no bullshit approach to his topics. Lots and lots of really short chapters (on everything from business, media and marketing to entertainment and sex) also means you can bite-off bits of the book in between email refreshes, and that's a pretty good thing for those of us who don't have enough time left for reading business books.
