• Stop throwing thousand-dollar bills out the window and camouflaging spending as marketing—demand that the money spent on marketing bring in more money in return.
• Cut through the myths that claim marketing is about advertising, public relations, or direct mail—learn that it is about growing the revenue, profit, and valuation of the business.
• Fire your advertising agency if it even thinks about applying for a Clio or other creative award.
• Implement the marketing moratorium—stop all marketing until you know how each component of your program justifies itself in dollars and cents.
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Most companies don't have a clue about good marketing, argues entrepreneur Stevens (Extreme Management) in his slender but vociferous book. What they need are the principles of "extreme marketing," in which every dollar "is set in a strategic context," is part of an integrated plan and brings in more than a dollar in return-strategies Stevens lays out in his readable, thought-provoking and sometimes outrageous book. He bashes marketers' "conventional wisdom" with an almost immoderate glee, and proposes big changes too: stop all marketing if you can't prove it works; don't use your competitors' marketing as a benchmark; don't depend on the results of focus groups; fire sellers that don't sell; cross-sell to consumers; and try direct mailings are just a few of his ideas. With charges like "Be persistent, relentless, inventive, counterintuitive, challenging, combative, strategic and tactical," readers may be tempted to think: easy for you to say. But this gem of a book is brimming with anecdotal evidence of advertising strategies gone awry, and full of examples of better plans. Diversification of programs is key, as are market testing and tracking. And if Stevens's examples aren't enough to convince (though they should be), his passion for his subject may carry the day. At the book's conclusion, Stevens instructs readers to not return to the office until they have figured out how to implement his advice. This is as different from more traditional and staid marketing how-tos as its title suggests. Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Mark Stevens is a best selling author, CEO of MSCO, a results-driven management and marketing firm, and a popular media commentator on a host of business matters including marketing, branding, management and sales. Mr. Stevens is known for delivering business insights with blunt truths and unconventional wisdom.
Stevens shook the marketing establishment with his Business Week best seller, "Your Marketing Sucks" (Random House/Crown Business), and redefined the rules of management with "Your Management Sucks" (Random House/Crown Business, 2006).
Stevens' latest book, Your Company Sucks: It's Time To Declare War On Yourself (to be published Aug 2, 2011)idetifies the four reasons companies fail or simply get stuck in neutral and how to identify and address them so the business can break through the ice to new levels of success. Stevens also demonstrates that "customer satisfaction" is no longer acceptable: winning companies must Thrill their customers/clients.
Stevens is the author of 24 business-related books including the best sellers: "The Big Eight"; "King Icahn"; "Sudden Death: The Rise and Fall of EF Hutton" (a Wall Street Journal bestseller and Library Journal "Business Book of the Year"); and the enormously popular "Your Marketing Sucks."
Stevens' firm, MSCO--founded in 1995-- has representsed a stellar roster of clients including Nike, Starwood, GE, Guardian Life, Intrawest, Estee Lauder, The MONY group, Environmental Systems Products, Saturday Evening Post , Virgin Atlantic, and many others.. Through integrated marketing campaigns, MSCO focuses on achieving results for its clients instead of awards that serve egos. Mark Stevens possesses an innovative and iconoclastic view of the business world, having served as a journalist and nationally syndicated columnist and having held management positions at several global corporations. His incisive understanding of critical business issues is geared toward achieving extraordinary growth and success for his clients.
Stevens is an in-demand speaker and a frequent guest commentator on Fox Business Channel and a wide range of media from Entrepreneur to Dow Jones.
Stevens writes the wildly successful blog, "Unconventional Thinking."
Books by Mark Stevens have been published in USA, UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, China, Germany, Spain, Japan, Russia and Brazil.
Wow. I have never seen such bitterness about an Amazon product. There are some truly horrible products out there, I admit, but it looks like anyone who gives a positive review will get shot down 0 to 5 in the voting. It makes one think...
As for my review, I'll play it safe with 3 stars. I rated Mosquito Coast 3 stars too. What does it mean? It means I wouldn't go out of my way for it & I didn't get a ton from it, but there was something about it to justify it's existence.
For those of you who haven't read and who haven't been prejudiced to a negative review, the author's basic concept is that marketing should fall under the business domain and not the "artsy, creative domain" that it usually does. He makes a good point that your marketing should not be out there to win awards, and that more expensive (a la Super Bowl spots) doesn't mean better. Instead, everything you do to promote a product or service - and it can be at a grass roots level - should reinforce each other. I.e., your ads should tie to your website should tie to your publicity, etc. And all this should increase sales. If you don't increase your sales, your marketing sucks.
