Customer Reviews

No B.S. Marketing to the Affluent: The No Holds Barred, Kick Butt, Take No Prisoners Guide to Getting Really Rich

5 star:		(30)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The very important message of this book is there is a growing number of affluent, mass-affluent and super affluent consumers that are not confined by or do not let price be the major determining factor in their purchases.

Almost anyone selling products or services to the general public will benefit from the valuable lessons contained in this book.

The book is divided into three parts. Part one describes the affluent. Part two discusses what they spend money on and part three talks about how to get them to do business with you.

This is a typical Dan Kennedy no B. S. book. It is straightforward, full of great information and well written, a bit humorous at times. Dan also, as any great marketer would, provides some information about his own products. There is no point in letting this upset you. Learn from what he does.

The central theme of the book is that it is foolish to spend your time, money and energy struggling to get money from people who have very little of it. It is much more productive to concentrate on those where price is not necessarily a major issue.

Another lesson is the more affluent the customer, the more he is looking for expertise, relationship and most of all understand. He wants, actually demands respect. The quickest way to lose an affluent customer is to show disrespect for him and his position. They want and are willing to pay for respect and special privileges.

You need to make owning your product or using your service be of significance to the user. He wants to feel that he is gaining something exclusive.

Most business owner link price to product and feel they must try to justify the price based on the intrinsic value of the product. If you are going to sell for higher margins, you must cut the link between product and price. You do this by always discussing price in context - delivering what the customer values.

The book is a study in marketing. The biggest lessons in the book are that you must get out of your own mind and understand what the customer values. You are not your customer. Focus on the experience of the customer.

And if you are going to be successful in marketing, you must have a marketing system. Random acts of marketing are of little value.

A real education in marketing. There is also a valuable CD included with the book.

I grew up working class - my Mom cleaned houses, my Dad managed mailrooms and warehouses - and so I grew up with a lot of negative stereotypes about the affluent. That isn't helpful at all when the product you are selling is geared towards the affluent, and is even less helpful when thinking about becoming affluent yourself!

Dan's books, especially Wealth Attraction for Entrepreneurs and this book, are helping me really understand the folly of my previous attitudes and thoughts towards money and the affluent, and to actually change them by replacing old negative thoughts with more accurate ones.

Not only do I now truly like and admire the people who I am working with, but I understand a lot better the stereotypes which they are most sensitive to, the ways in which they view themselves and their wealth, and the worldviews and marketing "hooks" which particularly appeal to them.

My old attitudes and lack of understanding of my clients was really holding me back, and I credit Dan with helping me understand and change in the ways necessary to really be successful in my business and become rich one day myself.

Every single book I have of Dan's has a permanent place on my bookshelves. I have reread all of them at least once and find some new info to put to use each time. You won't regret buying this book - I have read at least one business book per week for the last year, and these are among the VERY best.

I also liked The Four-Hour Workweek by Ferriss and The E-Myth for Contractors by Gerber.

After having read most of Dan's previous books, I found this one to be one of the most valuable ones written.

What separates this book from his other works was the amount of research that went into this book to back up the claims that he makes about the characteristics of affluent people. It's not that his other books were poorly researched, it's just that the research for this book was excellent in comparison.

One of the most telling statistics was the fact that 2/3 of the middle class moved up to become the maass affluent and only 1/3 of the middle class moved down. That's key because it contradicts the message from the media about a "recession." Are there people struggling? Sure. But there is a major segment of the population that is doing well financially and they represent a great source of clientele if you understand some of their buying habits and implement effective strategies to communicate with them.

Why would a business owner target someone who is spending 100% of their earned income on living expenses vs someone who is using maybe 2 - 10% of their earned income on living expenses? It makes no sense but a vast majority of business owners are fighting for scraps among the former group. Dan cleverly states that business owners who are apprehensive about marketing to mass affluent consumers because they themselves aren't affluent have some deeper psychological issues.

The book covers some other key topics such as transaction size, raising prices without raising prices, and some of the often overlooked segments of the affluent consumer population.

The accompanying CD was really valuable as well. I've listened to it many times and I found Dan's insight on how the giant [...] is now going after this mass affluent population since they have lost some market share to [...] in the deep discount sector to be very enlightening. If Wal-Mart is having difficulty sustaining its position as the lowest price provider, why should you, the small business owner, even bother??

This book ranks right up their with Dan's Time Management Book and Dan's Wealth Attraction book. I recommend you walk...no check that...run and grab a copy of this book, read it, and implement his advice into your business or practice to target the mass affluent consumer.

Happy Hunting!

John Hinds
Author of "What's In Your Water?"

I would make a little different comment here. For those of us, who own 1 or more Dan's books, the question may rise - well, what new here can be, since actually, the Sales & Business books somewhat repeats each other (but not much), and also same does other books of this IMHO, most genius writer about marketing ever.
Then let me tell you - this is a best ever book wrote by Kennedy till now, and it's absolutely unique and new content now. So, what's inside?
In fact - 2 in 1! It will not give you only brilliant tips of how to detach commodity from it's price, but also will give the most perfect till now I saw insight of life and habits of affluent.
Since, what we read till now in a books, covering the topics, what are differences between the rich & poor, we saw a books similar to Rich Dad, where mostly get out of debt & buy real estate are covered - but here Dan gives fantastic layout of daily habits, and thinking of rich, it's dazzling if not say more!

