Ice to the Eskimos: How to Market a Product Nobody Wants [Hardcover]

Jon Spoelstra (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 9, 1997

You.
That's Right. YOU.
You've got a problem.
You've got a product that's not first in its class.
It's not even second.
You've got to find a way to market that product.

What Are You Going To Do?

You're going to read this book, that's what.

Let's face it. There comes a time in the life of every business when a product or service does not sell up to expectations.

Maybe your product is outmoded. Or hasn't been positioned correctly. Or is competing in a crowded market. Whatever the reason, Ice to the Eskimos is dedicated to helping you reclaim that lost ground. It's about taking a product or service and turning it into a winner. If you've got a product that is not the best in its field, then you will love Ice to the Eskimos. Take the principles Jon Spoelstra writes about and run hard with them—you'll be amazed by the results.

Written by the former president of the hapless New Jersey Nets, Jon Spoelstra is the man responsible for tripling that team's lagging revenues in just three years and increasing the season-ticket holders base by 250 percent. This guy knows what he's talking about. What everyone else had seen as a lost cause, Spoelstra saw as an outstanding opportunity to reawaken a tired and beaten product to achieve unprecedented profitability.

Not just for sports marketers, this lively, entertaining book successfully makes the jump from sports to whatever your product may be. The techniques Spoelstra perfected while working for teams in the NHL and NBA—from innovative packaging to image overhaul—apply to any product in any company. The numerous winning examples are sure to make Ice to the Eskimos a must-read for anyone with a product or service to sell.

Ice to the Eskimos is sure to be an instant marketing classic. It will show millions of readers how to market their product...sometimes even after they've given up hope. By using the powerful techniques in this book, you too can learn to achieve the impossible and market ice to the Eskimos.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Lessons drawn from the world of sports have long proven applicable to the world of business. Jon Spoelstra, who pushed sponsorship and fan revenue to unprecedented heights for the lowly New Jersey Nets basketball franchise, shows how to put big-league marketing expertise to use off the court in Ice to the Eskimos: How To Market a Product Nobody Wants. His 19 "jump-start ground rules," sprinkled liberally with sports anecdotes, are designed to apply to any product or service.

Review

"A superb book. I couldn't put it down. I kept quoting it to everyone I ran into. Spoelstra knows his stuff and has a proven, no-baloney message for all of us." -- Tom Peters, author of In Search of Excellence

"Spoelstra has a very creative marketing mind. Everyone can learn something from reading his book." -- Philip H. Knight, chairman and CEO, Nike

"There are so many fresh marketing ideas...that it will jump-start any company, whether it be a two-person lemonade stand or mega corporation." -- Harvey Mackay, author of Swim with the Sharks Without Being Eaten Alive

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: HarperBusiness; 1 edition (May 9, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0887308511
• ISBN-13: 978-0887308512
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.8 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #59,271 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I spent most of my adult life running pro sports teams, first NBA teams and then a group of seven minor league baseball teams.

With each job, there was a tremendous amount of travel. In fact, several years ago I passed the two million mile mark on United Airlines. That was clearly an indictment to my lifestyle. However, with all those miles I read and I wrote and when I got tired sitting on a plane or a hotel room I would read and write some more. My fifth book, Marketing Outrageously, became a Wall Street Journal best-seller.

And then, Amazon Kindle came out. I loved it. Someplace along the line I vowed never to read a book that wasn't on Kindle. (That vow didn't last, but most of the books I read are on Kindle.) Kindle also got me thinking about my own writing.

I wrote Red Chaser, a novel about the 1950s, the Cold War and the Brooklyn Dodgers. I didn't even go to a mainstream publisher. I only wanted it on Kindle. After all, it's projected that there will be 28 million of these devices out there in three or four years. Wow, this gives an author the opportunity to reach readers on a direct path. I could market this any way I wanted.

For the past year, Red Chaser has been in the top 2% of Kindle books sold. While I would like to push it further up the charts, it has encouraged me to write another novel. I need to do some more editing, but it will be coming out this year.

So, if you like my writing, here's an opportunity to like more of it. Read Red Chaser and let me know what you think of it. My personal email is [e-mail].

Happy reading!

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Ice to the Eskimos, October 8, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Ice to the Eskimos: How to Market a Product Nobody Wants (Hardcover)

I run a small company with almost 100 employees. My background is finance so you can think of my surprise when I received this book as a gift. I've always thought that marketing was part voodoo and part bull. But, I decided to read just one chapter of this book. That led to another chapter, then another. Then I started to SEE and UNDERSTAND marketing. We initiated some of Spoelstra's ideas to fit our company and we received almost immediate big results. I see... Spoelstra has another book coming out next year. I personally will try to be the first one to buy it.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Superchage your marketing campaign!, April 21, 2002

By 

Adam F. Jewell (Pittsburgh, PA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Ice to the Eskimos: How to Market a Product Nobody Wants (Hardcover)

Eskimos have all the ice they need and presumably don't perceive the need to get any more, let alone buy it. Joe Spoelestra illustrates how to take that ice and turn it into something desirable (a Slurpee) for example, or bundle it with something that makes it desirable - a sled and a lift to create an experience to sell.

Joe details his experiences, primarily in sports marketing. They are especially applicable to those in the entertainment and service industries but can be applied in virtually any industry. The book is full of new ideas, fresh insights, and ways to repackage that which nobody wants in such a way as to change the customers' perception of value and create a compelling value proposition.

The book is much better than this review. :-) Pick it up, read it, enjoy it and act on it. "Ice to the Eskimos" will give you fast easy ideas that can be used to jump start your business!

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars How to market products that nobody wants, July 7, 2001

By 

John C. Dunbar (Sugar Land, TX United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Ice to the Eskimos: How to Market a Product Nobody Wants (Hardcover)

The author starts with damaged goods, typically a sports franchise that is not winning. He then applies great thinking and action to turn around their sales.

The author tells you lots of stories of his successes and then describes the techniques that he used. There's lots of practical advice here.

He has just released another book, "Market Outrageously", in 2001. I have just finished reading the new one, and read this older one when it came out about 3 years ago. In some ways this older, original book has more material. However, the newer book adds to this information and has enough new material to make the purchase worthwhile. If you are a marketing professional, or a business owner, you should buy both.

Or, buy the newer book first, then if you like the style and information, then buy this older book to supplement the first.

You can also see my review comments for "Marketing Outrageously" in that book's review section.

Both books are fun and easy to read. In both books you'll be totally absorbed in the material.

The author has strong opinions and has produced strong results. So I rank this book as "highly recommended."

John Dunbar