Review
"... the author of a maverick book on marketing ... [says] the marketing world ... has forgotten that it exists to sell things, not mollycoddle people." (Sunday Business Post, 5th October 2003)
"…Free Gift Inside contains many of the examples of companies who have got the tease just right…" (Financial Times, 16 October 2003)
"…This book is certainly entertaining…" (Market research News, 15 October 2003)
"…He constantly pushes the boundaries of conventional thinking about marketing…"(Belfast Telegraph, 3 November 2003)
"…Brown’s irreverent style makes this book a joy to read…" (Marketing Business, November 2003)
“…I really enjoyed reading Free Gift Inside, it was like a breath of fresh air…”(What’s New In Marketing, 2 December 2003)
"…a book that made me laugh out loud, a book that made me think, a book that gave me hope…"(City to Cities, February/March 2004)
“… Brown puts forward some interesting theories…” (EN Magazine June 2004)
From the Inside Flap
Customers? Customers??
Customers??? Don’t talk to me about customers! I’ve had it up to here with customers. Haven’t you?
Now, don’t get me wrong. I have nothing against customers. Some of my best friends are customers. Customers are a good thing, by and large, provided they’re kept well downwind. But there is a limit. They’re starting to get uppity. They’re beginning to think that they know best. I ask you. Who are these people?
Of course, we only have ourselves to blame, since marketers have been chanting the mantra of customer orientation for forty-odd years. It’s time for a change. It’s time to stop kow-towing. It’s time to forget about customer focus. It’s time to tantalize, tease and torment them, to play hard to get. It’s time, in short, for Stephen Brown’s Free Gift Inside!!
Marketing, he demonstrates, is not about customer-orientation. It is about selling stuff. It is about selling stuff to today's sated, sophisticated, super-skeptical consumers, who have an infinite number of near-identical offerings to choose from.
The aim is to make choosy consumers choose yours.
