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Buzz
Book

Buzz

Harness the Power of Influence and Create Demand

Wiley, 2003 more...

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Editorial Rating

8

Qualities

  • Applicable

Recommendation

This book is essentially a compendium of standard marketing lore repackaged as a new gospel of brand building. Breezily if sometimes awkwardly written, it provides some useful insight into how technology and social changes have reduced the importance of advertising and magnified the impact of person-to-person chatter. Abundant examples, anecdotes and observations on current events help keep it relevant to contemporary business. Given that books trying to catch the next wave of what works can be called a success if they deliver a single insight that a reader can use effectively, getAbstract.com finds this book successful and worth reading.

Summary

Buzz, Buzz

Buzz is what people do. They've always done it. Think of opera house claques. Think of P.T. Barnum. Think of Ford lending some of the first Mustangs to college newspaper editors. What's new? Not that buzz buzzes, but that marketers now know how to make buzz happen, and that it's harder than ever. A few hundred years ago, people got so little information that any new thing made them buzz. Now a deluge of new things competes for their attention. How do you break through? How do you make buzz work for you?

What makes you buy a product - an ad, or a friend who enthuses about the latest gizmo? No contest, right? And now, with e-mail and other instantaneous communication media, people stay in touch with more friends, more immediately than ever before, so buzz is potentially more powerful than ever.

Buzz is also increasingly powerful because ads are more ubiquitous. Brand names pop up all over the place. Ball fields. College buildings. Even elementary school gymnasiums have sponsors. Remember the way that Target, the retail store, strewed branded material all over the "dangerous desert island" for the first of the Survivor reality shows. That was designed...

About the Authors

Marian Salzman, advertising executive, trend spotter and Chief Strategy Officer at Euro RSCG worldwide, co-authored Next: Trends for the Near Future with Ira Matathia, the Managing Director of Euro RSCG, MVBMS Partners. Ann O'Reilly is a writer and editor, Editorial Director of S.T.A.R. at Euro RSCG and co-author of Next.


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