Customer Reviews

Disruption: Overturning Conventions and Shaking Up the Marketplace

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

 

 

Why there are only few different and successful advertising campaigns even though everybody is talking about the differentiation in advertising meeting, planning book and creative meeting. This book shows how to develope the different and effective advertising campaigns you wish to create. The concept of this book is so clear and easy to understand. Most of all, over 100 disruptive campaign cases are the heart of this book. I could understand the strategic background of numerous great advertising campaigns which I have seen before in real advertising field.

The most fascinating aspect of Jean-Marie Dru's book is that it gives you a new way of looking at things... Of finding solutions to problems... Be it in advertising or in any other profession. In `Disruption', Dru sets up a premise for questioning conventional patterns and methods in order to move forward and beyond. To create path-breaking solutions in terms of strategies and communication. And, in support of his ideas, Dru provides examples from the world of advertising, where the forces of `disruption' have indeed created memorable brands all around the world. Some, even before the publication of this book. Although the core idea in `Disruption' originates in advertising, it actually transcends any trade or profession and influences the very essence of life itself. As Dru puts it succinctly in the preface of his book, 'Disruption is at once a method, a way of thinking, a state of mind.' This book is sure to change the way you look at advertising, and your life.

The most striking part about the book is the fluid model that the author proposed. In today's world of deterministic modeling, it is refreshing to find that someone has taken the trouble to create a model that has no set boundaries, no set method, yet is applicable. And produces results too, as in the case of BMW or Danone. This is a must read for anyone who is interested in a career in advertising.

This book is very well to dress for the concept ¡§Disruption¡¨ and how does it works. There are many examples, a lot of are from the author¡¦s own company BDDP, which are very useful for explain the concepts. Also he attaches the pictures of the related advertisement, which makes it easy to understand. And the author introduces step by step, from the basic knowledge of the real advertising world, background knowledge, and then gets into the Disruption. Even in the practice chapter, he integrates the Management skills (Planner), Knowledge Management (Disruption World Bank) which is very useful and clear for readers to apply the strategy.

It even talks about how to use Disruption in the Information Age, which creative department can take advantage from advance technology to interact, communicate and provoke inspiration. Also it would help to store, present ideas, for instance, CD-Rom. But somehow, it is kind of burdensome to make it to a whole chapter.

However, some of the concepts are too similar and vague that they seems only created for the book. And some examples are used to explain different concepts, which may result some confusion. For example, Starbucks Coffee was used to explain Additions of Business Discontinuities, but also used to explain Viewpoint in the Vision chapter, which are different concepts. I think it is becuase this concept of Disruption only came from 2 articles printed on Wall Street Journal and La Fegaro, and the effort to expand it into a book centainly decreased its power.

But over all, this book is well written and very interesting to read, you couldn¡¦t put it down after you started it. I had already purchased the sequel of it, "Beyond Disruption", I hope there will be some latest view points and maybe solutions for some problems occered in the market after this book.

A very intelligent book on advertising. The underlying concept -- DISRUPTION! -- isn't exactly new. But the book takes a fresh look at just how some businesses -- and advertisers -- have broken away from the pack of mediocre, wasteful advertising. And the result has often been dramatic increases in sales. The book is provocative, and most importantly, it makes you THINK. You can walk away from this book with plenty of ideas for how to improve your own advertising. For those who have anything to do with advertising, it's well worth the read.

If you ask me, this book belongs right up there with "Positioning" as one of the all time must-reads, not only for marketers and advertising people, but really for anyone in business. And while it was published in the mid-90s, it couldn't be more relevant today. At heart, what Mr. Dru says (and then supports with many examples) is that the only path to genuine business success is to fly in the face of conventional thinking.

Mr. Dru's background is as the leader of a large advertising agency; so many of his examples come from this area. However, as he points out, taking the safe route in almost any business endeavor-product development, business process design or marketing communications-is often the most dangerous course. Because any business activity that fails to disrupt, i.e. break with the norm, is unlikely to attract much attention (or business). Which, at a time when revenue and earnings growth is stagnant for most firms, and the tools of financial engineering all but exhausted, would seem to point to this new "best practice". Read this book and then inject a massive amount of disruption into the thinking that powers your enterprise.

This is a classic which should be in the library of anyone serious about our craft - or business, if that's the way you see it. J-M Dru sets out to break the rules - systematically. Its a little like how Edward de Bono approaches thinking: he gives you random and therefore unusual starting points so your journey will be a different one. Disruption is challenging stuff. In fact, I'm not convinced that every ad can or should be disruptive. But I do believe we should be asking the question of ourselves every time and saying "yes" a whole lot more often. Some of the tools he includes can be put into practice easily and they work well. I recommend them to young people in our agency. You never stop learning in the ad game. Buy this book or [...].

The book's full title is "Overturning Conventions and Shaking Up the Marketplace". It neither shows, however, how to overturn conventions or how to shake up the marketplace.

The author has come up with a great thought but this thought isn't profound enough to write a book. This is why the book is full of examples and lacks thought provoking insights.

The idea of standing out from the clutter is re-presented in a jerky, repetitive format. Perhaps stemming from the author's non-native-to-English tongue. There are a few pearls here, though. Most of which, the concept of disruption levels. Otherwise, the books slips into brochureland once too often. I'm not sure if I'm reading a book on advertising or a collateral piece from Dru's agency.