Now, it is true that the book is not an academic or even an intellectual book. Do not come here to learn about marketing. It's not even marketing 101. It's basically written to people in marketing who are doing it wrong. And, even if you think that this book is really simple, the reality that I've found is that most people in marketing really ARE doing it wrong. So, if you are in marketing - especially if you haven't had much business exposure - then this may be a helpful read.
Now, I will say that this book is INCREDIBLY poorly written. I think he spent 3 chapters winding you up to tell you what was inside.
... While inside, he meandered through countless examples where he identified poor marketing. And then he propels you to a final chapter that is fairly shallow & unhelpful. His advice that you should go on a retreat to absorb everything before you return to the office is a cute touch to make you think that there was alot to absorb.
I will say this though. At the end of the book, you wonder how much of a marketing tool this book is for Stevens' company. And you wonder what marketing tools he used to get so much hype for a book that isn't really worth it. And you think perhaps he really does know what he's talking about even though he can't write very well. It's kinda like looking at your reflection via 2 mirrors and seeing you look at your reflection via 2 mirrors who is looking at your reflection via...you get the picture.
My final word is that, in the long run, Stevens will be the big loser long-term whether the books sells well or not(unless he's exceedingly brilliant, which I am doubting at the moment). He's a one-trick pony. He may actually be a whiz at marketing consulting. But with his shameless use of a crude title & slogan to catch people's attention, he has also lowered himself on classiness pole enough that he probably will never be taken as a serious player in the business world. He will never rule the roost. He'll just help the rulers get more money...until some other irreverent upstart can do it better than he.
No original ideas, except of course the title. I guess this is worth something, after all, it persuaded me to buy the book!
The book starts off with the annoying phrase, "Extreme Marketing". Let's get one thing straight: Nothing in this book is extreme. The ideas are basic, focusing on sales and advertising. If that's what you need, then perhaps this is a good book for you.
Second, this book suffers from the ever-popular confusion between marketing and sales. This book doesn't really touch marketing as a discipline, but instead reads like a commercial for his advertising firm. He spends an entire chapter (one of the longer chapters in the book) describing how a company transformed itself using "his" principles. Guess what? The company is fictional! He made up the company, and made up the results! How is that helpful?
Overall, if you are a beginner in sales, this book may be of some help. But if you are looking for marketing tactics, strategy, or new insights, this this isn't the one.
This book is more hype than substance. Great title and admittedly well marketed. But a good marketer knows you have to deliver on your marketing promise to truly be effective. Mark Stevens does not do that. I would not buy another book from this author (fortuneately I got my copy from the library) I also would not reccomend it to others. His themes and concepts are not original. Sergio Zyman's book (End of Marketing...) is much better and insightful. Like most others who write on the subject of Marketing effectiveness, he talks a big game on Marketing ROI, but falls way short when it comes down to how to really measure it. He takes the easy road by speaking at a high, theoretical level. His most egregious mistake is confusing marketing communications (advertising, direct mail, PR) with Marketing. Even the Marketing undergrad knows Marketing communications alone doesn't motivate someone to buy, it is an integration of the product, the price you charge for it, how and where it is distributed and sold as well as the Marketing communications. Reading this book, you'd think just adjusting your advertising or direct marketing or PR will drive results. Shame on you, Mark.
A lot of the reviews for this book seem very polarized (either 1 or 5 stars) and quite honestly, it kept me from opening the copy I had bought a couple of months ago. Many of the negative reviews seem very vituperative and contain a lot of personal attacks on the author. I don't know him to judge him except by his book, which, staying focused purely on that, is pretty much a blah rendition of themes and ideas that we've all seen before. There are some very good generalities that someone with the know-how and initiative might be able to turn into something valuable, but quite honestly, anyone with a modest amount of common sense could draw the same conclusions about marketing that this book does. I found myself saying "Duh!" out loud. A lot. This is not to say that it's any worse than a number of other books that seem to be glutting the market right now, but at least those books provide some value in the form of case studies or other applications that could be interpolated into a marketing strategy. Maybe a selling point of this book is that it helps point out the obvious, but I would think that could hardly have been the point, especially when given such a provocative title.
Maybe that alone was the lesson - most marketing sucks and let me illustrate that for you by throwing a catchy title on a bunch of well-worn platitudes and watch it climb the best-seller list. Stevens obviously anticipates this thought because he poses the question himself - "How the hell does HE know?" Unfortunately, the book doesn't answer that. If anything, it just reinforces it.
I don't pretend to be the smartest business owner or marketer - that's why I continue to read books like this in the search for "the answer".
... However, I do think I am competent enough to understand what works and what doesn't. The somewhat condescending tone of the book doesn't achieve what I think it was meant to - to demonstrate how common mistakes are rampant in the business world when it comes to marketing. Clearly, the message is resonating with somebody, but it sure isn't me. I would have to recommend passing on it, unless you have a couple of days to kill and are morbidly curious.Read more ›
