Marketing Resources

Books on writing, advertising, promoting, and selling with an audience in mind.

Advertising

Bang! Getting Your Message Heard in a Noisy World, by Linda Kaplan Thaler and Robin Koval with Delia Marshall, published by Random House.

From the inventors of the AFLAC duck, the Herbal Essence shampoo in-the-shower orgasm, and the jingle "I don’t wanna grow up, I’m a Toys r Us kid," comes the believable argument that your ad has to stand out from all the others to make a difference.  They cite an Economist report that says people see 3,000 messages every day, and you won’t get anywhere being one of the herd.

A sample bon mot: "If you have an idea that no one hates, everyone will forget it. Think about it. No one dislikes vanilla – but you can get that from anyone, anywhere."

They argue for spontaneity, teamwork, ingenuity, fearlessness, and chaos. Rules? Forget ‘em! The book is a bit too self-congratulatory for my taste, and goes on and on about how they inspire genius in their own shop  in ways that only egotistical bosses can get away with, but it’s hard to argue with their basic premise. Borrow this one from the public library.

Tested Advertising Methods, John Caples, published by Prentice-Hall in 1974, 4th edition, but newer editions exist.

Okay, one of my raves. I love this book. First, he makes it clear he has no interest or respect for people's 'opinions' about what works in advertising. There are rules and results, and you better follow them if you expect to be successful with an ad.

Second, he breaks down an ad into its logical components and gives you a hundred examples so obvious that if you’ve ever written an ad on your own without having read this book, you just hang your head in embarrassment. He’s that good. He covers every imaginable type of headline, body copy, use of graphics, typefaces, 20 simple rules about copywriting, and lots, lots more. If you do a single ad for your organization, buy this book online and read it from cover to cover before you ever do another.

"In planning an advertising campaign, the first step should be to clear the decks of all opinions, all theories, all conjectures, all prejudices."
and
"... the headline is 50 to 75 percent of the advertisement. Your single headline in the average big-town newspaper competes with 350 news stories, 21 feature articles, and 85 advertisements. And it competes in time, because, seen for a second, it is heeded, or passed up, and there is no return by readers.."

Fundraising

New Review:  Mega Gifts: Who Gives Them, Who Gets Them, by Jerold Panas, 2nd Edition, Emerson & Church Publishers, 2005.

New Review: Facilitation Made Easy: Practical Tips to Improve Meetings and Workshops, by Esther Cameron, 3rd Edition, Kogan Page US 2006.

 This handbook for internal and external facilitators starts out slowly but quickly gathers steam. Lots and lots of common sense: how a workshop differs from a presentation; the facilitator’s role; planning a workshop; the psychology of groups; and much, much more. Beware though: Ms. Cameron is British, so lots of the words are misspelled, like colour and behaviour.Presentations Plus, by David A. Peoples, published by John Wiley & Sons, 1992.

An ‘oldie but goody’ about how to give a presentation, written before the deadly days of PowerPoint. The basics are still valuable, from why you should do presentations (people will spend 26% more for a product they’ve seen presented), to comparing types of presentations (people standing and using visual aids far outperform people sitting without visual aids), and lots and lots of techniques. The most common mistakes in presentations?

• poor first impression
• no objectives to the presentation
• dully, dry, and boring
• the speaker is frozen in one spot
• weak eye contact
• poor facial expressions
• no humor
• poor preparation
• no audience involvement
• no enthusiam or conviction on the part of the presenter
• poor visual aids
• a weak closing

The author tells you how to fix all the above. Curious advice: design the closing first, then the opening. Use Yale University’s 12 most persuasive words: you, money, save, new, results, easy, health, safety, love, discovery, proven, and guarantee.

The author doesn’t seem to have updated this book since 1996, so you’ll have to get it at the library (where I found it) or through Amazon. I’m buying a copy!

Beyond Bullet Points, Cliff Atkinson, published by Microsoft Publishers, 2005.

Bless his soul, Atkinson is on a mission to revolutionize the way we all do PowerPoint presentations, and we should be grateful. Bullet points, he points out clearly, are for the lazy who just like to read their notes off the screen. Instead we should be telling a dramatic story – with a beginning, middle, and end – with each show. A slide should feature a single headline that moves the story along with a related graphic that will stay in the viewer’s mind. Save the wordy stuff for a ‘notes outline’ that you hand out to the audience.

