Scan barcode
A review by erica_o
Unmarketing: Stop Marketing. Start Engaging. by Scott Stratten
3.0
Though I'm not a fan of this type of book, I will admit I enjoyed this one, probably because Mr. Stratten has a fun, conversational way of writing and is mostly humorous. I didn't start rolling my eyes at his ego and general ridiculousness until page 66 - a huge accomplishment considering I'm usually over the author by the end of the introduction.
I would argue that the topic is not actually "unmarketing". There is no lack of marketing or branding in this book. It's all about creating one's business image through social media - his favorite it Twitter. Oh how he loves the Twitter.
There are no ground-breaking, amazing ideas being shared; there's really nothing new at all. However, there are plenty of good reminders throughout the book and I think a lot of them come down to simple manners. Many of the manners our mothers taught us are applicable in a business setting, such as "When someone talks to you, you should respond" or "Smile and pay attention to people around you".
I think this book is less about not-marketing and more about not heeding the advice given in the past thirty years in books of the same genre. Being cut-throat, having your cheese and your parachute, going from good to great, or anything else in popular business books, could get you ahead in your company, but it's not going to win you a loyal following of customers.
Customer service often boils down to simply paying attention to the customer and this book is full of little reminders on how you can do just that using simple tools from the internet.
I liked:
much of the humor ; the reminders to have good manners ; reading about how social networking can enhance a business
I disliked:
the constant stream of "this happened to me once" stories (they seemed awfully contrived after the forty-seventh one) ; the general arrogance (a MUST for this genre. I guess successful people with small egos probably don't publish) ; the over-use of repetition (I know it helps people memorize stuff, but it's not actually useful to start and end paragraphs with the exact same sentence over and over again).
Ok, I do also have to point out that the viral marketing chapter, the one Mr. Stratten touted as being so incredibly important, seemed to have been written as the book was going to production, never edited and perhaps composed during an inebriated conference call. That one chapter should probably be removed from every copy of every book so that it can be revised to make sense. It was pretty awful.
I would argue that the topic is not actually "unmarketing". There is no lack of marketing or branding in this book. It's all about creating one's business image through social media - his favorite it Twitter. Oh how he loves the Twitter.
There are no ground-breaking, amazing ideas being shared; there's really nothing new at all. However, there are plenty of good reminders throughout the book and I think a lot of them come down to simple manners. Many of the manners our mothers taught us are applicable in a business setting, such as "When someone talks to you, you should respond" or "Smile and pay attention to people around you".
I think this book is less about not-marketing and more about not heeding the advice given in the past thirty years in books of the same genre. Being cut-throat, having your cheese and your parachute, going from good to great, or anything else in popular business books, could get you ahead in your company, but it's not going to win you a loyal following of customers.
Customer service often boils down to simply paying attention to the customer and this book is full of little reminders on how you can do just that using simple tools from the internet.
I liked:
much of the humor ; the reminders to have good manners ; reading about how social networking can enhance a business
I disliked:
the constant stream of "this happened to me once" stories (they seemed awfully contrived after the forty-seventh one) ; the general arrogance (a MUST for this genre. I guess successful people with small egos probably don't publish) ; the over-use of repetition (I know it helps people memorize stuff, but it's not actually useful to start and end paragraphs with the exact same sentence over and over again).
Ok, I do also have to point out that the viral marketing chapter, the one Mr. Stratten touted as being so incredibly important, seemed to have been written as the book was going to production, never edited and perhaps composed during an inebriated conference call. That one chapter should probably be removed from every copy of every book so that it can be revised to make sense. It was pretty awful.