Book reviews and mentions from Marketing blogs...

In Pursuit of Elegance: Why the Best Ideas Have Something Missing
Matthew E. May

What made the Sopranos finale one of the most-talked-about events in television history?

Why is sudoku so addictive and the iPhone so irresistible?

What do Jackson Pollock and Lance Armstrong have in common with theoretical physicists and Buddhist monks?

Elegance.

In this thought-provoking exploration of why certain events, products, and people capture our attention and imaginations, Matthew E. May examines the elusive element behind so many innovative break...

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In Pursuit of Elegance: Why the Best Ideas Have Something Missing
Matthew E. May

What made the Sopranos finale one of the most-talked-about events in television history?

Why is sudoku so addictive and the iPhone so irresistible?

What do Jackson Pollock and Lance Armstrong have in common with theoretical physicists and Buddhist monks?

Elegance.

In this thought-provoking exploration of why certain events, products, and people capture our attention and imaginations, Matthew E. May examines the elusive element behind so many innovative breakthroughs in fields ranging from physics and marketing to design and popular culture. Combining unusual simplicity and surprising power, elegance is characterized by four key elements—seduction, subtraction, symmetry, and sustainability. In a compelling, story-driven narrative that sheds light on the need for elegance in design, engineering, art, urban planning, sports, and work, May offers surprising evidence that what’s “not there” often trumps what is.

In the bestselling tradition of The Tipping Point, Made to Stick, and The Black Swan, In Pursuit of Elegance will change the way you think about the world.

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Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion, and Purpose
Tony Hsieh

In his first audiobook, Tony Hsieh - the widely-admired CEO of on-line shoe retailer, Zappos, explains how he created a unique culture and commitment to service that aims to improve the lives of its employees, customers, vendors and backers. Using anecdotes and stories from his own experiences and from other companies, Hsieh provides concrete ways that companies can achieve unprecedented success. Even better, he shows how creating happiness and record results go hand-in-hand. He starts with t...

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Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion, and Purpose
Tony Hsieh

In his first audiobook, Tony Hsieh - the widely-admired CEO of on-line shoe retailer, Zappos, explains how he created a unique culture and commitment to service that aims to improve the lives of its employees, customers, vendors and backers. Using anecdotes and stories from his own experiences and from other companies, Hsieh provides concrete ways that companies can achieve unprecedented success. Even better, he shows how creating happiness and record results go hand-in-hand. He starts with the 'Why' in a section where he narrates his quest to understand the science of happiness. Then he runs through the ten Zappos 'Core Values' such as 'Deliver WOW through Service,' 'Create Fun and A Little Weirdness' and 'Build a Positive Team and Family Spirit' and explains how you and your colleagues should come up with your own. Hsieh then details many of the unique practices at Zappos that have made it the success it is today, such as the philosphy of allocating marketing money into the customer experience, thereby allowing repeat customers and word-of-mouth be their true form of marketing. He also explains why Zappos's main priority is company culture and his belief that once you get the culture right, everything else - great customer service, long-term branding - will happen on its own. Finally, Hsieh explains how Zappos employees actually apply the Core Values to improving their lives outside of work - and to making a difference in their communities and the world

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Ally & Gargano
Amil Gargano

Amil Gargano chronicles 46 advertising case studies created by the most successful ad agency in the 60s, Ally & Gargano, and honors the past, contributions and the outrageous genius of Carl Ally. Their history begins with a then unknown import, Volvo, and reveals the strategy that helped establish it as an international icon. The book follows Ally & Gargano as they used daring strategies to change the perceptions of corporations IBM and Travelers Insurance; reestablished Pan Am's worldwide le...

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Ally & Gargano
Amil Gargano

Amil Gargano chronicles 46 advertising case studies created by the most successful ad agency in the 60s, Ally & Gargano, and honors the past, contributions and the outrageous genius of Carl Ally. Their history begins with a then unknown import, Volvo, and reveals the strategy that helped establish it as an international icon. The book follows Ally & Gargano as they used daring strategies to change the perceptions of corporations IBM and Travelers Insurance; reestablished Pan Am's worldwide leadership; transformed Saab to national status; and created memorable ads for many other clients, including Dunkin� Donuts, Timberland, Calvin Klein, Time magazine and Polaroid.

