Buzzing about "Free Prize Inside"

Cover of Free Prize Inside

More vacation reading ... and more buzzing.

I read Free Prize Inside by Seth Godin over my vacation as well. It was very, very, very good. The premise is that to be successful you need to build a product or service that people will talk about, and the only way to do that is to live on the "edge". You have to design something that is so far from normal that it is exciting.

My copy is now full of highlighting and I've gone back through it twice. I'm going back through it again for sure!

Great book, and I'm "buzzing"about it.

Buzzing about "All Marketers are Liars"

Image via Wikipedia

While on vacation I read Seth Godin's All Marketers Are Liars. Now I'm going to
"buzz"about it.

The premise of the book is that Marketers must be in the business of telling honest stories about their products and services that their community will believe, embrace, and spread. In each separate case a marketer's community is a group of people who share a common worldview, perspective, or set of beliefs. If the community finds the marketer's story to be true then they will spread it amongst themselves and lead the marketer to be more successful.

There's a whole lot more to it, and Seth definitely does a great job of describing this theory. As a matter of fact, it seems to be a good companion to The Anatomy of Buzz: How to Create Word of Mouth Marketing by Emanuel Rosen.

In any event - I'm part of the community that shares the worldview that a Marketers role is to tell a great story.

Great Reads

Looking for a good book about Marketing? Head on over to your favorite online book store and buy a copy of:

• David Ogilvy - Ogilvy on Advertising --> this book is a bit dated, but as soon as you crack the cover it calls out to you "Read me and don't put me down until you're done." It is full of some terrific insights from one of the greatest visionaries in the field.
  
• Pretty much anything with Al Ries' name on it, including... - The 11 Immutable Laws of Internet Branding, The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding, The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing --> I found that as soon as I started reading my first Al Ries book I was hooked. It was fun to read through his laws and start to apply those to the work I was doing (man - was I ever off track on some things). It was also fun to start thinking aobut some of the other brands that are close to my heart and seeing where they were winning and losing. Once you apply these laws, it is so obvious "why".
  
• Alina Wheeler - Designing Brand Identity: A Complete Guide to Creating, Building, and Maintaining Strong Brands --> Here's a great book that will give you that Popular Mechanics "How To" for creating your brand look and feel. This is a fun read. Every page will give you something to take away, think about, and use!

The 222 Immutable Laws of Branding and the Designing Brand Identities books each provide great input into putting together a Brand Audit.