1:00 – I talk about why I wasn’t crazy about the first chapter, even though I liked the rest of the book.

1:43 – How Wilkes University used Surprise Marketing to recruit new students.

3:46 – My favorite marketing/design idea from the book: New York’s Amazing Food Wine Co.

NY's Amazing Food Wine Co. design

Books I’ve been reading

The Starfish and the Spider by O. Brafman & R. Beckstrom — Excellent, highly recommended.  I loved Brafman’s Sway, and while this book is very different, it’s also a lot better in many ways.  The authors do a great job at breaking down the dynamics of decentralized organizations.  Couple this with Long Tail and Pirate’s Dilemma, and you’ll have a solid grasp on how the web has radically changed things forever.

A Whole New Mind by Daniel Pink — My favorite book so far this year.  The people who will excel in this world are the ones who have a strong right-brain (the artistic, emotional side).  I had about 15 new business ideas for one of my clients while reading this, so it was the worth the cost for that alone.

And the Hippos Were Boiled in their Tanks by J. Kerouac & W.S. Burroughs — I had to buy this when I saw the cover.  Two very unique authors co-wrote this before anyone knew who they were.  If you’re really into Kerouac or Burroughs, you’ll appreciate it.  The story isn’t that great, but it is an excellent period piece.

Scratch Beginnings by Adam Shepard — My second favorite book this year.  This is Adam’s true story about how, after graduating from college, he decides to see if he can get himself out of a homeless shelter and into a full-time job with only $25 to his name. The author is a genuine humanist and a very good writer, as well.  His story was really fun and inspirational to read and it was hard to put this book down.  You’ll definitely want to read this, especially if you’re in your early-20′s.

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig — Meandering and very little substance in the philosophical passages.  I made it about 200 pages into this before putting it down.  Would have put it down a lot sooner but two of my very close friends recommended this to me.  I have no idea what they were thinking.  Skip it.

How to Think like Leonardo da Vinci by Michael Gelb — Remember that “No idols” post I did?  Uh yea, I take it back.  Da Vinci was insanely brilliant and ahead of his time in every imaginable way.  I have a newfound respect for him, even though I thought I knew a lot about him already.  This is an interesting book, worth flipping through.

Survival is Not Enough by Seth Godin — Another smart book by Seth.  Here’s the thing: if you’re familiar with his other works, you probably don’t need to read this book.  You already know that mediocre businesses that stifle innovation and fear change will die out in the long-run.  Still, it wouldn’t hurt to check this out.

A few great articles

Obama’s social media toolkit — Download this right now, it’s fantastic.  Probably the best thing I’ve read regarding Obama’s online marketing efforts.

Ten politically incorrect truths about human nature — From Psychology Today.  A stimulating article throughout.

How do I make good art? — I asked Tucker this question and his response started a thread.  Absorb what Tucker says, and be careful with everyone else’s advice.  I could be wrong, but it seems like a lot of the people who responded are armchair quarterbacks.

Gilt Groupe: online retail phenomenon — From my buddy Matt Daniels.  This is the power of word-of-mouth marketing.

What I’ve been watching

Final Cut tutorials — I’m trying to teach myself Final Cut and it’s a beast.  Way more complex than Photoshop, Flash, and iMovie.  Most of the tutorials I’ve come across have been lame, but this guy’s Vimeo account is awesome.  Really straightforward tutorials that you can follow along with.

Daniel Tosh’s comedy — I got to see him live on Saturday night, and he was excellent.  You know it was a good show when you overhear people outside saying, “He was hilarious, but man was he offensive.”  Download some of his stuff, you’ll love it.

Originally, I planned on covering the important concepts like I did in the post on “Grapevine,” but I decided to share one of the more memorable examples from the book instead:

Sometimes you can want too much.  You can want to own a position that’s too broad… This, of course, is the everybody trap, and one example is a famous campaign for a beer called Rheingold.  This brewery wanted to preempt New York City’s working class… So they produced some marvelous commercials featuring Italians drinking Rheingold, Blacks drinking Rheingold, Irish drinking Rheingold, Jews drinking Rheingold, and so on.

Well, rather than appeal to everybody, they ended up appealing to nobody.  The reason was simple.  Prejudice being a basic human commodity, the fact that one ethnic group drank Rheingold sure didn’t impress another ethnic group.  In fact, all the campaign did was alienate every ethnic group in New York.

