Punk Marketing: Get Off Your Ass and Join the Revolution [Hardcover]

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.