This book has few real insights. Some of the material was moderately interesting with many examples of successful business models. Much of the material was timely, and it was poorly edited in a rush to get printed. I usually overlook this if the material is particularly useful. Unfortunately, this wasn't the case, at least for me. There was too much of Kennedy's opinion and currently popular anecdotal evidence, and too few researched truths, though he presented much as fact. And, of course, the reader is bombarded by the up-sell attempts throughout the book. Like any book of this sort, the reader can pick out some useful information, but I'd recommend saving your money by leaving this one on the shelf.

In these uncertain economic times business owners need to know how to put themselves, their products and services in front of customers/clients who are in a position to buy willingly and happily!
In this book Dan Kennedy does his usual brilliant job of "drilling down" and giving you all the nuts and bolts, facts and figures you need to both keep the affluent customers you may already have, plus attract more of them to your business.
A big two thumbs up!

There is a lot of great stuff in this. A warning: He throws in a lot of his conservative political views throughout the book that may not resonate with everyone. If you are conservative, you will love it. If not, you can still get good info if you can ignore his rants on liberals.

I was disappointed in this book. It seemed to contain disjointed thoughts and ideas. I would have been pleased to walk away with one profitable idea but I didn't.

Moreover, it looked like the author used product placement all throughout the book. He had links everywhere and short ads, or what looked like ads, for all sorts of businesses --- some of these lists took up pages. Perhaps he calls them resources. I don't. And, of course, not unsurprisingly, he had ads for his own products and business and offers to sell the readers various products.

In all fairness, I think he may have been trying to show how a number of online businesses were or are marketing to the affluent. But he was all over the board. He covered far too many different businesses and used too many links. The reader buys the book to learn how to market to the affluent and all those links and long copy that reads like ads about hundreds of online businesses isn't a good way to do that.

He laid out several groups as if their affluence was different than other affluent groups. For example gays. Yes, it's a very affluent demographic. But it's not separate from any other affluent group.

What a book like this needs to do is to address what affluent means and how they buy. Then, it needs to help the reader know how to market to the group. Yes, there are levels of affluence to be sure. But selling to them should have a few basic guidelines rather than everyone having different motivations as the author lays it out.

He's presented the topic in a way that gives you no real guidance and he contradicts himself in a number of places. He also used the book to beat the drum for himself and his wealth. To some extent, that's acceptable. But some authors don't handle it in a way that's appealing to the reader. In fact, the less an author inserts himself into what he writes, the better in many, not all, cases.

The author even included one full chapter from "Peterman Rides Again: Adventures Continue with the Real J. Peterman through Life and the Catalog Business" which really had little to do with the topic of the book and was a waste of pages.

In discussing fees and pricing -- the most important topic --- he writes a few words in a short chapter and recommends you take his one-day seminar for full details and instructions!

The bottom line: This book offers a few tips that are somewhat valuable. They are not, however, new or exciting. They are mere rehash of what's fairly well-known.

The author also inserts his own political views, quite strongly. While I tend to agree with those views, I don't think this book is the place for them. He also devotes the last chapter of the book to a political commentary. Again, it's one with which I agree. I just don't think it should be inflicted on the readers who are paying for something else --- not politics.

-- Susanna K. Hutcheson

Some useful information, but basically a teaser about joining Dan's inner circle. Nothing solid to walk away with or to implement.

*****

"The time to buy is when there's blood in the streets." Baron Rothschild,18th century British nobleman.

Kennedy quotes Rockefeller in similar fasion from the era of the great depression. This is no time to be timid and Kennedy is back to putting out excellent street smart advice in this book.

This book is an excellent source of ideas for identifying, creating product, marketing and effectively selling to the most coveted market - the affluent. In my opinion, this is more important in a depressed economy than ever.

I bought and read this book shortly after it came out in 2008. You'll find a great insight into the wealthiest market, simple concepts that are quick and easy to apply to your marketing plan:

* What do they want?
* What will they buy?
* Who will they buy from? And how to position yourself as that person.
* What are the most important factors when motivating them to buy?
* What are the differnces in buying habits and attitudes in 'bad' and 'good' economies?

All of this and more covered with examples and in the context of real stories.

What and why they spend money by "making a statement" purchases is covered very well. I have the chapter on "Money Spent on Bling" dog-eared and marked up a few times, as I also have marked up chapters on Money Spent on their Homes, Liberty, Children. I also like the way he covered "How To Get The Affluent To Buy" and his coverage of the J. Peterman Catalog.

He cites his sources up front like Robert Frank's "Richistan" and Rich Buyer, Rich Seller!: The Real Estate Agents' Guide to Marketing Luxury Homes


Bottom line, Dan Kennedy delivers the goods in this book and I appreciate it. Since reading this book, 2 years ago, I have pulled it down and refrenced the contents many, many times. To me that is the true test of a 5 star book. After pulling it down again today I finally got around to writing this review.