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Book - Product Information
Buzzmarketing: Get People to Talk About Your Stuff
Mark Hughes
Rating: 5.0/5 Stars
Rank: 2051
Remember Half.com? Back in the days of the dotcom boom, the discount retail
Web site drew headlines when it persuaded the town of Halfway, Ore., to
change its name to Half.com for a year.
The stunt helped the company gain
millions of customers and position itself to be bought out by eBay for a
handsome premium.
Hughes, the brain behind Half.com's marketing ploy,
extols the virtues of "buzz marketing," his name for the idea that
companies can dramatically boost sales by attracting publicity and fueling
widespread word-of-mouth.
In this book, Hughes lays out the "principles" of
buzz marketing, offering a list of dos and don'ts, plus numerous examples
of businesses that outshined competitors by creating buzz.
Anyone familiar
with Malcolm Gladwell's The Tipping Point will grasp the logic underlying
some of Hughes's ideas.
He advocates getting the attention of people who
can spread the gospel about your product. This approach, he says, is not
only more effective than traditional advertising, but far cheaper.
Hughes's tales of companies that successfully harnessed buzz are the
strongest part of the book, covering businesses as diverse as Pepsi, Ben
and Jerry's and Rit Dye, which revived itself by sparking the tie-dye
craze in the 1960s. How valuable readers find some of his other case
studies will depend on whether they agree that Britney Spears and American
Idol represent "great products" marketed shrewdly.
Hughes, who worked for
PepsiCo and Pep Boys before joining Half.com, now runs a consulting firm
that teaches companies about buzz marketing, which no doubt explains why
his writing sometimes seems as subtle as a PowerPoint presentation and as
gung-ho as an infomercial.
Still, Hughes's ideas are provocative and
should interest business professionals frustrated with same-again
advertising campaigns. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a
division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
About the AuthorMark Hughes is currently the CEO of the consulting firm Buzzmarketing and
a guest lecturer on creative marketing at business schools such as NYU and
Wharton.
A former executive at Half.com, Pep Boys, and Pizza Hut, he
lives in Philadelphia.
Editorials
Sample 3 of 4
Buzzmarketing: Get People to Talk About Your Stuff
Mark Hughes
![]() | | | From Publishers Weekly | | Remember Half.com? Back in the days of the dotcom boom, the discount retail
Web site drew headlines when it persuaded the town of Halfway, Ore., to
change its name to Half.com for a year. The stunt helped the company... read full editorial |
![]() | | | Ben Cohen, cofounder, Ben and Jerrys | | Theres fake corporate marketing and then theres real marketing.
This is the real stuff for real people. |
![]() | | | Steve Forbes, Editor in Chief, Forbes | | A business book thats entertaining and useful for big brands and
start- ups alike. |
Customer Reviews
Sample 3 of 7
Buzzmarketing: Get People to Talk About Your Stuff
Mark Hughes
![]() | | | Excellent Book | | (Manchester, CT USA) July 9, 2005 - 5.0/5 stars | | This is an excellent book. If you want your marketing to truly grow, check
it out. No matter what size your business is or how varied your
market.
As the author points out in the introduction, the
goal is to out-think... read full review |
![]() | | | "I heard it on the grapevine..." | | (Los Angeles, CA United States) July 12, 2005 - 5.0/5 stars | | Once in a while up pops a quick fix book that is sane, smartly written,
witty, entertaining and ultimately useful. Mark Hughes has produced just
that book in his terrific little book BUZZMARKETING : Get People to Talk
About... read full review |
![]() | | | Exceptional Marketing Guide for Small and Large Businesses! | | (a world traveler based on Boston) July 14, 2005 - 5.0/5 stars | | Everyone knows that good word-of-mouth advertising can make a product, and
bad word-of-mouth comments can kill a product. Many books exhort you to
create such good "buzz" and give you lots of examples.
Mark
Hughes does that... read full review |
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