Customer Reviews

Being Direct: Making Advertising Pay

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book is interesting particularly for the evolution of direct marketing that Wunderman describes--and to a large degree, instigated. Readers will notice a tendency for Wunderman to toot his own horn, but don't worry; it doesn't ever become obnoxious.

The book would be good as a general guide as to what works and what doesn't--and why--in direct marketing. If a company is looking at direct marketing as a possible direction, this would be a good place to start to get an idea of what is involved, and what it takes to be successful. It may or may not help the reader that Wunderman describes using his techniques in marketing both goods (flowers) and services (credit cards).

In the end, you get more history from it than hard, specific tips. A very good read, but don't expect it to be "100 tips to direct marketing success". The hints are there, but you'll need to dig them out.

As a Direct Marketeer I was really impressed by Wunderman's clear, sophisticated, simple book that is REALLY about direct selling ! For a Direct Marketing "freshmen" it helps to think about what you should think about. And for profis it is a treasure of Direct Marketing strategies that allready worked.

What a story! Wunderman invented so many of the marketing techniques we take for granted. Now he shares the inside story on how it did it. An inspiring trip through some of the greatest marketing ever.

Wunderman provides a glimpse into a long and prosperous career in the direct advertising industry. Emphasizing the journey and the road to discovery rather than the actual destination, this book outlines how and when key direct marketing concepts were created, where he employed them, and the results which were achieved. I liked this book but it did take me some time to plow through it. I struggled to remain focused through parts of the book but, overall, it was a pretty enjoyable read.

Since the book is over ten years old, I bought myself a used copy. It's terrific. I'm not sure the book is in print anymore but either way, the copy I bought was in such great shape that I don't even notice it's used.

One of the surprising things about this book is that it's written without much of an ego. When Lester fails, he says so, when he does well, he attributes it to uncovering a direct marketing insight - not being chosen by the celestial gods and being struck by a lightening bolt. You can tell from reading that Lester Wunderman worked very hard, believed in himself and constantly searched for the unmet needs of customers. None of these disciplines go out of style.

The organization of information in this book is more like reading a biography than a marketing textbook yet the insights build upon each other and help you sharpen your understanding of direct marketing. It's an easy weekend read and a useful book for anyone in the marketing field, particularly those who may be looking to create more value for customers with their marketing efforts. I also encourage digital marketers to pick up this copy too because Wunderman's insights have many applications for today's CRM, SEM, SEO and web analytics practices.

If you are looking for a book that will give you the top 10 list of how to make your advertising pay, then this is not the book for you. Mr. Wunderman's memoir is a look back on a life-time spent coming up with creative direct marketing solutions to business problems.

My key takeaways from this book are to understand that the way to achieve truly impressive breakthroughs is not to resort to tried and true formulas. The formulas will get you incremental improvement at best.

For example Wunderman discusses how he sponsored a Chicago radio show of a prominent minister to target those in need of hearing aids. In another section he is challenged to develop a million leads for a rose grower who typically received 150,000 new prospects a year.

In both cases, Wunderman hits it out of the park.

The key insight to enjoying the book is to listen to Wunderman's repsonse to legendary copywriter Maxwell Sackheim's question, "What is it that you do?" Wunderman's answer, "I get clients and help them with their marketing problems."

Wunderman is a troubleshooter, and his toolset is direct marketing.

Cheers!

Now in an updated second edition, Being Direct: Making Advertising Pay presents the wisdom and practical experience of advertising legend and direct marketing pioneer Lester Wunderman, perhaps best known for his guidance behind the ubiquity of the American Express card, the creation of the Columbia Record Clob, and the well-known L.L. Bean. Although Being Direct focuses especially upon successful direct marketing, the experiences recounted within the pages are critically important to any business striving to get the most out of its advertising budget. From inventing new direct marketing media to how to successfully start an advertising agency to speculations of changes in the future and more, Being Direct is an eye-opening look at the changing business-consumer relationship from the point of view of a man who not only adapted to modern revolutions of information technology, but put them to use for success beyond anyone's dreams.

Lester's tale really gives you an inside look at how the entire 'Direct' movement started and his place in it's history. I loved the format of this book; being story formatted made it read much easier than many of the dry books out there on Direct Marketing and Advertising. This book should be a part of any real marketers collection. It's thick with timeless tips and techniques you may glean from it's pages.

Being Direct uses many different company and industry examples to outline the development of the Direct Marketing industry. Wunderman does a good job, in a somewhat autobiographical way, as he demonstrates how direct marketing found its niche in the marketing world. Direct Marketing, due to mistaken perceptions among marketing industry experts and large advertisers, took many years to gain recognition. Wunderman asserts that Direct Marketing was, at first, seen as essentially no more than direct mail order advertising. Industry reluctance changed, however, as advertisers and marketing industry experts began to see that through direct marketing an advertiser could better know its customer segments and achieve better sales and profitability results by better catering to those customers' needs. Accordingly, Wunderman provides many examples to prove that the subtitle, "Making Advertising Pay", is certainly an appropriate descriptor for Direct Marketing.

This book is written in a story-like narrative that makes it a pretty quick and easy one to read.

Lester Wunderman, the father of direct marketing, is a great salesman and has a super story to tell. If you want to know more about Mr. Wunderman's life or the history of direct marketing then this book is for you. However, the book promises to deliver on "making advertising pay" and it simply doesn't. What techniques you learn about direct marketing are antidotal and have to be mined from a lot of ore. The first few pages enumerate Mr. Wunderman's 19 principles which is about the only direct how-to we get.