Unfortunately, while the book gives you the technical stuff Atkinson suggests, you’re much, much better off seeing him in action during one of his many trips around the country. He demonstrates better than he writes. Check out his website, too, at www.sociablemedia.com.

The Copywriter’s Handbook, Robert W. Bly, published by Henry Holt & Co.

This is a great book by a great pro. This is where all the basic lessons are explained: knowing who you’re writing to, the art of the headline, the great motivators (guilt, salvation, greed, fear, happiness), the message on the envelope, and lots more. For example:

"In direct mail you have five seconds to capture someone’s attention. Use a great opening – with an offer, an announcement, a story, flattery, or a question."

Direct Mail Copy that Sells!, Herschell Gordon Lewis, published by Prentice Hall, 1984.

Yes, some of the rules of direct mail have changed since Lewis first wrote this book 20 years ago, but the fundamentals are deliciously the same. Though his official topic is direct mail, his rules about content and what motivates people to act is universal, whether you’re giving a speech, designing an ad, or writing for a newsletter.

I love the clear examples, too. Imagine you’re selling strong binoculars, he suggests. Don’t write "you can see really far away with these," but "You can look a sparrow straight in the eye from 250 feet and you can see it blink."

His 4th Law of Advertising is worth the price alone: Tell the reader or viewer what to do. Subtlety doesn’t work.

Don’t Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability, Steve Krug, published by New Riders Publishing.

This is a fantastic book on several levels. It tells you everything you need to know about creating an intuitive, powerful website. And it’s a fantastic read, like the best website you’ve ever surfed. Krug, who also performs well, practices what he preaches. He also engages the web aficionado in other ways, if you choose. Sign up for his e-mails and you’ll have regular communications what he’s up to, including the ability to review his ‘upgrades’ of the book.

This is a 'must have' book, whether you design your own sites or you have it done for you.

Sample statements:

"After all, usability really just means making sure that something works well; that a person of average (or even below average) ability and experience can use the thing – whether it’s a Web site, a fighter jet, or a revolving door – for its intended purpose without getting hopelessly frustrated."

"I think my wife put her finger on the essence of [web design] better than any statistic I’ve seen:"If something is hard to use, I just don’t use it as much"

Marketing

New Review: Permission Marketing: Turning Strangers into Friends and Friends into Customers, by Seth Grodin, 1999, Simon & Schuster.

Selling the Invisible: A Field Guide to Modern Marketing, by Harry Beckwith, published by Warner Books.

This book points out that selling services, as many nonprofits do, can be infinitely more difficult than selling a product, like a toaster. I guess I’m spoiled by writers who actually offer proofs of the lessons they offer. Beckwith doesn’t, just makes statement after statement in a Voice of God manner. Turns me right off.

On the other hand, the guy has impeccable credentials as an author and a branding expert, and much of what he has to say has become accepted beliefs in the marketing  profession and such bestsellers as Good to Great by Jim Collins and The World is Flat by  Thomas Friedman:

• no matter what else is true, you have to offer great service
• "every act is a marketing act," including the way the receptionist answers the phone to the look of your stationery
• "selling a service is selling a relationship"
• only do what you can be great at
• it’s all about the consumer. In a bad situation, "the prospect says 'me, me, me.' Unfortunately, so does the marketer."
• First and last impressions count disproportionately.

Marketing Without Advertising: Inspire Customers to Rave About Your Business and Create Lasting Success, by Michael Phillips & Salli Rasberry, published by Nolo Press, fourth edition.

These folks hate advertising, to the silly point that they say E.F. Hutton and Martha Stewart would have survived their scandals better were they not so well known. Hmmmm. They cite reports such as by Information Resources (www.infores.com) which claims, "There is no simple correspondence between advertising and higher sales. The relationship…is tenuous at best." They note that people responding to advertising tend to be disloyal, that dependence on advertising makes a business vulnerable to shifts in consumer taste, and that most people don’t trust advertising.

