Your Marketing Sucks

by Mark Stevens

Book Overview

"Your marketing sucks . . ." What in the world does Mark Stevens mean? For starters, let's take spending camouflaged as marketing. Everyone sees all those expensive, slick, pointless campaigns day after day. Just turn on your TV set and there are all the look-alike ads from Ford, GM, and Chrysler with look-alike cars going down . . . a road. Creative? Probably yes-nice scenery, good-looking people, etc., etc. But effective? Mark Stevens says absolutely...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0609609831
• ISBN13: 9780609609835
• Release Date: July 2003
• Publisher: Crown Business
• Length: 235 Pages
• Weight: 0.80 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.9" x 8.6"

Customer Reviews

It is good

Read this book as part of an entrepreneurship class. Great book! It helped me get a better/more practical perspective on marketing and sales--probably like a 140 degree change in perspective. Definitely worth the price of the pages.

FamousPick Review | Book recommendations from famous people

This book is recommended by: Seth Godin, Marketing expert "Your marketing may suck, but this book doesn't. Every single page has a story, an example, or a concept you'll find yourself repeating to colleagues within days. Powerful stuff, not for amateurs or anyone too lazy to succeed" 800ceoread Best Marketing Books Of 2003 By John Moore (best Book Title) "This book doesn't suck. Its quite good." Publisher Weekly "...this gem of a book is brimming with anecdotal evidence of advertising strategies gone awry..." Tom Peters "I love Mark Stevens' Your Marketing Sucks. (I admit it, I start by loving the title.) Clear language. Strong point of view. Actionable as the dickens. And ... extreme. (My favorite word.) "Extreme Marketing" is the author's mantra." Source: http://famouspick.blogspot.com/2009/04/your-marketing-sucks-by-mark-stevens.html

No B.S. review: You should not dismiss this book. In fact, absorb every word of it.

Don't be thrown by the negative reviews of this book. True, the author might come off as a bit brash, but one man's confidence and experience is another man's aggressive arrogance I suppose. Deal with it and keep reading because the message of the book is critically important to your business. No, Mark Stevens is not telling you that your marketing sucks without knowing anything about it or you. What he *is* saying is that there are basically two types of marketing. One kind generates more money for your business and the other kind sucks money out of your business. If every dollar you invest in your marketing is not generating more than $1 in return, then your marketing is "sucking" money out of your business. That's the whole premise and I understand why so many people have a problem with the concept. This book is asking for accountability, measurability and justification of marketing spend. Ouch! That is going to offend those marketers out there who just spend money on "doing marketing stuff" because that's the way to get the word out about their products and services. They have a marketing budget and they must spend it without giving any thought whatsoever as to how that spend is aligned strategically to increase the value of the business. Mr. Stevens is telling us that we must examine every dollar dedicated to marketing and look at it as a strategic investment and then analyze whether or not it is generating a high return and growing the value of the business. He is not confusing marketing with sales. The fundamental goal of marketing *is* to drive sales and he is telling us that unless your marketing dollars are generating sales or increasing revenues for your business, then your marketing spend is not justifiable. Spend it, measure it, analyze it and then either justify it in terms of dollars and cents or eliminate it. If it is truly a marketing "spend" then stop doing it. If it is a business "investment" with a positive return, then keep on doing it. It is that simple. It is a critically important concept for marketing professionals to wrap their minds around. I love one point he makes and that is to ask yourself if your advertising increases sales every time you run your ad or ads. If so, then why don't you run your ad every day in as many places as you can? Get the point? Too few marketers even measure such results let alone justify them and stand accountable for them. This is a very important work that casts marketing in a strategic organizational role within the business. This is where marketing belongs rather then relegated to the tactical role of simply generating and sending marketing messages to increase "awareness" that in and of itself is worthless without creating differentiated, strategic awareness. Do yourself a favor. Read this book and then share it with others in your business. Then immediately go out and read Bill Schley's, "Why Johnny can't brand." These two books should be required reading in every

This is the most truthful book on marketing ever. Many people in the business will hate it

This is the most truthful book on marketing ever. "If the moola you spend on marketing isn't growing your business and bringing in more moola in return, then you have marketing that ...sucks." Stevens is very clear and concise. "Stop throwing thousand-dollar bills out the window and camouflaging spending as marketing-demand that the money spent on marketing bring in more money in return." Even better, "Fire your advertising agency if it even thinks about applying for a Clio or other creative award." Awards do not generate moola for you who is paying the bill. This is a terrific book for any CEO who wonders if he is just throwing money at the wall with his creative/advertising/marketing budget. If you are not getting clear metrics reflected by increased bottom line dollars - then the money is wasted. Al Trout told us that advertising is dead and PR is alive. Stevens gives very concrete examples for you and I to see this clearly and a plan to remedy things immediately. Our company already adopted revenue-focussed marketing for 2 quarters and it works. A keeper and a true reference book

I'd bet that the ratings differences are generational

...because to anyone who has studied marketing recently knows these ideas and principles already, and will see this book as a waste of paper. However, the "non-extreme" marketing that Steven's is insulting is out there, and in use by many older and more established companies. The message that I took from this book is that some marketing does suck, but that it doesn't have to be that way. Seriously, to some people this book would be seen as pure enlightenment. To others it's old-hat regurgitated tripe. Is the divide really generational? Who knows, but I got you to read my review ;-) The book never promises to be a guide full hundreds of tips and techniques, so I'm not going to fault it for not providing any. It does promise to give an entertaining outlook of common "bad marketing" and how to better approach some things. I found the writing to be enjoyable and even humorous in places. Risking flames by giving a 5-star rating, but it's nothing less (and a bit more) than promised, so I give it: Applicability: 7 - seems to depend on some demographic shift between the "old" and "new" marketing techniques that I can't peg. but it was applicable to me. Creativity: 9 - the title alone is worth a score of 9 Readability: 9 - short and entertaining Worst Point: as another reader pointed out, stevens is often self congratulatory Best point: Stevens gets the brass balls award for his scathing assault on a common marketing practice of "draining the annual budget".