Book Reviews

Book Review for Lee Odden’s book, Optimize.

I discuss the importance and functionality of SEO, as well as online content marketing.

Mark Magnacc,a author of So What?  How to Communicate What Really Matters to Your Audience, has invested more than 15 years on a search for what sets great communicators apart. In this book he sets up each chapter as an idea that has been tested in his own life and business, as well as with a wide range of clients. He has worked with clients from EMC to Blue Cross Blue Shield. Magnacca’s has taught thousands of the world’s top salespeople and his techniques will make an average persuaders into great ones, and great persuaders into legends.

Made to Stick is split up between 6 chapters and each of them talks about the different aspects of making ideas “sticky”. In order for an idea to be sticky, it must have Simplicity, Compactness, Unexpected ideas, Credibility of a sources, a Concrete message, Emotional value of messages, and an importance of Stories. For short, it is known as the acronym SUCCESs. The main purpose of this book is to explain how SUCCESs can be used to create ideas that are remembered and not ineffective due to the curse of knowledge. After reading this book, I felt that I knew some of the things they discussed like “tell them what you’re gonna tell them, tell them, and tell them what you told them”, but they took that to the next level and explained further on more elements in creating an idea that can truly give people an idea that lingers in their mind.

By the year 1983, David Ogilvy had already become a titan in the advertising industry.  He was one of the original mad men, starting his agency in New York City in 1948.  Within 35 years in the business, he had gained a tremendous amount of expertise, which he shared in his book Ogilvy on Advertising.  The book lived up to its broad title by covering a wide range of advertising topics from getting new clients to advertising for foreign travel.  This book served as a great ‘how to guide’ on becoming successful in the advertising industry.   It was also very interesting that he used real world experiences to back up each of his suggestions.  This made it clear to understand exactly how it relates to a specific advertising problem.

Drunk Tank Pink: And Other Unexpected Forces That Shape How We Think, Feel, and Behave by Adam Alter

Drunk Tank Pink gets its name from the bubblegum-pink color used in jail cells to curb aggressive behavior inmates. The realization that something as simple as a color could have such a tremendous affect on a group of people made way for more research on these “unexpected forces.”

In order for companies to be successful in the long run, they must be willing to change the way they do things, even if it’s hard to do so. Companies often have struggled to make the changes they have to since they often get complacent in how things are run. In the book I read for this project, Switch: How to Change Things When Change is Hard, Chip and Dan Heath go through some of the main reasons why companies need to change, even when it’s hard. The Heath brothers used their years of market research experience to point out how successful companies can change the way they’re run. Throughout the book, the Heath’s point out the three main reasons why change is necessary, while also giving other reasons why those changes are necessary.

“I would like to make it mandatory that everyone in advertising read David Ogilvy’s first book, Confessions of an Advertising Man at least once a year.” George Parker commented that in Business Insider. Media Week also evaluated this book as the “required reading for anyone in business”. In Confessions of an Advertising Man, David Ogilvy not only tells legendary stories about his successful career, comprehensively introduces the advertising industry, but also elaborates his concepts, tactics, and techniques that were generated based on his estimable experience and knowledge by using a pithy, lively and humorous writing.

Throughout this book, the author, Martin Lindstrom, attempts to prove to his readers that through neurological testing, advertisers can discover what consumers really want, because sometimes their words aren’t the complete truth.  Each chapter offers a different example of a test done often times through fMRI testing that show which parts of the brain consumers are using when making purchase decisions and simply viewing advertising.  The first of these tests was done on smokers, and whether or not they really understand what advertisements for cigarettes are attempting to tell them.  There were three chapters that really stuck out from the rest of the book that offered a lot of insight into neuromarketing- chapters six, eight, and ten.

Jonah Berger’s book Contagious explores why certain things catch on and become popular. He starts by dismissing the belief that many, including myself, thought to be true; that a small number of “influencers” cause idea or products to catch on. He opens this discussion by stating that all people hold the same importance in word of mouth, which he considers to be the strongest form of communication of products and ideas. How interesting an idea or product is does not always translate into sharing and word of mouth. Throughout the book he outlines 6 aspects that he calls STEPPS, which he believes drives things to catch on.

Thinking of advertising and marketing industry today you realize that it has come a long and far way from where it began. Authors Terry O’Reilly and Mike Tennant give a comprehensive history of how advertising started, where it’s been, and what it has evolved to currently. Previous to becoming the author of this book O’Reilly had a radio series, “O’Reilly on Advertising”. His follow up to this was the “Age of Persuasion” where he looking into the ways marketing and advertising have affected everyday life. This book serves as a way for him and his partner author to expand on topics they discussed in their radio show.

Decoded: The Science Behind Why We Buy. Phil Barden. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons, 2013. 270 pages

We can’t always explain why we buy what we buy. Some product aspects, such as price and quality, are obvious factors in our decision-making process, but often times, it’s the less obvious product attributes that get us to buy. Decoded: The Science Behind Why We Buy, written by Phil Barden, explores human psychology and how it plays a role in marketing and consumers purchasing decisions. Author, Phil Barden, is an experienced marketing professional, who has done brand development for big name companies such as T-Mobile and Unilever. Barden applies his marketing expertise to studies in human psychology to show how marketers can leverage psychology to improve advertising campaigns and overall branding strategies.