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Real-Time Marketing & PR: How to Engage Your Market, Connect with Customers, and Create Products that Grow Your Business Now
David Meerman Scott

David Meerman Scott's book The New Rules of Marketing & PR opened people's eyes to the new realities of marketing and public relations on the Web. Six months on the BusinessWeek bestseller list and published in more than twenty languages, New Rules is now a modern business classic. Scott's popular blog and hundreds of speaking engagements around the world give him a singular perspective on how businesses are implementing new strategies to reach buyers.

Now, ...

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Real-Time Marketing & PR: How to Engage Your Market, Connect with Customers, and Create Products that Grow Your Business Now
David Meerman Scott

David Meerman Scott's book The New Rules of Marketing & PR opened people's eyes to the new realities of marketing and public relations on the Web. Six months on the BusinessWeek bestseller list and published in more than twenty languages, New Rules is now a modern business classic. Scott's popular blog and hundreds of speaking engagements around the world give him a singular perspective on how businesses are implementing new strategies to reach buyers.

Now, in Real-Time Marketing & PR, Scott opens eyes again with his groundbreaking ideas on the opportunities (and threats) inherent in today's always-on, 24x7, instant business environment. Real-time marketing and public relations is when organizations respond to events as they occur. It's when companies develop (or refine) products or services instantly, based on feedback from customers or events in the marketplace. And it's when businesses see an opportunity and are the first to act on it.

The Internet fundamentally changes the timescales on which we do business, compressing time and imparting a competitive advantage to the quick.

In every market, there is room for smart organizations to seize market share and improve profits by providing a product or service or communications initiative at speed. Here are just a few ways that smart organizations are using the power of real-time strategies to build revenue, spread ideas, and interact with potential buyers around the world

• Crowdsource product development and marketing materials such as online videos
• Limit quantities of hot new products
• Create real-time deal alerts for your best customers
• Create products that exploit real-time advantages
• Develop products based on a breaking news story
• Get front-page coverage by being the first to comment on breaking news
• Be on the lookout for unhappy customers

As Scott shows with dozens of examples from organizations large and small from all over the world, speed and agility are now a competitive advantage in today's marketplace. Real-Time Marketing & PR explores new ideas about how fostering a real-time culture benefits organizations. The book digs into details about how companies, nonprofits, government agencies, entrepreneurs and even jobseekers get a leg up on the competition by being first to market and by communicating quickly.

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The Art of Non-Conformity: Set Your Own Rules, Live the Life You Want, and Change the World
Chris Guillebeau

If you've ever thought, "There must be more to life than this," The Art of Non-Conformity is for you.

Based on Chris Guillebeau's popular online manifesto "A Brief Guide to World Domination," The Art of Non-Conformity defies common assumptions about life and work while arming you with the tools to live differently. You'll discover how to live on your own terms by exploring creative self-employment, radical goal-setting, contrarian travel, and embracing life as a constan...

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The Art of Non-Conformity: Set Your Own Rules, Live the Life You Want, and Change the World
Chris Guillebeau

If you've ever thought, "There must be more to life than this," The Art of Non-Conformity is for you.

Based on Chris Guillebeau's popular online manifesto "A Brief Guide to World Domination," The Art of Non-Conformity defies common assumptions about life and work while arming you with the tools to live differently. You'll discover how to live on your own terms by exploring creative self-employment, radical goal-setting, contrarian travel, and embracing life as a constant adventure.

Inspired and guided by Chris's own story and those of others who have pursued unconventional lives, you can devise your own plan for world domination-and make the world a better place at the same time.

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Everything I Know about Marketing I Learned From Google
Aaron Goldman

Want Market Share? Google It!

“Google is a once-in-a-generation company. Aaron Goldman has written an essential book that goes beyond telling us how Google became so important to explaining why the revolution it’s leading will affect everyone in media and marketing.”
—Brian Morrissey, Digital Editor, Adweek

“An insightful tour of the elements that have made Google successful combined with a usable guide on how to apply th...

