Customer Reviews

DUH! MARKETING: 99 Monstrous Missteps You Can Use to Learn, Laugh, and Grow Your Business!

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This entertaining book is a fast, fun read using real and recognizable examples. Each marketing mis-cue has a concise lesson that is practice, not theory. You learn from some of the biggest marketers on the planet, on their dime. The format is more like a daily calendar than a book, so you can zip through it on your coffee breaks. Liz's point that we remember stories better than concepts rings true. Did you hear the one about the marketing pro who bought this book and got promoted after telling his boss that...

We know it when we see or hear it. A marketing failure can make us turn away or turn our stomachs. A marketing breakthrough can make us smile, desire and remember. Knowing it and knowing why it is so are very different, which is true value of Duh! Marketing. Not only does it show us the good and the bad, but it tells us why good is good and bad is bad, using side by side comparisons to great advantage. The best teaching comes through or with humor, and this book succeeds in teaching a great deal.

Peter James MacCracken, APR
Principal
Strategic Communications

Here is a lady who not only talks the talk, but has walked it as well! Think this might only be for the small marketing business, well guess again. I'm hoping all you 'big' guys also plan on buying this for your company. Everyone needs a good laugh, and when you can learn some valuable tools as well, then you have a great '2 for 1' deal.

This is great! What an enjoyable, tongue-in-cheek way to compare/contrast marketing tactics that have been proven effective with those that have flopped. Fun, fast-reading that highlights recent examples from all walks of business. Marketers, business leaders and consumers alike will relate and be nodding (or shaking) their heads in agreement as they read. Hilarious and helpful...what a winning combination for a book.

In martial arts there is a saying that it takes level to see level. What that means is that a black belt sees more when watching people practice than a white belt can see. Liz Goodgold is a marketing black belt of the hightest order. "99 Monstrous Missteps..." is a Master's Work beautifully written to allow marketing white belts to see the world with a masters eye. The brilliance of this book is that advanced concepts are illustrated in one page and not chapter. DUH!

Have you ever wondered what many major corporations were thinking when they rolled out advertising campaigns that did nothing but confuse or offend their target audience? In 99 hilarious examples, Liz Goodgold leads us to this conclusion: They weren't thinking very clearly; that's for sure!

For every major blunder, Goodgold very cleverly contrasts it with a great example of what a different company did to successfully market its product or service. Not surprisingly, the difference usually boiled down to a matter of simple "common sense"; those possessing it fared much better than those who didn't.

One of my favorite examples of marketing blunders involved Britney Spears, who was paid $7 million by Pepsi to drink their cola, but - oops - she was caught sipping on a Coca-Cola during one of her concerts; of course, I don't think Britney worried about the lack of credibility; she still got the money. In the meantime, you have to wonder what the big-wigs at Pepsi were thinking by enlisting the endorsement services of a celebrity with a rather volatile history as Ms Spears to begin with. Oops.

But, let's face it; celebrities are always a risky proposition. You won't see OJ Simpson plugging Hertz any time soon; nor are we likely to see Tiger Woods driving off in a Buick again. Reputations tarnish quickly, and rarely recover from scandal. Extreme caution is advised.

If you happen to be in the business of public relations, marketing, or advertising, this is a terrific book for helping you navigate the most effective course of action; and you'll get a lot of laughs along the way.