Copy, Copy, Copy: How to Do Smarter Marketing by Using Other People's Ideas

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

It has now become a cliché – even in academic circles – for writers to praise all those who have commented or helped develop the ideas that follow. And then – bold as brass – to take sole responsibility for any errors that might be contained in the text. It often seems like false modesty.

This book is unusual in that it is about how the work of other hands can provide the tools for new and innovative solutions. And even this idea belongs to several other people – many but not all of whom are quoted in the text.

So the cliché holds and my modesty is real.

The intellectual finger prints of my key collaborators, Professor Alex Bentley and John V Willshire are all over this book – in different but equally important ways, they have shaped the ideas here directly. And John's Sharpie illustrations help bring some of the stories alive, I hope. Thank you both. Thanks also to Fraser Hamilton of Smithery and Tim Milne for sheepery, speech bubbles, cards and stickers.

Early readers like John, Gareth Kay, Liz Wilson, David Wood, Kevin Duncan and Julie Doleman have been incredibly useful in helping avoid embarrassing errors, as well as adding new or better examples and thoughts to the argument.

I've been struck by the kindness of the many strong supporters of the thinking as it has evolved and the suggestions they've made. This includes Gemma Greaves of the Marketing Society, Hugh ‘gapingvoid' Macleod, Tom Fishburne, Lenny Murphy at Greenbook and Insight Innovation Exchange, ...