3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Only read this book if you want to learn something, January 12, 2006
This review is from: Fresh Air: Marketing Gurus on Radio (Paperback)
For those of us who love radio and the magic of auditory imagination, it is troubling to watch many in the radio industry act like a lost red-headed step child wandering aimlessly through the supermarket. Such children wonder how it could be that they lost their parents, and can think only of returning to the safety and security of the world that mom and dad provide.
Post deregulation, post satellite radio, post iTunes, pre HD radio, pre WiMax, pre cell phone streaming, and pre Whatever is Next, radio is facing not just a fork in the road, but a freeway interchange of possibilities. Given today's profusion of delivery platforms for audio content, what business is radio really in? Can radio still deliver a non-preemptible listener benefit that no other medium can? What benefit would that be? And once you've answered that question, do you really need a transmitter for it?
If you've ever struggled through a book on a business topic such as positioning or market segmentation, and wished you could bend the ear of the author to do the hard work of applying the lessons taught, to your industry, then perhaps you'll appreciate the labor involved in Fresh Air.
Mark Ramsey heads one of the premier market research and consulting firms for the broadcast industry, Mercury Radio Research and in Fresh Air, he aggregates a cast of marquee marketers such as Jack Trout, Seth Godin, Tom Asacker, and others to focus their expertise on topics germane to all marketers, but with specific application for the radio industry.
It's a fairly quick read at only 100 pages. The book is not a desk weight, if anything it's a series of focused thought starters posing as interviews. In some ways it reminds one of Harry Beckwith's series of "Invisible" marketing books-short, honed, and stimulating. The book is well edited and doesn't waste your time with a great deal of superfluous introduction to topics that most radio professionals have some working knowledge of already (buzz marketing, positioning, branding, etc.). Not having roots or responsibilities in radio, many of the interviewees by dint of their expertise and removed perspective bring unconventional thinking to an industry that has suffered from a surfeit of pre-baked ideas.
For those who frequent Ramsey's blog at www.radiomarketingnexus.com, perhaps the only bothersome part will be the fact that while the book clearly hands the microphone to many contemporary thought leaders, it does not, per se, so much contain Ramsey's own views, as allow them to filter through his interviews. One of Ramsey's signature traits is his lack of an agenda when doggedly pursuing answers to thorny questions. Which is why readers of his blog, while recognizing that the subtitle clearly indicates a book of interviews, (it is an "edited by Mark Ramsey" book) will still wish it included Ramsey's own insightful take on radio.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Challenging and Thought Provoking, February 24, 2006
This review is from: Fresh Air: Marketing Gurus on Radio (Paperback)
Ramsey's interviews challenge radio managers to think about radio's future and opportunities. It is an excellent read and should be in the bag for anyone whose livlihood is linked to the ongoing prosperity of commmercial radio. The book will cause some readers to say "what do I do now". I think that is the point: to reinforce the need to think about and confront the future now while radio still has the incumbent position of reaching 97% of the public every week.
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4.0 out of 5 stars
Quick read, February 13, 2008
This review is from: Fresh Air: Marketing Gurus on Radio (Paperback)
This book is a quick read, and contains some useful marketing ideas for radio from various marketing "experts", mainly outside the broadcast industry. The chapters are all quite short and don't get into much depth about any specific topic, but the book does provide a quick snapshot of marketing ideas for the radio business.
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