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Bang! Getting Your Message Heard in A Noisy World [Hardcover]

Linda Kaplan Thaler (Author), Robin Koval (Author), Delia Marshall (Author)
3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (53 customer reviews)


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Book Description

October 21, 2003
The founders of one of today's hottest, most innovative advertising agencies explain how to ignite the kind of marketing explosions that will capture customers' attention.

Linda Kaplan Thaler, the CEO and Chief Creative Officer of the Kaplan Thaler Group, is the brains behind a host of memorable and highly successful ads, from the irresistibly sentimental "Kodak moment" campaign to Herbal Essences' "totally organic experience" to, most recently, the irrepressible AFLAC duck. In Bang!, Kaplan Thaler and Robin Koval of the Kaplan Thaler Group, currently ranked as the fastest-growing ad agency in the country, offer the kind of out-of-the-box thinking and proven strategies that marketers anywhere can use to create loud, clear, attention-grabbing messages about their products and services.

Presenting an arsenal of "big bang" ideas, the authors discuss how to create a memorable publicity hook and how to design attention-grabbing packaging that taps into consumers' innermost desires. They interweave entertaining accounts of their successes and failures, as well as those of other companies to suggest specific ways to establish an atmosphere conducive to innovative breakthroughs--why having "enough" time to work on a project can be a disadvantage, and why having a small staff in a cramped space is often the best way to come up with big ideas.

Full of colorful anecdotes and inspiring accounts of campaigns that have catapulted revenues and increased market shares, Bang! shows how to create a marketing campaign that rises above the banal barrage of commercials to create a genuine marketing explosion.

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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Thaler and Koval, the CEO and vice-president respectively of the Kaplan Thaler Group advertising agency (KTG), share the secrets of their marketing success. In business for six years, KTG has created advertising campaigns based on a philosophy of the big bang, defined here as a strategy designed to make a brand explode onto the marketplace virtually overnight. Although the authors' advice is targeted primarily toward businesses and other publicists, the glitzy anecdotal writing is witty and informative enough to appeal to those interested in advertising and popular culture. Drawing on many specific examples of their accomplishments, Thaler and Koval describe just how the creative process is triggered by innovative thinking. The AFLAC insurance company, for example, was turned into a household name when a member of the KTG team realized that AFLAC sounded like the quack of a duck. The AFLAC duck raised the company's profile from zero to instantly recognizable. According to Thaler and Koval, big bangs are achieved in an atmosphere where rules are ignored, organization is compressed, chaos is embraced and intuitive thinking is encouraged. In addition to useful tips, the authors also highlight pitfalls that can derail a potential big bang, such as failing to rehearse presentations or neglecting to do appropriate homework on the company being wooed.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

Advance Praise for Bang!

“Linda Kaplan Thaler is the best and the brightest mind to come into advertising in the last dozen years. A consulting firm would charge millions for the secrets revealed in Bang! If you want to move your business—and fast—buy Kaplan Thaler and Koval’s amazing book. Take notes.” —James Patterson, bestselling author, former CEO of J. Walter Thompson North America

“In the techno-age of no personality, Bang! explodes with advice, anecdotes, and insight. Like the original Big Bang, it keeps on going.” —Faith Popcorn, bestselling author, futurist

“Linda Kaplan Thaler and Robin Koval ‘get it’ from every angle. This book is full of extraordinary insight on effective message delivery.” —Gordon Bethune, Chairman and CEO, Continental Airlines


Product Details

  • Hardcover: 256 pages
  • Publisher: Doubleday Business; 1 edition (October 21, 2003)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0385508166
  • ISBN-13: 978-0385508162
  • Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.4 x 1 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
  • Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (53 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,144,866 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Linda Kaplan Thaler is the CEO and Chief Creative Officer and Robin Koval is General Manager of the Kaplan Thaler Group, ranked as the fastest growing advertising agency in the U.S. by leading industry and business publications. They are responsible for some of the biggest bangs in the marketing world skyrocketing sales, infiltrating pop culture and creating brand icons such as the AFLAC Duck.