Trying to be everything to everyone is a recipe for failure.  You have to decide who you will not market to.  In fact, it can be extremely beneficial (and profitable) to actively exclude other groups.  You will polarize the crowd — most will dislike you, but the rest will become your diehard fans.  In a world where most businesses have castrated themselves with “safe” and “politically correct,” you will stand above the mediocre.

If no one is discontent and the response to your product is tepid, you screwed up.

Here are some of the more important marketing ideas/concepts that I took away from “Grapevine.” Keep these in mind for your company:

• The most influential people in a WOM campaign are the people who take interest in the product but don’t feel so personally attached to it that they can’t share.  The “light loyals” (not the heavy and passionate users) are the most influential because they’re motivated by an interest in helping your brand. The heavy users have been emotionally invested in your brand for too long.  It’s harder for them to rekindle the enthusiasm they felt when they first discovered you.
• Attempts to create buzz are fruitless without transparency.  Over time, the consumer becomes more adept at spotting shills, and the press finds more news value in the negative results of a buzz campaign.
• A single, everyday person’s review of a product — at no cost — can be far more influential than a multi-million dollar advertising campaign.
• The way a company responds to negative WOM can actually create positive WOM.  If consumers feel they can connect with a company, are being heard, treated well, and the outcome is fair, they are far less likely to spread bad WOM.
• Offer free samples of a new product to your customers in exchange for a written report of any conversations they might have about it in the next few weeks.  Early adopters love this.  Do not force them to talk about it; just ask that they write about the conversation’s context when the product came up. You’ll be surprised with the results.
• There is only one way to measure WOM: compare sales of a product in two similar markets — one with a WOM campaign, and one without it.  (BzzAgent did this and found sales to be 66% higher in cities with the WOM component.)
• Let your diehards get involved — it increases loyalty.  For example, do a survey asking what you should name your next product, and give them your two favorite choices to pick from.
• Value comes from long-term engagement with customers because you’re gradually baking the customer into the brand. And when your customers feel as though they’re part of your brand’s DNA, you’ll have opened up a ceaseless stream of WOM.

Then I got a package this last week from GasPedal with a free autographed copy of Andy Sernovitz’s new book, “Word of Mouth Marketing.”

Brilliant.  Sending me a surprise free book (that I coincidentally had on my Amazon wish list) a few weeks before I left for Chicago was a great move on their part.  Why?  Because it genuinely made me want to review it on this site, thus spreading the W.O.M. for his book.

Andy’s book actually turned out to be great, and should be required reading for every single company on the planet if they want to learn what all good marketers have already figured out: that online word-of-mouth is the easiest, cheapest, and most effective form of marketing you have at your disposal.

The most important point, I think, in his book is that the worst thing a company can do is to not join the online discussion.  And if you think your company couldn’t possibly have anything to gain from employee blogs, message boards, Flickr accounts, Youtube videos, etc., think again.

Andy talks about Fiskars, the scissors manufacturer, and how they managed to set up an incredibly active gallery for fans of scrapbooking.  Seriously.  If a scissor company can do this stuff, anyone can.

I did have a few bones to pick with some of the things Andy wrote, but they were relatively small details.  For instance, in the introduction chapter, he says “only about 20 percent of word of mouth happens online.  When it does play a role, it usually sparks the 80 percent of word of mouth conversations that actually happen face to face.”  I have no clue where he got this figure, and assume he just made it up because it feels right, in the style of Stephen Colbert’s “truthiness.”  But like I said, it was one of a few minor points and it doesn’t detract from the book, overall.

Buy this book if you want to know the right way to do online marketing.  The advice is simple, practical, and devastatingly effective when employed correctly.

“No matter how corrupt, greedy, and heartless our government, our corporations, our media, and our religious and charitable institutions may become, the music will still be wonderful.”

“The imagination circuit is taught to respond to the most minimal of cues.  A book is an arrangement of twenty-six phonetic symbols, ten numerals, and about eight punctuation marks, and people can cast their eyes over these and envision the eruption of Mount Vesuvius or the Battle of Waterloo.”

“What you respond to in any work of art is the artist’s struggle against his or her limitations.”

The Dirt by Neil Strauss – I can’t remember if I wrote about this already but I finished it a little over a week ago.  It has the craziest stories I’ve ever read (sorry IHTSBIH).  Strauss is another one of my favorite authors and this book once again reaffirmed my belief: fame comes at a heavy price.