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Everything I Know about Marketing I Learned From Google
Aaron Goldman

Want Market Share? Google It!

“Google is a once-in-a-generation company. Aaron Goldman has written an essential book that goes beyond telling us how Google became so important to explaining why the revolution it’s leading will affect everyone in media and marketing.”
—Brian Morrissey, Digital Editor, Adweek

“An insightful tour of the elements that have made Google successful combined with a usable guide on how to apply this learning to your business.”
—Rishad Tobaccowala , Chief Strategy & Innovation Officer, Vivaki

About the Book

You know you’ve hit it big when your name becomes a verb—and no one knows that better than Google. In just over 10 years, Google has become the world’s most valuable brand, consistently dominating its category and generating $6 billion in revenue per quarter.

How does Google do it? In a word: marketing.

You may not think Google does much marketing. Indeed, it doesn’t do a lot of what has traditionally been viewed as marketing. But in today’s digital world, marketing has taken new shape—and Google is at the cutting edge.

In Everything I Know about Marketing I Learned from Google, digital marketing expert Aaron Goldman offers 20 powerful lessons straight from Google’s playbook. Taking you deep into the inner workings of the Googleplex (which are simpler than you think), Goldman provides the knowledge and tools you need to build and grow your brand (which is also simpler than you think).

Along the way, he shows how Google’s tactics are being used by a wide range of successful corporations, from Apple to Zappos. Key principles include:

• Tap into the Wisdom of Crowds: Get the signals you need directly from your customers
• Keep It Simple, Stupid: Craft messages people can grasp in a nanosecond and pass along
• Don’t Interrupt: Join the conversation— but avoid disrupting it
• Act Like Content: Provide value, not sales pitches
• Test Everything: Take no detail of your program for granted; you can always improve
• Show Off Your Assets: Distribute your brand everywhere

The beauty of it all is that these Googley lessons can be applied to every aspect of marketing, in organizations of any size. Whether you run a PR department in a multinational corporation or serve as the sole marketer in a small business, these tactics work.

In its mission to “organize the world’s information,” Google has rewritten the book on marketing. Use Everything I Know about Marketing I Learned from Google to remake your own organization’s marketing—and engage more customers than ever.

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The Future Arrived Yesterday: The Rise of the Protean Corporation and What It Means for You
Michael Malone

A bold vision about the ways companies will adapt and be reborn in a revolutionary world where business models implode and the search is on for what will work. . . .

The fate of newspapers and the music industry is a harbinger of what awaits every company: an aging business model in its death throes as people finally wake up to the grim fact that their products and the way they deliver them are completely out of sync not only with what customers want but how they want it. But Michael ...

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The Future Arrived Yesterday: The Rise of the Protean Corporation and What It Means for You
Michael Malone

A bold vision about the ways companies will adapt and be reborn in a revolutionary world where business models implode and the search is on for what will work. . . .

The fate of newspapers and the music industry is a harbinger of what awaits every company: an aging business model in its death throes as people finally wake up to the grim fact that their products and the way they deliver them are completely out of sync not only with what customers want but how they want it. But Michael Malone–the author who, when the Internet was still the domain of technical experts, enabled his readers to see clearly the opportunities of the then-emerging digital age–is back and once again making sense of a future just around the corner.

Business considerations such as the wireless World Wide Web, billions of new consumers, and an entrepreneurial ethos are all converging. How a corporation is organized and how people will be managed and employed will change more quickly than anyone realizes. With technology poised to connect a billion new consumers from the most remote parts of the globe, corporations will enter a volatile economic era marked by unprecedented threats and opportunities. Survival will require companies to be “protean”–nimble shape-shifters able to change direction and identity in response to a rapidly evolving international marketplace. They must, in other words, act like perpetual entrepreneurial start-ups.

