Steal These Ideas!: Marketing Secrets That Will Make You a Star, 2nd Edition

Steal These Ideas!: Marketing Secrets That Will Make You a Star, 2nd Edition

by Steve Cone
Released October 2011
Publisher(s): Bloomberg Press
ISBN: 9781118004449

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Book description

The marketer's guide to standing out from the crowd and connecting with consumers

As advertisements become more ubiquitous online and off, the struggle to really capture a customer's attention is heating up. In Steal These Ideas!, Second Edition, Steve Cone, internationally renowned marketing expert, reveals how to resonate with a target audience, providing a fresh perspective riddled with pearls of wisdom and wit. Full of practical ideas that the reader can learn in a matter of hours, and apply successfully to their business for years, Steal These Ideas! proved an instant classic on outside-the-box marketing when it first published in 2005, and this newly revised edition, refreshed for the present day, promises to have the same impact as it's predecessor.

  • This new edition includes material on social networking, customer loyalty campaigns, building websites, and sending effective email blasts

  • The book is illustrated throughout with examples of the good, bad, and ugly in advertising

  • Includes new ideas on how to take full advantage of online marketing and social media

  • Highlights the art of building an effective loyalty program, the power of public relations and sponsorship, and using a spokesperson

  • Author Steve Cone is the Executive Vice President of AARP

Everything you didn't learn in business school (or in the field), Steal These Ideas! gives marketers the edge in today's fast-paced, oversaturated marketplace.

