Free Gift Inside!!: Forget the Customer. Develop Marketease

As a bookseller, I am exposed to a near endless stream of books. On any given day, about 500 different titles pass through my hands. Let's face it: most book covers, especially business titles, are REALLY boring. When this title came through, it caught my attention. As a merchant, I often wonder where all of the free shipping, free 2nd day delivery, and free next day delivery will end. So I was ready to read: Free Gift Inside! Stephen Brown does a great job of illustrating that there is another way. I recommend this book to anyone that is involved with selling anything. (unless you are in healthcare - in which case you probably have already mastered disservice). Overall, it's an fun read and makes you re-think whether being a suck-up to customers is the most profitable approach.

This book meets its promise of deflating the academic presentations contained in more theoretical marketing books. Too often, those books sub-divide and label marketing approaches and customer acquisition strategies into acronym-ridden codes that only confuse readers. Many of these books assume that the customer is the center of the marketing universe. Author Stephen Brown contends just the opposite. Customers are not the core of the cosmos. At best, constantly catering to their whims and changing tastes often ties marketers into unproductive knots. Using powerful - if sometimes questionable - examples, Brown shows that customers readily follow good marketing campaigns. Yet, the book relies so heavily on alliteration, puns and perky jokes that it often becomes just too cute, which impedes its solid marketing message. We recommend it as useful reading for marketing professionals who seek fresh ideas and a break from the old jargon. Alas, despite its title, no free gift comes with it, other than some razzle-dazzle marketing war stories.

Stephen Brown has a way of making marketing so much fun, why should it be serious?From the start it becomes totally clear the Author is totally up on his content, and knowledge, this is NOT simply a license to rant and rave to people who pay $20 and want to get their moneys worth.The examples are current, or if are not current, are totally relevent to the topic at hand, though his explanation of what is basically 'exclusive' marketing, or the idea that by not giving people what they want, they will only want what you offer even more.I cannot reccomend this book more highly, as a marketing student it really should be required reading as its not only interesting and relevent, but makes the topic so much damn fun!.

Wow! I didn't see this one coming. Brown's writing style is literary electricity. His method of teaching brands his lessons on your brain. He case studies and research would make the New York Library look like kindergardners with crayons. I LOVE this book. Haven't read anything this good since, well, re-reading one of my own books. I say get this one. You'll love it. -- Joe Vitale www.mrfire.com