Moving on from their diatribe, they offer some alternatives. First and foremost is personal recommendations. Can’t beat the cost effectiveness (it’s free), and it works. They quote Malcolm Gladwell’s The Tipping Point:

"Think for a moment about the last expensive restaurant you went to, the last expensive  piece of clothing you bought and the last movie you saw. In how many of those cases was your decision…heavily influeced by the recommendation of a friend? There are plenty of advertising executives today who think that …word-of-mouth appeals have become the only kind of persuasion that most of us respond to anymore."

The authors include a good checklist for ensuring that your business is doing everything it should to earn the good opinions of your customers and others, such as up-to-date, quality products; clear and fair pricing  policies; business transparency; and a clean office.

Forget the section on marketing on the Internet; it’s already outdated, but the book has some clever ideas on how to introduce yourself to new audiences and peer-based marketing. Also has a good recommended reading section whose books I’m tracking down for future review. Stay tuned!

The Brand Gap, Marty Neumeier, published by New Riders, 2006.

A succinct book that makes it clear that your branding is chosen by the audience. Sample quotes:

"In the end, the brand is defined by individuals, not by companies, markets, or the so-called general public. When enough individuals arrive at the same gut feeling, a company can be said to have a brand. In other words, a brand is not what you say it is. It’s what they say it is."
and
"A friend of mine once observed that the only thing worse than the fear of death is the 'fear of stupid'."

Don’t Think of An Elephant, George Lakoff, published by Chelsea Green Publishing.

I wasn’t quite sure how to classify this little gem about promoting progressive politics. Lakoff refers a lot to "framing", which could be seen as another word for branding or positioning, so I’ve put it under Marketing. Make your own judgment.

Lakoff has harsh words for progressives who can be rather arrogant about their beliefs. Here’s an example: "Progressives tend to talk about programs. But programs are not what most Americans want to know about. Most Americans want to know what you stand for, whether your values are their values, what your principles are."

Despite its polemics, the book belongs here because it reminds us we need to connect with our audiences with all our communications, and the right wing traditionally does a much better job of it.

Grapevine: The New World of Word-of-Mouth Marketing, Dave Balter and John Butman, published by Portfolio Books, 2005.

One of my few raves in this list, i.e. run out and buy this book because it will change the way you do business. Grapevine powerfully reminds that we all make most of our consumer purchases based on a friend’s recommendation. Think about how you chose your kid’s orthodontist, when you decided to refinance your house, which house of worship you joined, etc. etc. etc. The authors represent the Boston-based company BzzAgent, which is successfully translating the theory of word-of-mouth into actual practice by utilizing tens of thousands of 'BzzAgents' throughout the nation to honestly talk about products and services they’ve used. (You can sign up to be a BzzAgent, too, and get free stuff to try, without any obligation to be positive about it.)

The company is only beginning to determine how the theory works for nonprofits, but you can draw some conclusions of your own about how you might incorporate their lessons into you everyday work. Some of their conclusions:

• Everybody talks about products all the time, everywhere.
• People share their opinions for six main reasons:
  • To be helpful
  • To show off their knowledge
  • To find common ground in new relationships
  • To test and validate their own opinions
  • To show they’re cool
  • Because sharing is a human trait.
    

Positioning: How to Be Seen and Heard in the Overcrowded Marketplace, Al Ries & Jack Trout, published by McGraw Hill, 2001.

This is the more complex version of "22 Immutable Laws of Marketing," see below. It’s got more information, and it’s newer, but I didn’t like it as much. I did like the research finding that people can’t generally remember more than seven of anything, so you need to get your organization, product, or service, into one of the two or three most memorable. The authors ask: can you name all the seven dwarfs, the seven wonders of the world, the seven danger signs of cancer, or seven of the ten commandments. Provocative, no?

22 Immutable Laws of Marketing: Violate Them at Your Own Risk, Al Ries & Jack Trout, published by Harper Business, 1993.

This is a simple summary of more complex presentations these ad execs have written elsewhere. The nugget I extracted from a fairly easy-to-read volume was the key directive to distinguish your organization from all others, by being first, by being the only, by getting into people’s hearts.

"The three largest-selling Japanese imported cars in America are Honda, Toyota, and Nissan. Most marketing people think the battle between the three brands is based on quality, styling, horsepower, and price. Not true. It’s what people think about a Honda, a Toyota or a Nissan that determines which brand will win.."