Customer Reviews

What Sticks: Why Most Advertising Fails and How to Guarantee Yours Succeeds

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I had high expectations from this book. Unfortunately, it didn't live up to my expectations. The first few chapters were devoted to stating the obvious--over and over again, and reminding the reader that the authors' company had developed a methodology to measure ad spending. It felt a bit like a heavy-handed case study or a product brochure. I came very close to tossing it in the trash, but waded through it. There were several helpful insights, but in general very top-level and somewhat obvious. The main point I got out of the book was "Hire my company and we will solve all this for you." That wasn't quite what I hoped to get for my $25 investment.

"Businesses spend nearly $300 billion per year on advertising in the United States alone," state Rex Briggs and Greg Stuart, "and our research analyzing more than $1 billion in worldwide ad spending proves that as much as $112 billion is wasted." Based on five years of research, this book examines the problems that limit the effectiveness of current advertising and provides very clear and specific solutions for people in marketing and advertising.

Advertising is far from dead, and Briggs and Stuart use a combination of research data and real examples of advertising successes and failures from companies like P&G, Johnson & Johnson, and Ford Motor Company, to name a few, to support their argument. Based on their research, the authors have put together a clear strategy for success. Their '4M' (Motivations, Message, Media, Maximization) framework and 'COP' (Communication Optimization Process) approach to advertising do not contain groundbreaking ideas, but Briggs and Stuart deserve credit for putting the components together in an comprehensive and easy-to-remember package.

While I found this book insightful, it was hard to ignore the five small, but blatant reminders to join "the new marketing revolution" on the "What Sticks" promotional website. Sorry, I don't need a "What Sticks" T-shirt, thank you very much. In any case, if you work in marketing, particularly on advertising strategy, this book can provide you with some practical ideas for getting the most out of your campaigns.

Although helpful, this book broke its promise. It preached of advertising accountability and offered fancy formulas to measure failure and success. But as far as offering realistic ways to initially track such numbers, it skirted the issue almost entirely. Nevertheless, it's witty, provocative and educational. Of anyone, this book is best for readers who actively hire ad agencies.

I actually rolled out the COP process, with a few localized tweaks, in my last Fortune 500 role. It absolutely works. As some of the other reviewers have mentioned, you will get pushback from those who feel more comfortable marketing by feel and intuition. Applying rigorous process and discipline to marketing processes does work.

If the book seems repetitive at times (and it does) it's because of the need to give examples in different businesses to give credence the concept that process-oriented marketing works across industries and is not just a one-off that only works in a few industries.

Highly recommended and a quick read.

If you're looking for a book that offers secrets to better marketing, look elsewhere. This book is primarily an argument for conducting market research and for careful planning (the author's contend that marketers don't do enough of either). Their system of doing so isn't terribly revolutionary but there are some good ideas. Mostly, I found it to be a good reminder of what marketers should be doing. Worth a quick read, but don't expect too many golden nuggets.

Rex Briggs and Greg Stuart performed an amazing amount of research on media mix management with Fortune 500 advertisers and over a billion in media spending.

The authors are hell-bent on convincing advertisers that advertising works and that they can improve performance with the "same budget, better results." It would have been better if they acknowledged, from the outset, that in some situations, it's better to reduce the marketing budget.

I agree that marketers need to better measure the effectiveness of their marketing. The tools are out there but it requires real commitment and investment to do it right.

This book is most relevant for those working in marketing at Fortune 500 firms or for their agencies.

This book delivers on it's promise of defining "what sticks". Written for bigger businesses with marketing departments/ad agencies/multi-media marketing I found it useful to "translate" down for use with smaller businesses on limited budgets. I think they will find it most useful since many don't accurately plan or "track" marketing/advertising. As a "marketing" speaker I already knew the facts (about what doesn't work) but the book does have useful insights to implement procedures to catch those mistakes quickly and remedy them before they exhaust the budget of firms with limited advertising budgets.
It is somewhat repetitive, using the COP acronym repetitively gets old, and I agree there are no "magic bullets" or "revolutionary ideas" but it's definitely worthwhile reading.
As a side note I have been using the ideas in this book to "research" some current "major" commercials I felt probably missed delivering their message, especially after reading this. So far I have been 100% right (asking people simply "have you seen these commercials?" then "Who is the company?" and in every case so far nobody has identified the company or "message" even though they are very familiar with the ads!) Those companies need to read this book, their ad is "sticking" but their message isn't.

What Sticks is supposedly the definitive book on making advertising work. I did not come away with that impression. Briggs and Stuart are smart men and I am not questioning their knowledge; however after thoroughly studying advertising the past two semesters I did not see two many new items. The item that I will remember forever will be COP or Communication Optimization Process. This relates to the message, media mix, motivation, and maximization of the advertising campaign.

The different categories could each be argued to be the most important, yet without each one no marketing campaign will succeed. That is the thesis of the book. The authors continue on in each chapter going a little further in detail on the subject. The book is split into three parts: Marketing is Broken, The Advertising Fix, and Guaranteeing your advertising works. The authors do a good job showing their sources in the back of the book. Most of their information comes from their personal study and work with companies. This does not take away from their credibility. I would love to have the experience the authors have with marketing; however I do feel this is better than Innovation Killer because it touches more areas. Briggs and Stuart touch on innovation and how that helps a company; they discuss way more issues than that.

A new rule that came from the authors is the 70/20/10 rule. The 70 percent go toward proven marketing strategies. The 20 percent should go to innovative marketing strategies or in simpler terms strategies that have worked but are changed just enough to say they are new. The last 10 percent should be spent on new strategies that have no proven record. This will keep the department on their heels and always looking for new ways to improve sales. The tips in the book are simple and can be implemented either right away or in a short time period. This book like Innovation Killer will encourage change in the workplace which will lead to innovative thinking.

Nothing too new but should be read for the small tips that are illustrated throughout the book. There are also ads that they compare and show the one that worked. The small things in the book like repeating brand name to improve sales will come across as elementary; however, the truth is if it was so elementary then companies would not waste billions of dollars on ad campaigns that do not lead to sales.

10/3/2006
Dustin Roberts

You'll have to look pretty hard to find the nuggets in this book. Rex Briggs (not his real name) spends a long time setting up the credentials of the authors. His company has been in existence for five years, they have a couple of dozen clients. They use a "gold standard" approach (huh?) to research, validated by a couple of organizations. Oh yes, he seems to think that he created expiremental design research.

In construction, the book is odd. Whole paragraphs are repeated verbatim in various parts. Then on every page, you'll also see a key sentence boxed and repeated - for emphasis I guess.

Rex insists that we employ his COP (Communication Optimization Process) - which basically boils down to good planning. Wow, fascinating!

The books is endorsed by a few true authorities such as Al Ries. I guess I find that aspect most shocking.

If you are in the advertising business, then you should read this book. Although it focuses on large corporations and their advertising strategy, the lessons learned can be applied to even the smallest business. Make no mistake; the subject matter is about media/marketing research and how it can make advertising more effective.