“If the moolah you spend on marketing isn’t growing your business and bringing in more moolah in return then you have marketing that…sucks”
Now, as reader of this blog and presumably a practitioner of direct response marketing, your marketing should definitely NOT suck. Nonetheless, Your Marketing Sucks: 10th Anniversary Edition
I came across the first edition many years ago with my interest piqued by the title! I wasn’t disappointed as Mark Stevens set out his take on direct response marketing…what he calls “Extreme Marketing”…and why it’s needed perhaps more than ever. That’s because for most companies, large and small, their marketing does indeed…suck (big time).
Mark Stevens is the president of his own company, MSCO, and bills himself as an expert in ROI-based marketing and the creator of the Extreme Marketing process. He is the author of a number of other books including “The Big Eight” and “Extreme Management”. In other words, he is very much from the corporate world.
BUT…the problem as he sees it “…what passed as marketing was increasingly a show of aesthetic grandstanding designed to win awards for creativity. Far more than to deliver marketing’s only legitimate prize: the sale of products and services.”
You can almost sense that this makes Stevens seethe with rage at what he sees as the widespread incompetence in the corporate world. I particularly loved his story of how he was so infuriated at the poor marketing of his investment firm that he rang them, told them their marketing sucked…and ended up being asked to make a presentation!
But…none of this will be new to you. So what’s in the book that will be of interest?
Stevens sets out his approach that he calls “Extreme Marketing”. He starts off with the “Big Picture” strategy and then goes deeper with the tactical approach to implementing that strategy. He covers all this in 8 punchy chapters that are filled with examples and practical action steps. Slightly unusually, the summary for each chapter comes at the beginning with Problem-Solution-Benefit together with “Rule” covering the main point of the chapter.
At the end of the book comes an example of a plan based on the Extreme Marketing approach. Throughout he uses examples and case studies to illustrate the problems he points out and the proposed solutions.
Finally, in the 10th Anniversary Edition of the book (there’s a marketing lesson in that, of course) is a new chapter…”NEW! Fire Your Brand”. In the words of the author this “…adds the exponent of viral branding, social media, PR and advertising in the cyber age.”
Frankly, this is a bit of mixed bag. Most of it is taken up discussing what Stevens sees as making a great brand. His take on brands is in line with the direct response marketing approach of spelling out clearly how you help customers and what you stand for, rather than the nebulous fluff that passes for mainstream “branding”. There’s a brief discussion of online marketing tactics but it’s very superficial.
However, overall this is a worthwhile read. I particularly like his emphasis throughout on the “nuts and bolts” of business, particularly the importance of selling and making the sale. If nothing else, the book is a useful reminder to make sure that you continue to follow sound principles and avoid falling victim to marketing that “sucks”!