The 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene – I liked both Seduction and War, and this book is also very good.  Greene is an astonishingly impressive author.

The Entrepreneur’s Manual by Richard White – Excellent, if you have any interest starting up a business.  Recommended by Ben Casnocha.

Tribes by Seth Godin – Still waiting for this to come in the mail, but as soon as I get it, I’m going to burn through it.  Heavily anticipated for obvious reasons.

—

“The Things He Carried” by Jeffrey Goldberg – Really interesting article on how much of a facade airport security truly is.

“Buy American. I am.” by Warren Buffett – Great article on how now is the time to buy undervalued equities.  Buffett’s motto is to be greedy when others are fearful, and vice versa.

I shall never forget how I was roused one night by the groans of a fellow prisoner, who threw himself about in his sleep, obviously having a horrible nightmare.  Since I had always been especially sorry for people who suffered from fearful dreams or deliria, I wanted to wake the poor man.  Suddenly I drew back the hand which was ready to shake him, frightened at the thing I was about to do.  At that moment I became intensely conscious of the fact that no dream, no matter how horrible, could be as bad as the reality of the camp which surrounded us, and to which I was about to recall him.

On how salami seems like a food terrorists would like:

One could easily imagine a group of bearded cave dwellers gnawing on hunks of salami while plotting the demise of the Great Satan.  Of course, one could also easily imagine that same group juggling bowling balls on the moon, for the simple reason that imagining stuff is easy.

Two of his New Years’ resolutions:

Don’t call in bomb threats to get out of dental appointments. This is, without a doubt, one of my worst habits.

Stop saying “zygote” when i mean “fetus.”

I recommend you check this book out if you like Black’s style of humor.  Before you read it, you may want to listen to his album to get a feel for him.  I think the guy is hysterical and the topics of his essays are really creative.  He’s able to take “intellectual” ideas and seamlessly blend them with goofiness.  Example: one of his essays is called, “Using the Socratic method to determine what it would take for me to voluntarily eat dog shit for the rest of my life.”

Mario Puzo’s “Fools Die” – I’ve been reading this for what seems, to me, like an embarrassingly long time, and I just finished it.  It’s the longest book I’ve read since “Atlas Shrugged” (but nowhere close to as long).  I really liked the first two-thirds of the book, then grew to dislike the narrator, who was overly empathetic to every sleazeball around him.  But overall, I really enjoyed it.  A nice break from non-fiction.  Favorite quote: “What we think of as our sensitivity is only the higher evolution of terror in a poor dumb beast.  We suffer for nothing.  Our own death wish is our only real tragedy.”

Fyodor Dostoevsky’s “The Brothers Karamazov” – I bought this because I’d heard great things about it.  For now, it’s sitting on my bookshelf, taunting me with its 1,000+ pages.  I’ve only read one other Dostoevsky, so I look forward to this… someday.

Malcolm Gladwell’s “Blink” – About 60 pages in.  So far, so good, although not quite as dynamic as “Tipping Point.”

Nassim Taleb’s “Fooled by Randomness” – Also about 60 pages in.  I really am stumped on why this has gotten so much hype.  I just can’t get into it for some reason.  If you’ve read this, please tell me why you did or didn’t enjoy it because I’m trying to decide whether I should keep going.

Guy Kawasaki’s “The Art of the Start” – I had already read this but I decided to go back through it with a highlighter and sticky notes.  Love this book, it’s great for entrepreneurs.  Which leads me to…

Richard White’s “The Entrepreneur’s Manual” – Read about this while looking through Casnocha’s del.icio.us bookmarks.  He just wrote a post about how it’s one of the best entrepreneurship books ever written.

Berkshire Hathaway’s shareholder letters – I’m going to print all of these off and read them.  If you have any interest in investing, definitely check these out.

Well, basically, what the gods had in mind when they started out was man. They made the universe so that our galaxy could be in it. They made the galaxy so that our solar system could be in it. They made the solar system so that our planet could be in it. And they made our planet so that we could be in it. The whole thing was made so that man would have a hunk of dirt to stand on.

I’m about a third of the way through this, and it’s pretty good.  I didn’t really like it initially, but the author’s slow trickle of interesting thoughts kept me plugging along. Like Wall-E (which I saw a few days ago – excellent), this book addresses the way we treat the environment without coming off as too preachy or clichéd.  I can’t give it a full recommendation just yet – maybe when I’m finished.