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Summary: Got fired 'cuz of this book........
Review: Turns out our CEO got her hands on a copy of this thing...and guess what: she ¨trimmed¨ the company's marketing budget by 80% after reading it. Way to go Seth! Thank a lot ¨buddy¨.
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Summary: Fantastic theories - hard to put into practice
Review: It was once said, "to discover new lands, you must consent to lose sight of the shore for a very long time." That applies wonderfully here.This book is basically saying that traditional advertising is a crap shoot (which it is) and that we need smarter, better, more measurable ways to market products and services. Rather than spending millions in interruption marketing, you can create word of mouth through a calculated few steps. He's totally right and it's been done very successfully before - as he points out. However, investors, the market and most CEOs aren't ready to consent to trading in the traditional ad plan for a calculated risk of just introducing your product to 100 carefully picked consumers. On the other hand, if you are in a company that appreciates risk and is willing to commit to this, it could make you far more profitable than the traditional ad campaigns could ever do. Overall, a great book. Even if you don't implement the ideas, it could be used to enhance your more traditional marketing.
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Summary: have the five star reviewers actually read this book?
Review: I am not sure what book the other reviewers are talking about, but not the one that I read. This is a poorly researched, haphazardly organized and intellectually vacuous work. The core concept of an idea virus (oops, I mean ideavirus), as presented herein, is entirely without form. Godin defines "ideavirus" so broadly that it ceases to have any meaning. Every tried-and-true marketing technique of the past hundred years somehow falls under the ideavirus rubric. Place a logo on your product? Well, that's an ideavirus technique. Target to a market niche? That's an ideavirus technique, too. Even the need for a useful product is coopted as a novel, ideavirus concept. His near-universal approach to marketing entails giving away product. But there is no discussion about the limits of this technique and its potential effects on profitability. If market share were the raison d'etre for entrepreneurship this idea might get us somewhere. But without a discussion of why this technique is viable in one context but not in others, we are left with fifty useless pages extolling the virtues of giving away free samples in the ideavirus jargon of "sneezers," and "hives." In one exemplary paragraph, Godin discusses the rate at which an ideavirus can spread, using certain assumptions about conversion rate and other factors. He then comments: "Of course, that doesn't really happen. It's unlikely that you'll get a 50% conversion rate. And you'll soon hit duplication. . . but the math is nevertheless stunning." The math of unrealistic assumptions is stunning!?!?! Aye carumba!!! This is supposed to be useful? For a better read about marketing, I recommend Jon Spoelstra's book Marketing Outrageously. Leave this one on the shelf.
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Summary: GET INFECTED!
Review: When I came across the "Ideavirus" article by Seth Godin in the August 2000 issue of Fast Company magazine, complete with the ideavirus postcard, I knew I was terminal! When I realized it also came as a full length book - I was completely inoperable. Ideavirus was such an extraordinary source of inspiration that I kept that issue of Fast Company and the postcard to this day. That year, I was charged with creating yet another earth-shattering, planetary orbit-interrupting new product launch public relations campaign for a national consumer healthcare heartburn remedy. Well, let me tell you - over-the-counter/non-prescription heartburn remedies are neither interesting NOR earth-shattering. So what do you do? I personally am unable to do predictable, boring repeats of any kind. I need to constantly improve and make things FRESH. But how do you do that when things start to get "old"? You look for shreds of inspiration, knit them together, and then UNLEASH AN IDEAVIRUS!!!!!!! After identifying my client's product's target audience of "sneezers" and influencers (peer experts) and creating a multi-pronged on and off line dazzlingly strategic creative campaign, it then won an illustrious industry award. Not bad for a [small] investment, huh? If you don't take yourself or your job too seriously, you can create and unleash an effective ideavirus just like Seth says.
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Summary: Packed with Knowledge!
Review: In Unleashing the Ideavirus, Seth Godin says your idea is contagious, like the flu. But hold on - he's not being insulting. If you think of your idea as a virus, says he, you can "infect" the marketplace by motivating customers to talk about your product. He stretches this metaphor to explain how to captivate powerful "sneezers" so they will spread the word. Not a pretty picture, if you are a literal type of person, but you get the concept. For the right product or service, this is an alternative to advertising (or, as Godin calls it, "interruption marketing"). Though he builds on multi-level marketing concepts, Godin distances himself from their negative image. He writes in a breezy, easy style, with examples, charts and illustrations. If you want to spread the word about this book, we from getAbstract suggest that you just cough politely on someone in marketing, advertising or sales.
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Summary: Gold Collar Guide to Fame and Fortune
Review:
Bottom line on this book is clear: the path to fame and fortune for "gold collar workers" (a term I first saw used by Robert Carkhuff in "The Exemplar: The Exemplary Performer in an Age of Productivity (Human Resource Development Press, 1994) consists of four parts: 1) establish a personal brand name by placing before the marketplace a *free* capstone idea, "manifesto" or other form of self-expression; 2) have a web-site with forwarding email that allows anyone who likes your idea to download it, read it, share it; 3) work hard at getting your idea to a few powerful "sneezers" (the author has an alliance with Malcolm Gladwell, author of "The Tipping Point" and also of the foreword to this book)--pay them if you have to; and 4) let the money flow in from the post-branding offers for speeches, consulting, and new books.
I was initially inclined to give this book only 4 stars because it is not a traditional book with a lot of references (it does have an acceptable index) but I realized that the author not only accomplishes all he sets out to do, but the book is a real value in terms of both its financial cost, and time cost--reading this book certainly suggested to me several actionable ideas that will make my web site and my efforts to spread the idea of intelligence reform better. While the author is enamoured of "Fast Company" (the magazine) and works hard to pay back some favors in his text, the various web sites that he mentions, including Epinions, Planetfeedback, and Enfish, are generally relevant and therefore not objectionable. There are two competing ideas in the book, both worthy of note--first, that the public attention span is so limited that most of the money is made in the first release/first sales period, and then one should move on; and second, that persistence pays and the real money is to be had from the post-branding streams of revenue. I believe this stems from the juxtaposition of how companies make money if they have the wherewithall to to churn the market with a lot of new offerings; and how individuals make money by establishing personal brand names--in general the author is strongest when dealing with what single individuals can and should do to take what they are really good at, package it, put it out (free), and then systematically reap residual financial benefits.
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Summary: Fantastic Book!
Review: I loved this book. It was interesting, easy to follow, and inspiring. I really enjoyed it and would recommend it to anyone looking for different was to increase their business.
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Summary: Not so interesting
Review: It was a text book for my e-commerce course in AGSM. Not so interesting, and my lecturer did not quote much from this book.
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Summary: The TRUW value of "free"
Review: I was blown away by how this book makes the idea of giving services away for free, not just logical but the most strategic thing a smart busines person could do to build her client base. Twenty pages from the end of the book I threw it down, pulled out my company's business plan and redrafted the income model. I'm very excited as I await feedback from my accountant and some other business advisors...If necessary, I'll buy copies of "Unleashing the Ideavirus" for each of them.
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Summary: Great book with great ideas
Review: This was a thuroughly enjoyable read and filled with interesting ideas about how to get people interested in what you have to offer. Principles could be applied to anything you do in life that you want others to notice, whether it's business or personal. I feel I got my money's worth and more.
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