All You Need is a Good Idea!: How to Create Marketing Messages that Actually Get Results (Hardcover)

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Editorial Reviews

Product Description

In All You Need Is a Good Idea, Jay Heyman shows you how to create powerful marketing and advertising ideas that will dramatically increase sales for your business. Perfect for entrepreneurs and small business owners?or operators of any size business, for that matter?this valuable marketing resource will help any business stand out in the marketplace, build bigger market share, gain publicity, and scare the pants off the competition. This book is the perfect guide to creating truly powerful marketing messages.

From the Inside Flap

If you're not in marketing at a big corporation, you probably don't have the luxury of hiring a big ad agency, or have the big budgets often required for successfully spreading your message far and wide. But how do you make your business grow without the resources of a bigger firm? Fortunately for you, all you really need is a good idea.

Jay H. Heyman's All You Need Is a Good Idea! shows you step by step how to create powerful marketing and advertising ideas that dramatically increase sales without having to invent new products, increase sales forces, find new distribution channels, or spend a ton of money you don't have. No matter how small your business is, this insightful resource will teach you how to stand out in the marketplace, build bigger market share, garner high-exposure publicity, appear larger than you really are, and make your competition extremely nervous.

Informal, conversational, and totally practical, All You Need Is a Good Idea! guides you with simple, easy-to-follow principles that stress fun and creativity. It takes the mystery out of building your business, providing unique, hands-on marketing guidance, from generating the first fuzzy notion to perfecting the final idea, and includes informative, relevant case studies of actual marketing campaigns.

If you're a marketer, business owner, or entrepreneur who wants real bang for the buck, All You Need Is a Good Idea! presents the ins and outs of creating truly effective, powerful marketing messages that will propel your business to the next level of growth and success.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: Wiley (May 27, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0470237910
• ISBN-13: 978-0470237915
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #757,245 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Another how-to book for marketers; it's a small business marketing book., June 7, 2008

By	Jeff Lippincott "www.Jlippin.com" (Princeton, NJ USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

I liked this book. I can't say it is anything special. And I can't say that anything in particular included in it stood out for me. But the book is very practical, informal and easy to read. It's written by a seasoned ad man who has written this book to help marketers, small business owners, and entrepreneurs stand out from their competition. This book is all about how to create GOOD marketing communications. And that process starts with having good ideas. Hence, the title of this book: All you need is a good idea.

Good ideas result from novelty and cleverness. They give your business a different and lasting identity. And you'll get good ideas if you spend some time looking at what your competition is doing (and not doing). Build on what they do so you'll be better. And it is important to remember that GREAT ideas are not necessary. If you consistently pump out good ideas you will do just fine.

This was kind of a short book. It has small pages, large type, 1.5 line spacing, and the margins were not small. And it was padded with blank pages, too. But there is good content included. The long list of 21 chapters is geared toward helping the reader get his or her marketing creativity working. And I particularly liked the "Good Idea" sidebars. There were many bullets included throughout the book that helped me grasp points better as I read.

I would have liked the book better if was not as conversational as it was. The book felt a little like the author had not really written it. But instead, he had dictated into a digital recording device and had someone type his dictations into paragraph form. Maybe this explains why the author kept telling me what was to come later in the book. I generally don't like that style of writing. I like books that are well outlined and written. The kind where every word has a purpose and none are wasted. 4 stars!

PS. Take a look at the Search Inside information Amazon provides for this book. The TOC provided there will let you know specifically what this book covers.

4.0 out of 5 stars Who Moved My Phufkel?, March 30, 2009

By	Peter M. Durand (Nashville, TN USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Jay Heyman is an idea guy. His book on the topic, All You Need is a Good Idea!: How to Create Marketing Messages that Actually Get Results, pulls back the curtain on the idea creation process to reveal why a "good" idea is so much more valuable than a "great" idea. (Hint: Perfection kills!)

As part of Paul Williams' Idea Sandbox virtual book tour, I had the opportunity to read about Jay Heyman's experiences and playful opinions on the world of ideas.

That experience comes in the form of the New York advertising and marketing world. As principal of a creative marketing firm, Heyman's daily work involves the very raw, emotional, and oft times maddening process of developing ideas. He describes what life is like working through those chaotic, collaborative relationships that underpin the ideation process itself.

Client case studies are pulled from his direct experience with people who struggled to distill the essence of what they offer to the world (what Jay codenames your "Phufkel") and the resulting creative journey for which Jay and his team served as happy guides. He also bravely shares those instances in which the idea went down in flames!

Jay's writing is extremely engaging and personable, capturing the voice of a warm, avuncular personality with real world experience. (This ain't HBO's Mad Men series!)

For any business or practitioner, Jay has solid, understandable advice with scores of simple questions to ask yourself or your clients. He shows us how to cut through the clutter of the strategic planning and branding process to form lasting relationships with customers.

5.0 out of 5 stars Inspiring and extremely practical., March 30, 2009

By	Scott Hodge (Chicago, IL USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I had a chance to read Jay's book flying back from Orange County a couple weeks ago and I couldn't stop underlining, scribbling, and making notes all over the margins. It's a great book filled with lots of practical stories and advice from a guy who has actually done it!