Customer Reviews

Baked In: Creating Products and Businesses That Market Themselves

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No one reading "Baked In" should assume that Bogusky and Winsor are going to divulge all their marketing secrets, but there are definite golden nuggets in this well-conceived book. Simply put, Baked In encourages companies to remember one simple rule: your product, not your marketing, is your most effective tool. Their advice is clever and succinct, and at a slim 152 pages you won't suffer information overload at its completion. I am not a business person - hell, I didn't even think I was interested in advertising - but I read Baked In with a fascination that extends well beyond the reach of the industry itself.

There are few books out there that really cut to the heart of the matter, Baked In is one of those books. In regard to marketing, what are your customers saying about your product? Who is designing your product? Is your product a solid representation of your brand? OR are you faking it?

Gone are the days of big business telling the consumer what the brand stands for and why they should buy the product. There is no place to hide...the customer interacts with your product and becomes brand representatives. If you have exceptional products, you will have exceptional representation by the consumer. If you products are average or less than average...you had better look out!

Marketing can't be directed like the old days in a command and control world that just doesn't exist, and Baked In in the perfect little book to get everyone to see how great marketing should be done today.

Baked In is a book that nails one of the simple things many organizations, particularly ad agencies, have forgot. The worlds of product development and marketing should not be separate. In fact, you create a much more powerful business and brand when you bake marketing directly in to the product. It's about blurring the difference between product and marketing, an idea that has created things like Nike+ and Help Remedies and has revitalized brands like Domino's. And while a lot of the examples used are about physical products, there's lots of examples, and applicable thinking, of how the digital space can be used for more than interruption, destination creation and the application of old ad models, but for the creation of meaningful products and services that foster powerful conversation and communities around them.

It's a really practical read, packed full of case studies, bite size thoughts and exercises - very much, a book that encourages learning by doing. And, unlike most of its peers, it talks in plain English and doesn't overstretch the point. It's a thought provoking 150 pages rather than the usual four hundred pages to drag out an idea that might have best been served as a blog post.

I had been wanting to read this book for months, then finally found a copy and ... well, I can't say it lived up to my expectations. I think this is partly because I'm an ad guy, and wanted to hear these ad geniuses talk about what they're geniuses at - rather than NPD, which it seems they want to be geniuses at, but haven't really got much of a track record at (for that, you'd be better off reading anything by Tim Brown at IDEO)

Bogusky and Winsor are undoubtedly extraordinary professionals - at the top of their game for years. But this book starts from a strange premise - that CEOs of businesses (because that seems to be who they're aiming at - not marketing professionals, but everyone else in businesses) are actually TOO preoccupied with marketing (dazzled by their Boguskys, perhaps), and that really they should focus more on their product. It is a shame to have to use all your marketing energies to counteract negative perceptions of a product... but c'est la vie, when did ad people get too big for that kind of a brief?

I've never met a business person who isn't focused on their product. The idea that they should really put more emphasis there seems patronising in the extreme - if they invest in NPD it's probably for a bigger reason than just to "bake in" marketing (i.e. make their ad agency's job easier).

Their examples are worthwhile, their rules are sensible, but all amount to little more than platitudes unless you're someone about to launch a new business - then it is a very valid question, "is this a product with its marketing baked it?" - but it seems like those circumstances are few and far between.

This is a great read. An experience that was double what I expected, instantly reminding my Bogusky was a legend in the industry. And Winsor, is certainly nothing short of a pragmatic linchpin either...

Summary: To succeed today, you should create innovative products (or services) with the marketing baked into them.

(The phrase "baked in" comes from 3D printing, a process that "bakes" prototypes in a oven-type contraption.)

Do this right and your products/services will market themselves, like Threadless t-shirts, OXO kitchen utensils, the iPod, etc.

Three takeaways:

1. The product is always the most-powerful marketing and sales tool. Stop designing in a vacuum and start designing as if the product had to sell itself without marketing. This forces you to innovate.

2. A shortcut to innovation is to steal great ideas -- from different industries, not your competitors. Nike "stole" the inspiration for its 20th anniversary edition of Air Jordan shoes from the design on Wynton Marsalis' trumpet, for example.

3. The name of your product can make or break it. Example: the VW Golf had slumped in sales by 90% over 15 years, from 250,000 units a year to 30,000. Back in its peak year, there was one thing different: the name. It used to be called the Rabbit. (Remember?) When VW changed the name back to Rabbit, sales nearly doubled in one year -- to 50,000.

This is a slender book you can read on an average plane ride. Be sure to re-read it when you land, then turn your ideas into actions. Recommended.

This book is not just a guide about branding, products and creative marketing, but a reference for everyone who owns a business or work in marketing and advertising.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs approaches innovation with attitude, saying, "I want to put a ding in the universe." Many would say Apple's products have done exactly that, from the Mac to the iPad. Customers don't just love Apple's innovative gear - they become devoted members of its tribe. Apple's products market themselves. Indeed, as Alex Bogusky and John Winsor put it, Apple "bakes" the marketing right into its products. In this charming, short book, they explain why innovation is the best marketing tool, why collaboration is the best approach to product design and why the Internet puts the customer firmly in charge (you'll be all a-Twitter). getAbstract believes anyone involved in product development, branding and marketing could benefit from these concepts. The book is fun to read, from its whimsical illustrations to its succinct ideas: "Don't just design what you see...design what you don't see."

If advertising is not your chosen profession in life, why the heck would you want to read a book written by two of the top leaders in the advertising world? (alex bogusky, @bogusky , longtime creative director at crispin porter + bogusky; and John Winsor, @jtwinsor , former head of product innovation & cognitive research at cp+b)

Because I believe the authors are on to something. And it's not advertising. I want to say it's way past advertising, but it's actually pre advertsing.

What?? Sound confusing? Let's jump into the meat of the book.

Though I passionately disagree with both authors on the value and practice of crowdsourcing, here are a few of their points from @bakedin that stuck with me:

+ Let's cut the crap of lying and false promises about products, and instead design a useful & beautiful product / experience that meets the users exact needs & wants.

+ Stop spending 3,4, or 8 years in r & d, and instead prototype and test early, and revise what works and throw away the rest.

+ Listen to and know your audience, and make a product that fits, instead making a mediocre product and then trying to advertise the crap out of it.

+ Inrementally changing a mediocre product each year to be (slightly) new & improved is a flawed business plan. Let's innovate! Let's create something new! Let's create something beautiful! Let's create something useful!!

So if you have any interest in providing a useful / beautiful / wow product or service, do your future self a favor and pick this book up!

Also, a big thanks to @jtwinsor for sending me a copy of the book to review!