Marketing Without Advertising: Inspire Customers to Rave About Your Business to Create Lasting Success, Fourth Edition [Paperback]

Michael Phillips (Author), Salli Rasberry (Author), Barbara Kate Repa (Author, Editor)

Book Description

Series: Marketing Without Advertising | Publication Date: March 2003

The best marketing you can do for your business is to concentrate on creating a high-quality operation that customers, employees and other businesspeople will trust, respect and recommend.

Marketing Without Advertising teaches small business owners practical strategies to:

*encourage customers to spread the good word about your business
*attract new customers and gain their trust
*turn dissatisfied customers into loyal supporters
*list your products or services widely and inexpensively
*plan marketing events that will keep customers involved
*encourage the media to comment positively on your business

The 4th edition includes a new chapter on using interactive websites for marketing and selling online, and provides the latest marketing trends. It also covers "stealth marketing," building customer trust through openness and developing your customer base through personalized marketing efforts.

Editorial Reviews

Review

If you've got something to sell, this book is a valuable reference... -- Paul Tulenko, Cleveland Plain Dealer

straightforward advice on how to create a marketing plan that will encourage enthusiastic recommendations about your business from satisfied customers. -- Business Life

About the Author

Michael Phillips, an experienced businessman and consultant who helped to develop the Mastercharge interbank credit card, was the coordinator of the Briarpatch, a network of small businesses that espouse common values. He also runs a pioneering small business school called the Noren Institute in San Francisco. Co-author of Marketing Without Advertising, Michael is the author of many other books, including The Seven Laws of Money (with Rasberry, Pocket Classics), Honest Business (with Rasberry, Pocket Classics), The Briarpatch Book (ed. with Rasberry, New Glide), Simple Living Investments (Clear Glass) and Citizen Legislature (with Callenbach, Banyan Tree).

Salli Rasberry has successfully run a dozen small businesses in fields as varied as book fairs, publishing companies, documentary films, business consulting, and writing. An artist and gardener, she is currently vice president of the private nonprofit, the Sonoma Land Trust. Sally is the author of Living Your Life Out Loud: How to Unlock Your Creativity and Unleash Your Joy (with Selwyn, Pocket Books), Running a One-Person Business (with Whitmyer, Ten Speed Press), The Seven Laws of Money (with Phillips, Pocket Classics), Honest Business (with Phillips, Pocket Classics), The Briarpatch Book (ed. with Phillips, New Glide) and Marketing Without Advertising (with Phillips, Nolo).

Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Nolo; 4 Sub edition (March 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0873379306
• ISBN-13: 978-0873379304
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 7.1 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,913,429 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Barbara Kate Repa is an expert on employment rights who has more than 20 years of experience as a legal journalist and author covering workplace legal issues. She has also been a mediator and a consultant on workplace discrimination. She is the author of Your Rights in the Workplace. She has been a guest on national radio and television including The Today Show, ABC News, NPR, CNBC, Court TV, KFI and KGO radio and has been quoted in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The San Francisco Chronicle, USA Today and other publications. She lives in San Francisco.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Comprehensive and Up-to-Date, November 2, 2003

By 

Roger E. Herman (Greensboro, NC USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Marketing Without Advertising: Inspire Customers to Rave About Your Business to Create Lasting Success, Fourth Edition (Paperback)

The authors begin the fourth edition of their book with a declarative statement: "Marketing means running a first-rate business and letting people know about it. Every action your company takes sends a marketing message." Clever ads, the authors suggest, are a waste of resources. Advertising is not effective for business building, customers lured by ads are fickle, and there are better ways to invest resources for business building. That said (Chapter 1: Advertising: The Last Choice in Marketing), the authors proceed to give us a comprehensive, practical, in-depth journey through a wide range of marketing strategies.

Topics covered include the physical appearance of your business, pricing, people treatment, openness and trust, educating prospective customers, demonstrating expertise, helping customers find you, dynamic interactive marketing, and use of the internet. A valuable section of this book deals with designing and implementing a marketing plan, the all-important work of organizing your strategy.

An appendix includes recommended reading, how to contact the authors for consulting help, and 21 worksheets to help you evaluate how you're doing. Good index. This book covers a lot of information-strategies and techniques-that will be valuable to any small or mid-sized business. I mention this broad-base value since the book is published by a firm that specializes in law books. Obviously, there's great value to law firms in these pages, but readers should not expect the book to be exclusive. In fact, the chapter on Creating a Calendar of Events uses examples of an interior design firm and a chiropractic clinic. Questionnaires and call-out boxes throughout the book help readers get the message and understand it.

The only negative I would share, which is minor, is the unusual page numbering system. Instead of starting with page 1 and continuing, as most books do, this book numbers the pages by chapters. Example 9/15, indicating the 15th page in chapter 9.

Useful as a read-through and as a reference book. A worthwhile read for anyone seeking to build a business without dumping a ton of money into advertising that won't produce a return.

5.0 out of 5 stars Very pleasedI, September 28, 2009

By 

Jessica Franklin (pittsburgh, pa) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Marketing Without Advertising: Inspire Customers to Rave About Your Business to Create Lasting Success, Fourth Edition (Paperback)

I received the book quickly and it was in great shape for a great price. Highly recommended!

5.0 out of 5 stars Practical - Priceless, November 9, 2007

By 

A. Duncan - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Marketing Without Advertising: Inspire Customers to Rave About Your Business to Create Lasting Success, Fourth Edition (Paperback)

What a great book - Practical advice that really makes sense. I'm putting these fundamentals into action already, and feel great about it. Awesome info.