The Next Evolution of Marketing: Connect with Your Customers by Marketing with Meaning (Hardcover)

~ Bob Gilbreath (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"With solid credentials supporting him (as chief marketing strategist at Bridge Worldwide, a large advertising agency), Gilbreath lays out his ideas about a marketing strategy he calls 'meaningful marketing.' He defines meaningful marketing as the 'marketing itself add[ing] value to peoples’ lives.' Insisting that traditional marketing is now out-of-date because the consuming public has grown sophisticated in avoiding regular marketing strategies ('Most traditional advertising is meaningless,' he says), he is a great proponent of marketing that offers consumers actual things to put to practical use, which then, in turn, makes the best advertising for the company that is supplying those services. He cites the 'best historical example' of marketing with meaning as the Michelin tire company, which, way back when, produced the first-ever car-travel guide to France. From there Gilbreath presents, essentially, a how to: outlining a model for developing meaningful marketing and then explaining, with many useful case examples, how it can be tailored to any company, large or small. An essential addition to comprehensive business collections." --Brad Hooper, Booklist (Booklist )

Product Description

THE NEW LAW OF MARKETING

“The Next Evolution of Marketing is a true beacon for all brand builders. Many books claim that, Bob’s book delivers.”
Jim Stengel, former Global Marketing Officer, Procter & Gamble

“Some timeless truths restored for modern marketing—and many new ones added. An inspiring reminder of the value of brand behavior and how to make it happen.”
Sir Martin Sorrell, CEO, WPP

“Persuasion has given way to sharing, and marketing will never be the same.”
John Gerzema, Chief Insights Officer, Young & Rubicam, and coauthor of The Brand Bubble

”Bob Gilbreath brilliantly shows why we’re no longer living in our fathers’ marketing era. Better yet, he details how marketing works best when it adds value to people’s lives, and he provides a playbook for success.”
David Meerman Scott, bestselling author of The New Rules of Marketing & PR and World Wide Rave

“This book provides a framework and compelling examples for creating the next generation of cultureleading brands.”
Mark Greatrex, Senior Vice President, Marketing Communications and Insights, The Coca-Cola Company

ABOUT THE BOOK:

Marketing with Meaning—The Breakthrough Strategy for Connecting with Customers!

The old interruptive model of marketing doesn’t work. Customers are tuning out. They no longer listen to in-your-face messages. Instead, they demand meaning in the brands they buy and the marketing that reaches them.

Marketing strategist Bob Gilbreath’s hot new concept, Marketing with Meaning, represents the next evolutionary step in a progression following direct marketing and permission marketing. This groundbreaking methodology engages customers and wins their business by adding value to their lives. Rather than pushing a product or service, Marketing with Meaning woos customers by offering them something of value independent of purchase.

In The Next Evolution of Marketing, Gilbreath unveils a revolutionary new approach to business that fills the gaping voids left in bottom lines when people started tuning out. Gilbreath describes the marketing revolution now underway and the powerful forces driving it. Inside, he provides Marketing with Meaning success stories, including:

• Samsung’s laptop and cell phone charging stations, which are now found in more than 50 airports throughout the United States
• Dove’s Campaign for Real Beauty and its viral video “Evolution,” which has been viewed more than 100 million times
• Burger King’s Xbox advergames, which helped boost the company’s profits by 40 percent in one year

This first-ever comprehensive model for creating and managing a meaningful marketing campaign uses in-depth case studies of successful campaigns and explains how to develop and execute a solid strategy for meeting customers’ needs. It also arms you with an original set of metrics for precisely measuring the effectiveness of your initiatives.

You simply cannot afford to get left behind in advertising’s “golden age” of interrupt, tell, and sell marketing. Marketing with Meaning is how your customers demand business be done today and tomorrow. The Next Evolution of Marketing is your guide to surviving and thriving in this marketing revolution.

(20090914)

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill; 1 edition (September 3, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0071625364
• ISBN-13: 978-0071625364
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.3 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #49,473 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the very few marketing books that make sense., November 29, 2009

By	George Parker (Boise, ID USA.) - See all my reviews

I must say that when asked to review Bob Gilbreath's book, The Next Evolution of Marketing, I was somewhat reluctant. Probably because I expected it to be yet another of those marketing potboilers lining the shelves of America's bookstores, either sporting such esoteric titles as The Twelve Immutable Marketing Secrets of the Kalahari Nomads, or words of wisdom from some gnarly old retired captain of industry, probably ghost written by his latest trophy wife.

Fortunately, Bob's book is neither. For a start, he isn't gnarly, he isn't even retired. He's still working at a large global digital ad agency, which he does rather obviously promote the crap out of at every opportunity. Remember Bob, push is passé. However, to his credit, when he does do this, he ties it in to a specific, provable benefit his company has brought to both client and consumer.

Described by other reviewers as the next step beyond "Permission Marketing," Bob's central thesis is that because customers are increasingly being bombarded with advertising messages which they are choosing to ignore, we now have to create "Marketing with Meaning." I wholeheartedly agree, but with one caveat... There is nothing new about this situation, customers have always been bombarded with marketing messages, it's just that now, the volume has exponentially increased and potential customers have many more ways to tune you out. Therefore, Bob's words acquire even more relevancy.