Table of contents

  1. Cover Page
  2. Title Page
  3. Copyright
  4. Dedication
  5. Contents
  6. Introduction
  7. CHAPTER 1: BILLIONS AND BILLIONS WASTED . . .
    1. McDonald's Almost Gets It
    2. New Challenges We Face and Five Rules to Live By
    3. What about Political Slogans?
    4. Remember
  8. CHAPTER 2: THREE HIDDEN INGREDIENTS IN EVERY WINNING PROMOTIONAL CAMPAIGN
    1. The Ultimate Help-Wanted Ad
    2. The Early Days of Playboy Magazine
    3. Rolling Stone Magazine
    4. Pan American WorldPass and How Last Became First
    5. Other Quick Airline Stories about Creating Customer Excitement
    6. One for the Gipper
    7. Don't Leave Home without It
    8. Mr. Whipple
    9. Toppling the Category Leader with One Perfect Sentence
    10. Eggs Overnight
    11. Peter Lynch, Lily Tomlin, and Don Rickles
  9. CHAPTER 3: WHAT MAKES A BRAND SUCCESSFUL? HOW DO YOU MANAGE IT?
    1. Have a Unique Selling Proposition
    2. Insist on Strong Visual Imagery
    3. You Must Have Innovative and Reliable Products
    4. Memorable and Integrated Advertising—Always
  10. CHAPTER 4: HOW TO CREATE A UNIQUE SELLING PROPOSITION
    1. Three of My Favorite Unique Selling Propositions
    2. How to Create a USP
  11. CHAPTER 5: USING A SPOKESPERSON TO MAXIMUM EFFECT
    1. How to Choose the Right Personality
    2. The Remarkable Betty White
    3. Going Hollywood
    4. A Word about Voice-overs
    5. Corporate Mascots
    6. Animated Characters
    7. Animals
    8. The Deceased
    9. But What if My Spokesperson Does Something Really Bad?
  12. CHAPTER 6: KILL ALL ART DIRECTORS (WELL, NOT LITERALLY)
    1. Five Tips to Readability
    2. The Great, the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
  13. CHAPTER 7: LEARN FROM MAGAZINES WHILE THEY STILL EXIST . . .
    1. Imagine Annual Reports that Get Read!
  14. CHAPTER 8: DO THE REVERSE OF WHATEVER GM DOES
    1. The “Electronic Church” and How It “Outmarketed” Mainstream Religion and What You Can Learn from It
  15. CHAPTER 9: LESS IS MORE—NOW MORE THAN EVER
    1. Too Many Choices Are Too Confusing
    2. It's as Easy as 1, 2, 3
  16. CHAPTER 10: THE THREE MOST IMPORTANT CUSTOMER LESSONS—ESPECIALLY FOR THE DIGITAL AGE
    1. Lesson One: People Renew the Way They Are Acquired
    2. Lesson Two: The Most Critical Time in a New Customer's Relationship Is Right after Her Immediate Purchase
    3. Lesson Three: Forget Complicated Clusters and Demographics
    4. A Common Mistake You Should Never Make
    5. Hey, But I Sell to Businesses and Not Directly to Consumers
    6. The Guthrie Lesson
  17. CHAPTER 11: LOYALTY REIMAGINED
    1. Customers Rarely Are Loyal
    2. Is There Any New Thinking in the Loyalty Space?
    3. It's About Time
    4. Loyalty in the Not-for-Profit World
  18. CHAPTER 12: THE SINGLE MOST POWERFUL WAY TO GET CUSTOMERS TO LOVE YOU
    1. Getting Your Promotional Letter Read or E-Mail Every Time
    2. The Absolute Power of Membership... and Something American Express Does Right
  19. CHAPTER 13: MAKING SENSE OF MEDIA PLANNING
    1. Print Media
    2. Zig When Everyone Else Zags
    3. TV and Radio Placement
    4. You Can Avoid Consumer Ad Skipping
    5. The Next Giant Leap in Ad Watching
    6. Has Radio Seen Its Best Days?
    7. The Internet
    8. Global Media Planning and Placement
  20. CHAPTER 14: MAKING SOCIAL NETWORKING WORK FOR YOU
    1. Some Helpful Hints to Capitalize on Social Networking
    2. Financial Considerations
    3. Questions I Am Asked about the Future Direction of Media
    4. Pacing Is Important
    5. Chat Rooms and Blogging
    6. Texting, Messaging, and Mobile
  21. CHAPTER 15: E-MAULED—HOW TO AVOID CONSUMER RAGE
    1. Steve's Three Tips to Better E-mail Interaction with Consumers
  22. CHAPTER 16: WEB WASTED—DON'T YOU
    1. Something No One Else Ever Does
  23. CHAPTER 17: NO ONE EVER BOUGHT ANYTHING FROM AN ENGLISH PROFESSOR
    1. We Are Wired as a Species to Say Yes!
  24. CHAPTER 18: LEVERAGING BOOMER POWER AND MORE
    1. Eight Other Predictions Marketers Can Count On
    2. Minorities Becoming Majorities
    3. Marketing to the Sexes
    4. Sports
    5. Looking Good for Good
  25. CHAPTER 19: JINGLES ALL THE WAY
    1. What Is a Jingle, and How Is It Used and Misused?
    2. Make a Jingle Work for You
    3. Can a Well-Known Song Define a Product?
    4. A New Term for Spoken Taglines
    5. We Have Lost Our Way
  26. CHAPTER 20: THE FUTURE OF MARKETING
    1. MPP Will Make Customer Service Phone Operators Unnecessary
    2. Does PR Have a Role in a World of Instant Communication?
    3. You
    4. Tips on Interacting with Reporters
    5. What About Investor Relations?
    6. Do Sponsorships Make Sense Anymore—Did They Ever?
  27. CHAPTER 21: HOW TO BE A MARKETING STAR
    1. Managing Your Staff
    2. How to Manage an Ad Agency So You Both Succeed
    3. What We Take for Granted We Shouldn't—Great Writing
  28. CHAPTER 22: EIGHT TIPS TO BEING MORE CREATIVE
  29. CHAPTER 23: STEAL THESE SECRETS NOW
  30. About the Author
  31. INDEX

Product information

  • Title: Steal These Ideas!: Marketing Secrets That Will Make You a Star, 2nd Edition
  • Author(s): Steve Cone
  • Release date: October 2011
  • Publisher(s): Bloomberg Press
  • ISBN: 9781118004449