 

Customer Reviews

53 Reviews
5 star:
 (30)
4 star:
 (9)
3 star:
 (2)
2 star:
 (3)
1 star:
 (9)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
3.9 out of 5 stars (53 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars What a disappointment!, January 24, 2004
By 
This review is from: Bang! Getting Your Message Heard in A Noisy World (Hardcover)
After seeing a rating above 4 stars, I happily ordered the book expecting a treat. What a disappointement! This has been the first book I haven't finished. I got about one quarter of the way through and got rid of it.

Pros: Some good stories and ideas (but nothing that you couldn't find in any other marketing book of higher quality).

Cons: As another reviewer suggested, the author merely gives examples of successful ads and tries to explain how they worked because they went against the grain and got a lot of attention. Well, I could have told you that! The real problem lies in the author's conclusions. The underlying theme seems to be: "Do the opposite of whatever you think will work best." If you think an ad is tasteless, inappropriate, and irrelevant, then run it because it will be a great success. If the ad has nothing whatsoever to do with the product, then it is more likely to succeed. For example, one of her "bright" ideas is: "You must forget about what makes sense...illogical thinking means that when you're asked to promote a bottle of water, you realize that water is the last thing you should focus on."

Conclusion: I give this book a rating of 1.5 stars. Don't waste your time on this book.

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18 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars A buzz, not a bang, January 1, 2004
By 
This review is from: Bang! Getting Your Message Heard in A Noisy World (Hardcover)
Back in the last millennium I took my newly minted MBA and went to work for a huge advertising agency. Though those glamorous days are long behind me, I remain fascinated with the art and science of advertising, and am always on the lookout for a book that purports to divulge the secret. Bang! seemed perfect for a rainy winter evening.

I zipped through the book in record time, thanks to the witty and engaging writing of Kaplan Thaler and Koval (or, more likely, their ghost writer Delia Marshall). The picture on the back cover is practically worth the price of the book (and sets the tone for the motes of wisdom dispensed between the covers). And the authors end the book with the shortest chapter I've ever read, but one that is guaranteed to make you chuckle.

Great anecdotes, enthralling war stories, leavened by tales of minor foibles that remind us of the authors' humanity and humility. So why only three stars?

Simple: the book doesn't deliver the goods. If it had been subtitled "the stories behind a few memorable ads" I would have given it another star or two. But by promising to tell readers the secret of "getting your message heard in a noisy world" the subtitle establishes expectations that are beyond the scope of the content. The lessons that the authors derive are simplistic (be nice to people; keep your mind open to inspiration; take risks) but the authors fail to synthesize the material they've presented into a model that might prove useful to a reader.

Fun, fast, lively, and not a bad way to occupy 90 minutes of your reading time. Just don't set your expectations too high.

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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars Worthless -- Beware of 4 star rating, July 2, 2004
By 
Leslie Gore (A reader in NY!) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Bang! Getting Your Message Heard in A Noisy World (Hardcover)
I bought Bang! and was thouroughly disappotinted. Which made me wonder why the book got the 4-star rating while a lot of newer reviews were negative.

Look towards the end of the reviewer list. You will find a number of glowing reviews all posted on Oct 21, 2003, mostly by a "reader in NY." Looks like somebody was trying to pump up the ratings.

In short, this book is a lot of self-promotion and not a lot of advise, apart from needing a $5+ mil budget to hire a hot creative agency (just like the author's). What a coincidence.

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Inside This Book (learn more)
First Sentence:
These days, getting people to notice you isn't easy. Read the first page
Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
creative meetings
Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
New York, Herbal Essences, Walter Thompson, American Red Cross, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Totally Organic Experience, Wall Street Journal, Bell Atlantic, Dan Amos, Ona Robinson, Ruby Tuesday, Super Bowl, Advertising Age, Burger King, Coldwell Banker, Creative Destruction, Douglas Atkin, Fred Thaler, Potato Head, Publicis Groupe, Ralph Lauren, Randi Dorman, Stevie Wonder, Ben Affleck, Bernie Owett
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Concordance | Text Stats
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Front Cover | Front Flap | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Flap | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
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