Authors: Al Ries, Laura Ries, Laura Ries
ISBN-13: 9780060081980, ISBN-10: 0060081988
Format: Hardcover
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Date Published: August 2002
Edition: 1ST
Al Ries and his daughter and business partner Laura Ries are two of the world's best-known marketing consultants, and their firm, Ries & Ries, works with many Fortune 500 companies. They are the authors of The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding and The Fall of Advertising and the Rise of PR, which was a Wall Street Journal and a BusinessWeek bestseller, and, most recently, The Origin of Brands. Al was recently named one of the Top 10 Business Gurus by the Marketing Executives Networking Group. Laura is a frequent television commentator and has appeared on the Fox News and Fox Business Channels, CNN, CNBC, PBS, ABC, CBS, and others. Their Web site (Ries.com) has some simple tests that will help you determine whether you are a left brainer or a right brainer.
Bestselling authors and world-renowned marketing strategists Al and Laura Ries usher in the new era of public relations.
Today's major brands are born with publicity, not advertising. A closer look at the history of the most successful modern brands shows this to be true.
Marketing strategists Ries and Ries spend all 320 pages of their latest book arguing one point: skillful public relations is what sells, not advertising. Case in point: the failure of Pets.com's sock puppet ads. However, in a chapter devoted to dot-com advertising excesses, the authors never mention that many dot-coms had miserable business plans and neophyte management. (The Rieses may be counting on the sock puppet to sell another commodity, as a deflated sock puppet dominates the book's jacket.) Today, most small companies aren't bloated with venture capital to buy TV ads, yet the book has little practical advice on how these companies' executives should use public relations, particularly PR's most important role: crisis control. Some readers might resent paying $24.95 for what amounts to an advertisement for pricey PR consulting firms like Ries & Ries. The authors frequently poke fun at the most outrageous TV ads of recent years, paralleling Sergio Zyman's The End of Advertising As We Know It (reviewed above), a more thoughtful critique of current advertising trends. The inherent flaw in the Rieses' logic: time and again they cite ad campaigns for new products that are "off message" and then say how much sales declined; this supports the notion that products and services are sold by good advertising. Although their book is occasionally entertaining, the argument is simplistic and self-serving. Illus. (Sept. 1) Forecast: Those who work in publicity or PR will enjoy hearing about how important their jobs are, but ad execs will find the constant criticisms of their field grating. Harper Business certainly doesn't seem to have taken the Rieses' message to heart; a cornerstone of the book's marketing campaign is print advertising in Advertising Age, Adweek and Brandweek. Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.
Introduction | ||
Pt. 1 | The Fall of Advertising | |
1 | Advertising and Car Salesmen | |
2 | Advertising and Art | |
3 | Advertising and Creativity | |
4 | Advertising and Awards | |
5 | Advertising and Awareness | |
6 | Advertising and Sales | |
7 | Advertising and the Dotcoms | |
8 | Advertising and Credibility | |
9 | The Search for Alternatives | |
Pt. 2 | The Rise of PR | |
10 | The Power of a Third Party | |
11 | Building a New Brand with PR | |
12 | Rebuilding and Old Brand with PR | |
13 | Establishing Your Credentials | |
14 | Rolling Out Your Brand | |
15 | Building an Educational Brand | |
16 | Building a Geographic Brand | |
17 | Building a Booze Brand | |
18 | The Missing Ingredient | |
19 | Dealing with Line Extensions | |
20 | Dealing with Names | |
Pt. 3 | A New Role for Advertising | |
21 | Maintaining the Brand | |
22 | Keeping On Course | |
23 | Firing On All Cylinders | |
Pt. 4 | The Differences Between Advertising and PR | |
1 | Advertising Is the Wind. PR Is the Sun | |
2 | Advertising Is Spatial. PR Is Linear | |
3 | Advertising Uses the Big Bang. PR Uses the Slow Buildup | |
4 | Advertising Is Visual. PR Is Verbal | |
5 | Advertising Reaches Everybody. PR Reaches Somebody | |
6 | Advertising Is Self-Directed. PR Is Other-Directed | |
7 | Advertising Dies. PR Lives | |
8 | Advertising Is Expensive. PR Is Inexpensive | |
9 | Advertising Favors Line Extensions. PR Favors New Brands | |
10 | Advertising Likes Old Names. PR Likes New Names | |
11 | Advertising Is Funny. PR Is Serious | |
12 | Advertising Is Uncreative. PR Is Creative | |
13 | Advertising Is Incredible. PR Is Credible | |
14 | Advertising Is Brand Maintenance. PR Is Brand Building | |
Pt. 5 | Postscripts | |
P.S. for Management | ||
P.S. for Advertising | ||
P.S. for PR | ||
Index |