Marketing Outrageously: How to Crank Up Your Revenue by Staggering Amounts

Loved reading MARKETING OUTRAGEOUSLY by Joe Spoelstra, one of America's top sports marketers . . . he uses many real--and often funny--examples to show how it is possible to get a company known without going into bankruptcy.Even if you're not a sports fan, there is much here thatcan be applied to almost any marketing situation.What I so much liked about this book is that Spoelstrahas been involved in what he writes about . . . he has consulted with major sports organizations including baseball, hockey, soccer, and basketball in the United States, Spain and Japan.Also, he was general manager of the Portland Trail Blazers for 11 years, during which time he was the focus of what was perhaps the strangest trade in sports history. Portland was in need of a guard to fill a hole created by injury. The guard the Blazers wanted was the starting point guard for Indiana Pacers. A deal was struck; the compensation to the Pacers wasn't a player, but one week of Spoelstra's time. He then played a key role in the restructuring of the Pacers' front office.Later, as president of the New Jersey Nets for three years, he increased that team's revenue by almost 500 percent. There were several memorable passages; among them:* Learn to ask this question: "What's it going to take?"Most business people are thinking, "How can wemake our budget numbers?" or "How can weimprove our profit over last year?" They areasking the wrong question.What if you asked the following question atyour company: "What's it going to take to bethe best company in our industry this year?"You don't have to be CEO or a businessowner to ask this kind of question. You couldask, "What's it going to take to become the best marketing department in the industrythis year?" or "What's it going to take to bethe best department in our company this year?"I know how difficult it is to answer that question.I've asked it many times. Sometimes I've just asked myself, because it can seem too outrageousto ask anyone else. Sometimes I've asked others,even though if they'd been carrying guns I'dprobably to dead. But you have to ask it, becausethat's the only way to come up with truly outrageousmarketing ideas.* I've got a warped perspective on advertising: I thinkadvertising should get results you can feel. Don'thive me any of that image or identity stuff; I wantrevenue that I can track to the ad. Anything less is,to me, like throwing my money into a tornado and hoping for the best.You might ask me: "How much revenue wouldmake you happy?" Well, I've got a simple littleformula for that: $4-to-$1. I call it The Ratio. For every dollar I spend on an ad, I want to seefour dollars in revenue as a direct result.* At the beginning of this chapter, I asked you to take out of your pocket the piece of paper on whichyou had written, "What's it gonna take . . .?" becauseI was going to ask you to write something on the back of it. Here's what I want you to write. It's anotherquestion:What did I do today to make money for my c

If you're looking for a great marketing book to kick your promotional ideas into high gear, pick up a copy of "Marketing Outrageously: How to Increase Your Revenue by Staggering Amounts" by sports marketer Jon Spoelstra. (You've got to love a book with a cover picture of a sumo wrestler slam dunking a basketball!)But isn't doing outrageous things dangerous to your corporate or personal image? Spoelstra argues that conservative marketing is far more dangerous for a small company, because you won't build revenue as quickly. The slow growth and incremental improvements many marketers seek isn't adequate.Rather, Spoelstra says you must begin asking yourself the question, "What's it going to take?" Think big. Consider your biggest goals. Then, add the goal to the end of the question: "What's it going to take to __________?"By asking the above question, Spoelstra says you can start to generate ideas and a plan for achieving breakthroughs. Spoelstra asks the reader to write down a question to be asked every day: "What have I done to make money for my company today?" That seems like a good question.Spoelstra tells many stories from sports marketing. For example, when brought in as a marketing consultant to revive the Sacramento Kings' season ticket renewals, which had fallen through the floor, Spoelstra was advised that, even though he wrote a great renewal letter, it wouldn't be read by the fans, who were now throwing away all correspondence from the team. Spoelstra guaranteed the letter would be read. The letter was tied to the leg of a three-foot-long rubber chicken wearing a jersey that said, "Don't fowl out!" The rubber chicken was stuffed into a tubular Fed-Ex container and mailed to fans.As Spoelstra explains, the Fed-Ex box was the headline. The rubber chicken, the subheadline. The only purpose of the headline is to get the prospect to read the subheadline. The purpose of the subheadline was to get the prospect to read the letter. Fans did read the letter attached to the chicken. And, a $12,000 rubber-chicken campaign generated about $2.5 million in extra renewals.While the above is clever marketing, sometimes 'clever' can border upon unethical or misleading. For example, Spoelstra tells about the marketing of the independent film Blair Witch Project. To promote the film, Spoelstra tells us that Artisan Entertainment sent about 100 college students to hand out fliers about three 'missing persons,' and the fliers asked people to visit the Blair web site for more information. The web site gave the impression that the three 'missing persons' were real--not that this was all promotion for a film, which is all it was. Obviously, this marketing worked, because this ultra-low-budget film made for $50,000 went on to gross over $100 million at the box office. And, there have been many, many take-offs on this hide-a-scripted-fictional-film-as-a-true-documentary, even though that's a lie. A film claiming to follow a person on dates, one following a couple o

