Customer Reviews

Punk Marketing: Get Off Your Ass and Join the Revolution

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I got the chance to get an advanced reader copy of the book Punk Marketing: Get Off Your @$$ And Join The Revolution by Richard Laermer and Mark Simmons. This should be required reading for all marketing and advertising people who still think that the world hasn't changed much...

Contents:

Prologue - Welcome to the Revolution: Don't Blame Us, Just Thank Us

1 - The Punk Marketing Manifesto: You Read - We Make Your Life Better

2 - Kill the Middlemen: Do So Before They Kill You

3 - Brand Not Bland: How to Stand Out So That You Are "The Chosen"

4 - Who's Eating Your Lunch?: Make Them Spit It Out

5 - The Sell Phone: Use and Abuse of the Cell Phone for Marketing

6 - The Captive Consumer: Do Not Try This At Home

7 - Now It's Story Time: Art of Making a Case through Storytelling

8 - Leave Me Alone, Will Ya!: Too Much Stuff, Too Little Time

9 - Lies Lies Lies - The Truth About Truth: And Factoids about Facts

10 - As Seen on TV: Place It Baby, Place It

11 - At Last, a Job in Hollywood!: You Are the Content

12 - Game On: No One Is A Loser

13 - It's More Than Just Us: Hard as That Is to Believe

Notes

Index

Last Words

Punk marketing is defined as a rebellion against tradition, an attitude that says the same old thing doesn't work any more. Laermer and Simmons take a irreverent, no-holds-barred look at today's marketing landscape, and how consumers interact with advertising. The days of throwing a 30 second ad on TV and calling it good are over. There are so many media outlets clamoring for attention, and the advertising din has made it nearly impossible to stand out using traditional styles. Furthermore, the old ad agencies no longer hold the power to control the market. TiVOs have reworked the way people view a program, and the odds are high that your audience is fast-forwarding past your multi-million dollar ad budget. Punk marketing looks at how nontraditional methods of marketing are needed to reach your specific markets. Techniques such as viral marketing, cell phone interaction, and product placement in shows and movies are becoming the way to make a mark without just talking louder and longer. But even these avenues are fraught with peril if you don't remember the attitudes of the persons being marketed to. For instance, cell phone interaction can be great if it's participatory. But if you just start sending repeated ads to a cell phone audience, you've sealed your fate. Bottom line... you have to be different in order to be seen, and you *will* make mistakes. But standing pat on the past campaigns are becoming less effective with every passing year.

Even if you're not necessarily involved in marketing, you'll enjoy the attitude of the writers. I was reminded often of Tom Peters' style of writing with even more raw emotion. I knew I was in for a different read when I hit the dedication page... "To everyone who's ever s**t-canned us... and their spouses." That same in-your-face attitude carries through the entire book, and it makes for a compelling read. The fact that they nail the attitudes and habits of today's consumer makes it great...

I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in the rapidly changing marketing norms of today. Not only is Punk Marketing laced with thought provoking humor, delightful illustrations and case study side notes, but the content is worth the purchase alone. This is the first marketing book that I could truly not resist when I saw it at the Atlanta Airport Bookstore, and on top of that, the first marketing book that I had trouble putting down.

Good work Laermer and Simmons. I can't wait to see what is next.

There is really nothing worse than claiming you are taking a radical, new, "punk" break-all-the-rules approach....it is another thing altogether to actually accomplish such a challenge. This book does not deliver what it promises. There is nothing new here - lots of good, basic, marketing 101 information here, but not much else. The authors throw in the occasional swear word to demonstrate how "edgy" this work is - and in so doing this and only this they really show their ignorance and complete lack of anything new, radical, or "punk". Decent enough review of basic principles so that you have not wasted your money if you bought this - but if you are looking for what they claim they have delivered in their own marketing - go somewhere else - you won't find it here.

I believe there are so many ways in getting the point across its what would get a person's attention to what matters is the point. In the Bookstore Punk Marketing was placed side by side next to some guerrilla book. I opted for Punk, my boyfriend nodded his head in dismay and opted for the other. we bought both books and I was more compelled in reading punk rather then the other.

Thing is Punk points out the obvious... if you can't get an aha momment from your other marketing books, read this so you can get it. if not you can watch Oprah's guest and wonder how do her guest say they get it but still wonder why they can't make things work...

Books out there give you everything you need to know but not everything do you need to get the point of marketing. Punk points out the obvious.

my boyfriend came back and got the point.

I was on my way to a speaking gig when I saw this book in an airport gift shop. It saved the day. The topic I was supposed to speak on was "Marketing to Generation Y'. I read the book on the plane - underlining and highlighting and devouring it. A couple days later I was on stage.....

Here's how I started my speech:

SLIDE ONE: How to Market to Generation Y.

SLIDE TWO: You can't.

And then I said, "Thank you very much for coming."

All the rules have changed and the authors of this book get it. It is a MUST READ for every marketer in the world right now. Fabulous.

Despite working in the field (or possibly BECAUSE of it), I'm rarely instantly interested in or affected by books on better marketing practices or thinking better/more creatively/blah blah blah.

But THIS book is engaging, written in a very honest, funny, entertaining voice -- and it speaks to so many things that have felt wrong with the roads I've been forced down at previous agencies...you know, doing the same old same old. Boo!

Viva la Punk!!!

This book is SPOT ON! It's one of the best reads on what good marketing should be. Highly recommended.

Anyone working at a "traditional" Marketing or Advertising outfit should pickup this book, their dignity and start looking for a new job. Laermer and Simmons use "Punk Marketing" as a vehicle to expose what is wrong with "traditional" brand management and messaging by creatively articulating what could be so right - if the creative 'powers that be' stopped treating Joe consumer like they treated his grandfather.

Whether you fancy yourself an influencer or are happy to be an influencee, "Punk Marketing" will open your eyes and show you the difference between recognizing a brand and respecting a brand...yes, there is a difference. Start this book at any chapter and read it in any order you like, you will still not be able to put it down! If you are interested in uncovering the "truth in advertising," you need to become familiar with "Punk Marketing."

Wow. I Must admit, that initially my affinity for punk rock attracted me to the title. However, after reading even just the first page, I knew that this was an anthem for the modern marketing movement. An absolute must read, must have on hand resource for ANYONE attempting to reach, and otherwise interact with potential customers. Really put my feelings into words. Read it. Love it. Mosh it.(Not literally, of course)

The overriding theme of this book works very well and shouldn't be forgotten: Be true to yourself. Don't be something you're not. Be honest. Don't kid yourself into thinking you have all the control. These hold true no matter if you're in marketing or any facet of business.

Really, as much as people would really like to try and re-frame these age-old rules as 'revolutionary', they're not. Bad businesses ignore them and capitulate, good businesses succeed. Framing it as some never-heard-of prophecy is silly. For the most part though, any business book that underscores those main issues is a winner in my world, as people can't be reminded of their importance enough. This book does that well enough.

However, the rest leaves a lot to be desired and isn't really going to bring you any profoundly new information you can't readily pick up on a random blog written with rueful whimsy in the outer corners of cyber space. In some cases, this comes off as whining. Entire chapters are utterly useless, most notably the anecdotal stories about cell phone text-marketing. Putting signs above a bathroom urinal is invasive but calling someone's personal telephone isn't? The use of casual language was borderline annoying and at times, stories get lost in other stories and entire points are either lost entirely or greatly muddled. Half of this book is pretty packaging, clearly. In that sense, the authors could stand to take their own advice and stop being cute, and simplify.