In the first half of the book, Bob gives many, many (way too many), examples and case studies of companies who have taken a different tack in marketing their products and services to existing and potential customers. All good worthwhile stuff, particularly as he shows the concrete results of their efforts rather than the usual BDA (Big Dumb Agency) soporific... "We increased brand awareness." Personally, I think the number of examples is overkill, but I am sure all the MBA's out there will lap it up and create hundreds and hundreds of Power Point slides from the information.

The second half is a guide to implementing Bob's "Marketing with Meaning" premise into a company's marketing program. As with all good ideas, this is in reality, simple and logical. Something most large organizations seem to have a problem grasping. Think Cisco with its 47 "Action Committees" each with dozens of middle managers. Then compare it Rockefeller's Standard Oil at the height of its power. He had eleven managers. Bob does an excellent job of boiling everything you need to know down into four succinct and meaningful steps. Bravo Bob, but you'll never get a job at Cisco.

If you are pressed for time, take Bob's advice in Chapter six... "Start at the end."
The final five chapters are solid gold. The whole book reminds me of famous dead ad man Howard Gossage, who said forty years ago... "People don't read advertising, they read what interests them. Sometimes, that's advertising."

The Next Evolution of Marketing, Has lots of good stuff, I highly recommend it.

Now go buy my last book. Cheers/George
The Ubiquitous Persuaders

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Unique Concept and PRACTICAL Guide for Any Company, September 21, 2009

By	Jonathan Richman (Ohio) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I have to admit that I've grown a little cynical of many "business" books not because they aren't interesting, but because I find that I don't do anything differently after reading them. There's no clear path of what to do next nor how to achieve all the wonderful, and often theoretical, achievements that are spread throughout the book. The Next Evolution of Marketing is NOT that kind of book.

The first half of the book sets up the concept of "Marketing with Meaning" through example after example. Some are well-known campaigns and others are more obscure. Almost every one is presented in an interesting, case study-like format that reads very quickly. To add some additional color, included throughout are quotes from some of the most well-known marketers in the world. What else is interesting about these examples is that almost every one includes the eventual results of the program where many other books stop at "and it worked really well." This further helps to increase your confidence in the fact that this idea might just be the "next evolution of marketing."

Throughout these examples, you start to realize that this concept isn't just for massive companies or very a select set of industries. Anyone can do it and the second half of the book explains EXACTLY how to it. That's what makes this book different. It's a rare business book that happens to actually be practical instead of theoretical. After reading all the supporting evidence in the first half of the book for why this new marketing approach is essential, you're ready to jump into the second half where you learn the steps you can follow all the way from generating the idea to "selling" it internally to measuring its success. Most business books would have stopped at the first half and called it a day. Even without the interesting examples in the first half, the practical implementation approach of the second half alone makes this book stand out.

As a little disclaimer, I had the chance to be one of the first to read this book, as this was written by one of my colleagues, so while I might have a little positive bias, if I didn't like it, I simply wouldn't have written a review at all...just like Mom always told me.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic Insights, Timely, Relevant, A must read, November 18, 2009

By	John Chancellor "Mentor coach, www.teachtheso... (New Orleans) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)    (VINE VOICE)

You only need to look at your personal behavior of ignoring commercials to understand that conventional interruption advertising no longer works. We have all become quite adept at tuning out advertising/marketing efforts. The average person is bombarded with some 3,000 messages per day - so in self-defense we have learned how to guard our attention.

The concepts of this book are based on the truth that our attention has become our most precious asset. Everyone I know suffers from excess demands on their attention. Therefore we have become very guarded about who and where we give our attention. "Consumers trade attention for value." We are no longer willing to listen/watch advertisement unless we believe we are gaining some value in return.

The best example of meaningful marketing is Google. "Because it is revolutionizing the advertising and marketing business by providing a service that people find valuable, Google is considered the most valuable brand in the world today, even though it spends almost nothing on advertising."

The book is divided into two parts. Part one answers the questions: What is marketing with meaning? It goes into great detail why traditional marketing is meaningless and therefore rapidly becoming ineffective. "Meaningful marketers never push, they invite prospective customers in by creating marketing that appeals to the higher unmet needs in their overall lives."

Then there is a discussion of what marketing with meaning can do for a business. Bob Gilbreath says that marketing with meaning follows a hierarchy of consumer needs. The first level of marketing with meaning is providing meaningful solutions, the second level is providing meaningful connections and the highest level is providing meaningful achievements.

There are numerous examples of highly successful marketing campaigns in each section. The examples covers a wide variety of products/services and sizes of businesses.

Part two of the book is a detailed outline for anyone to implement the concepts of this book in their own business. Again, there plenty of examples of successful implementations.

Does it work? According to Gilbreath, "Not only have we never seen a major meaningful marketing effort fail to pay off, but with the rising cost and failing results of traditional mass media, you may have no other choice."

The book is well written and easy to read. The concepts and insights are remarkable. You will totally understand that to compete in our rapidly changing world, you must adapt to meet the prospect. There are dozens of examples of companies that have used the internet to build meaningful marketing campaigns much faster and less expensively than traditional marketing.

As a final note Gilbreath discusses the way society views marketers - on the lower end of the scale. He says, "By creating marketing that people choose to engage with, and that itself improves people's lives, we are reaching the highest level of personal success."

So not only will the marketing work better, the marketers will find higher meaning in life.

This is a very important work. I believe it brings very high value to anyone involved in marketing their business.

It is the next evolution of marketing.