Excellent book. It's a different type of marketing book that is a great read to change the pace from other books I've read. Spoelstra's thinking does wonders for companies trying to market with smaller budgets. It's a fast read because it really captivates your imagination and makes you want to learn more.

Fooled into actually learning something? Inspired?Then pick up Marketing Outrageously now.I had the good fortune of being assigned Jon Spoelstra's Ice to the Eskimos three years ago in college and have been waiting for the following up ever since. As a student being bombarded with assignments, I plowed through Ice in a day, actually disappointed when it ended. Outrageously is even better.The best part of the book is the insider stories. (Elvis, Area 51 and Pat Riley are all subjects.) There is at least one anecdote related to each chapter. Besides being highly entertaining, they are a way to remember an idea Spoelstra is looking to hit home.Spoelstra is not only a marketing genius, but also a wonderful author. He knows his books don't just need to be informational, but engaging as well. Above all, he prompts you to act. If you read this book, you'll laugh, you'll think in a new way and oh yeah, make some extra money for your company along the way.

The author, Jon Spoelstra, is a hired gun marketing consultant who goes in and turns around companies with severe lack of revenues. Most of them are sports teams. So, we could think of him as a serial-turnaround artist. For this reason, you should read the book to see his techniques in action.This is his second book. The other is "Ice To The Eskimos". This book is very similar to the first book. I consider this second book an update to the previous one. Both are highly recommended. In some ways I thought the first book had more meat. This second book is easier to read.The author has about 20 major points that he makes in both books. One such point is to think outrageously when working on your marketing ideas and programs. He gives lots of stories and anecdotes to help you in this regard. Another point by the author is the use of direct marketing over indirect marketing. He recommends that you let the customer tell you when to stop running the ad based on the returns that it generates. He gives lots of examples. His recommendations regarding TV ads follows the recommendations of Roy Williams, who wrote "Wizard of Ads" by the same publisher. In TV he recommends that you dominate a niche, or segment.On one hand he believes in accepting the product as a given. Many sales and marketing people blame poor sales results on the product, just as a failed warrior is quick to blame his weapons. He believes most of the problems are caused by lack of creativity and action. But on the other hand, the author guides you on how to change your product offering. One technique is to understand what business you are really in. He gives you some checklists and examples on how to do this.The author is totally revenue focused. He foresakes short term profitability to build revenues so he can pick up profitablity on subsequent purchases. The hallmark of this second book is a call to action to write two important questions on a 3x5 card... and carry it around with you. To find out those questions you'll need to buy and read the book.After reading this book you should have several important things to change for your business. So it is highly recommended. I would have given this book a "4" but because he made the case so convincingly that the CEO and chief marketing guy should make frequent sales calls... that I had to bump the score up to a "5". Read the book to find out why.I think there are better 5's out there, but this one will pay you dividends if you apply some of his recommendations. He is a player with real experience.John Dunbar