In our Web 2.0 world “the future arrived yesterday,” since the tools for success already exist and are the means for companies becoming protean. Malone provides remarkable insights into how this emerging corporate form will work and why it’s the key to competitiveness. Find out:

• Why the traditional CEO as master of the universe will be extinct. The CEO will be a chameleon, adapting management style and attitude to each company’s constituency.
• How to identify a core group of employees who will provide stability through their knowledge of the company's history, values, and culture.
• How to effectively recruit, manage, and retain the best talent in an increasingly nontraditional, entrepreneurial, and peripatetic workforce.
• Who stakeholders are, why they matter, and how they will extend beyond any comparable business organization to this point.
• Why the rigid boundaries between for-profit and nonprofit ventures are likely to dissolve through alternate forms of value creation, resulting in hybrid enterprises.

By embracing impermanence and becoming true shape-shifters, protean businesses will not only endure, they’ll come to dominate large segments of the global economy. Provocative and pragmatic, The Future Arrived Yesterday is a dynamic blueprint for a tumultuous economic age.

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Extra Lives: Why Video Games Matter
Tom Bissell

Tom Bissell is a prizewinning writer who published three widely acclaimed books before the age of thirty-four. He is also an obsessive gamer who has spent untold hours in front of his various video game consoles, playing titles such as Far Cry 2, Left 4 Dead, BioShock, and Oblivion for, literally, days. If you are reading this flap copy, the same thing can probably be said of you, or of someone you know.
 
Until recently, Bissell was somewhat reluctant to admit to his pass...

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Extra Lives: Why Video Games Matter
Tom Bissell

Tom Bissell is a prizewinning writer who published three widely acclaimed books before the age of thirty-four. He is also an obsessive gamer who has spent untold hours in front of his various video game consoles, playing titles such as Far Cry 2, Left 4 Dead, BioShock, and Oblivion for, literally, days. If you are reading this flap copy, the same thing can probably be said of you, or of someone you know.
 
Until recently, Bissell was somewhat reluctant to admit to his passion for games. In this, he is not alone. Millions of adults spend hours every week playing video games, and the industry itself now reliably outearns Hollywood. But the wider culture seems to regard video games as, at best, well designed if mindless entertainment.
 
Extra Lives is an impassioned defense of this assailed and misunderstood art form. Bissell argues that we are in a golden age of gaming—but he also believes games could be even better. He offers a fascinating and often hilarious critique of the ways video games dazzle and, just as often, frustrate. Along the way, we get firsthand portraits of some of the best minds (Jonathan Blow, Clint Hocking, Cliff Bleszinski, Peter Molyneux) at work in video game design today, as well as a shattering and deeply moving final chapter that describes, in searing detail, Bissell’s descent into the world of Grand Theft Auto IV, a game whose themes mirror his own increasingly self-destructive compulsions.
 
Blending memoir, criticism, and first-rate reportage, Extra Lives is like no other book on the subject ever published. Whether you love video games, loathe video games, or are merely curious about why they are becoming the dominant popular art form of our time, Extra Lives is required reading.

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Marketing Lessons from the Grateful Dead: What Every Business Can Learn from the Most Iconic Band in History
David Meerman Scott

The Grateful Dead-rock legends, marketing pioneers

The Grateful Dead broke almost every rule in the music industry book. They encouraged their fans to record shows and trade tapes; they built a mailing list and sold concert tickets directly to fans; and they built their business model on live concerts, not album sales. By cultivating a dedicated, active community, collaborating with their audience to co-create the Deadhead lifestyle, and giving away "freemium" content, the Dead pioneere...

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Marketing Lessons from the Grateful Dead: What Every Business Can Learn from the Most Iconic Band in History
David Meerman Scott

The Grateful Dead-rock legends, marketing pioneers

The Grateful Dead broke almost every rule in the music industry book. They encouraged their fans to record shows and trade tapes; they built a mailing list and sold concert tickets directly to fans; and they built their business model on live concerts, not album sales. By cultivating a dedicated, active community, collaborating with their audience to co-create the Deadhead lifestyle, and giving away "freemium" content, the Dead pioneered many social media and inbound marketing concepts successfully used by businesses across all industries today.

Written by marketing gurus and lifelong Deadheads David Meerman Scott and Brian Halligan, Marketing Lessons from the Grateful Dead gives you key innovations from the Dead's approach you can apply to your business. Find out how to make your fans equal partners in your journey, "lose control" to win, create passionate loyalty, and experience the kind of marketing gains that will not fade away!

