Product Description

Reveals a shift in marketing trends from advertising to publicity, citing the successes of such top brands as the Body Shop, Starbucks, and Wal-Mart while sharing strategies on establishing credibility and implementing a slow PR build.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #127692 in Books
• Published on: 2004-10-07
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 320 pages

Customer Reviews

Boring, boring, boring
An extremely boring book. What a pity, the authors said it all in the title and wasted two hundred and something pages just to repeat it. Ok repetita juvant but I ask a little more than this.
Not a single wise hint to pr practitioners. Lots of so called case studies, all squeezed in to testimony the truth of the brilliant book title.
Not a single hint on strategy - apart from "a good pr plan takes time, lot of time". Not to mentiio tactics.
You can live, work and do just as fine without this book.

Thought provoking but over-sells role of PR vs. advertising
This has a great title and , like many business books, expands what could have been a 5 page article on this theme into a 200 page plus tome. The authors do a good job of selling the role that PR can have in brand building, but give little practical advice on how to build and execute programmes that create the sort of "buzz" and word-of-mouth they talk about. Also, I was left thinking that the point really is "the rise of WOW products" rather than PR....the iMac, Palm Pilot, new Beetle etc, are just brilliant products that create their own PR.

However, they go OTT on the "death" of advertising, saying it has NO role in brand building. A flick through the IPA Advertising Works annual book would soon nip this argument in the bud.

PR - It is all about the product and its image
The Ries' book on PR is an absolute must for ALL the companies out there. The book shows us the reality behind the Advertising empire: an empire that seems to have lost its function, effectiveness and credibility.
"Creativity wins awards, but does it also win sales?" is the question, and the answer follows: " To be effective, advertising doesn't need creativity. It needs credibility", and that is where PR comes into the picture.

The strenght of this book is in the back-up evidence that the Ries bring forward, the simplicity and sincerity.

Companies have to follow their advice: "You can't live in the past. Advertising is no longer fresh and exciting. There's just too much of it.", and start focusing on the future: on PR.

Excellent book!