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Girls Fight Back!: The College Girl's Guide to Protecting Herself
Erin Weed

You're leaving for college and the family minivan is packed to the gills with your stuff. On the brain are good times, parties, new friends - and oh yeah, classes too. College is a blast, but it's a good idea to get informed on how to stay safe and strong while on campus.

Girls Fight Back will show you how to trust your intuition, avoid bad situations, and if necessary, defend yourself. You will learn practical and empowering strategies for walking on campus at night,...

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Girls Fight Back!: The College Girl's Guide to Protecting Herself
Erin Weed

You're leaving for college and the family minivan is packed to the gills with your stuff. On the brain are good times, parties, new friends - and oh yeah, classes too. College is a blast, but it's a good idea to get informed on how to stay safe and strong while on campus.

Girls Fight Back will show you how to trust your intuition, avoid bad situations, and if necessary, defend yourself. You will learn practical and empowering strategies for walking on campus at night, dating, partying, traveling and living on your own.

* How to secure your dorm, apartment or house from break-ins.

* Everything you need to know about date rape drugs, cyberstalking and how to have a safe spring break.

* How to recognize and escape from violent confrontations using your voice and if necessary, self-defense.

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Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
Seth Godin

Gift quality. Unable to ship to APO and FPO at this time.

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Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
Seth Godin

Gift quality. Unable to ship to APO and FPO at this time.

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Brains on Fire: Igniting Powerful, Sustainable, Word of Mouth Movements
Robbin Phillips

Develop and harness a powerful, sustainable word-of-mouth movement

How did the 360-year-old scissor company, Fiskars, double its profit in key markets just by realizing its customers had already formed a community of avid scrapbookers? How is Best Buy planning to dominate the musical instruments market? By understanding the Brains on Fire model of tapping movements and stepping away from the old-school marketing "campaign" mentality.

Brains on Fire offers original,...

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Brains on Fire: Igniting Powerful, Sustainable, Word of Mouth Movements
Robbin Phillips

Develop and harness a powerful, sustainable word-of-mouth movement

How did the 360-year-old scissor company, Fiskars, double its profit in key markets just by realizing its customers had already formed a community of avid scrapbookers? How is Best Buy planning to dominate the musical instruments market? By understanding the Brains on Fire model of tapping movements and stepping away from the old-school marketing "campaign" mentality.

Brains on Fire offers original, practical and actionable steps for creating a word-of-mouth movement for corporations, products, services, and organizations. It takes you step-by-step through the necessary actions needed to start your own authentic movement.

• Develop and harness a powerful, sustainable, word-of-mouth movement
• Describes 10 lessons to master and create a powerful, sustainable movement
• The Brains on Fire blog is often ranked in the top 100 of AdAge's Power 150 Marketing Blogs

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Start Small, Stay Small: A Developer's Guide to Launching a Startup (Volume 1)
Rob Walling

Start Small, Stay Small is a step-by-step guide to launching a self-funded startup. If you're a desktop, mobile or web developer, this book is your blueprint to getting your startup off the ground with no outside investment. This book intentionally avoids topics restricted to venture-backed startups such as: honing your investment pitch, securing funding, and figuring out how to use the piles of cash investors keep placing in your lap. This book assumes: * You don't have $6M of inves...

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Start Small, Stay Small: A Developer's Guide to Launching a Startup (Volume 1)
Rob Walling

Start Small, Stay Small is a step-by-step guide to launching a self-funded startup. If you're a desktop, mobile or web developer, this book is your blueprint to getting your startup off the ground with no outside investment. This book intentionally avoids topics restricted to venture-backed startups such as: honing your investment pitch, securing funding, and figuring out how to use the piles of cash investors keep placing in your lap. This book assumes: * You don't have $6M of investor funds sitting in your bank account * You're not going to relocate to the handful of startup hubs in the world * You're not going to work 70 hour weeks for low pay with the hope of someday making millions from stock options There's nothing wrong with pursuing venture funding and attempting to grow fast like Amazon, Google, Twitter, and Facebook. It just so happened that most people are not in a place to do this.

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