Rating: 
Summary: Ries and Trout
Review: Most of us in marketing have grown up on a steady diet of Al Ries and Jack Trout. From their first foray into publishing with "Positioning" in the 70's, these guys have set new paradigms for how we think about the work we do and given us new insights into better ways to serve our clients. This book is no exception.Like 'Positioning,' 'Marketing Warfare,' and 'Bottom Up Marketing,' which preceded it, this book by Al Ries is an oversimplification, BUT that doesn't detract from the basic premise that advertising can guarantee us placement, frequency and position, but it can't give us credibility. I read the other reviews posted here with interest. Based on the response of the other reviewers, I guess we all take ourselves a little too seriously. The point of the book is to focus on our radical over-emphasis on the tool of advertising over the tool of PR, and the apparent inability of advertising to free itself from the campaign thinking that often does more harm than good for the clients that we are trying to represent. It's a fun read, and if it doesn't make you sit back and take a long look at your own 'strategic' thinking, maybe you should read it again.
Rating:
Summary: A Vision for Public Relations
Review: This book is arguably the most important book for an up and coming PR rock star. It's a quick and concise read that inhibits the reader from setting the book down. It has an obvious command of research, insight and principle. For those account executives with the mind for vision and strategy -- this book is a must read. Indeed it may just define the future leadership of the PR industry. The Fall of Advertising and the Rise of PR makes a credible argument for the brand building function and subsequent market leadership success, which only insightful public relations campaigns can establish. To that end, this book is the application of value-added integration that author Thomas L. Harris discussed in years gone by. This book articulates a vision and path to follow for the public relations industry. Additionally, Ries & Ries have an unparalleled understanding of task and purpose. As this book rightfully, if not partially, contends, we PR folks should redefine the constructs of our mission and duty description. Perhaps then we can even launch something of a brand of our own.
Rating: 
Summary: The Rise of "PR" Spin
Review: Regardless of the fact that the Ries' recently opened their own PR firm, and are "marketing" it through the regular channels (including advertising venues), the book does offer a PR perspective, albeit an alternative view of what can be accomplished in brand introduction. However, the majority of Integrated Marketing Communication campaigns adequately do the same and even more. Securing space in newspapers (the standard PR vocation), and attempting to get something for "free" still drives the PR industry. The demise of advertising is highly premature ($249.2 billion in 2003). The business of America Mr. Ries is still business. The "spin" remains too thin and lacks legitimate credibility. IMC....That's where we're going.
Rating: 
Summary: This book is going to upset a lot of people
Review: Trying to build your brand with advertising?
Then don't!
Attempting to convince your target audience of your brand's claims through paid space or time lacks a key incredient vital to success - credibility.
What do you believe - what's reported on the evening television news, or the advertising which precedes and punctuates it?
As customers we're cynical, suspicious, and cautious. We see the majority of advertising as biased, self-serving, and company rather than consumer-oriented. So we turn to independent, authoritative, third-party sources for recommendations and advice - friends, relatives, neighbours, and the media.
When we've made up our minds, advertising serves as a reminder.
Some business people say they rely on "word of mouth" marketing, leaving that process to its own devices. Others feel the outcome for their bottom line is too important to leave to chance.
Advertising doesn't build brands. Public relations does. You should use advertising to defend your brand against competitors once it's been built - and its credibility established - through PR. That's this book's main conclusion.
Al Ries is going to upset a lot of people. As they say, "some of my best friends" are advertising people, but sorry guys, what Ries has to say needs to be said. Things like:
- "Advertising has no legitimate role to play in brand building. Advertising's role is defensive in nature. Advertising can only protect a brand once it's established." This is Ries' central thesis which he illustrates with copious case studies.
- Ad agencies often sell advertising to clients on the basis of their own creativity. "Creativity wins awards, but does it also win sales?" asks Ries. He has chapters of evidence to the contrary.
- "Advertising agencies do almost no advertising themselves. Instead, they rely heavily on PR techniques to build their own brands." True again.
- People tend to judge the value of a discipline by its numbers and ad schedules are invariably bigger than PR budgets. But more money doesn't necessarily mean more effective.
Rating: 
Summary: The rise of PR
Review: Most parts of this book impressed me, however some parts did not and it often seemed to point ou the obvious. They did a good job distinguishing the different between advertising and PR but using different examples to show how PR is more modern than advertising yet we view the advertising ass classic and somewhat essential. However, sometimes they drag on with exlaining the difference, and use too many example in a row that may throw people off. The thing I liked is that when distinguishing advertising and PR, they try not to show how they are different, but how it is impossible for them to be the same. This led into how nothing can be mass produced without PR.
Rating:
Summary: The Rise of "PR" Spin
Review: Regardless of the fact that the Ries' recently opened their own PR firm, and are "marketing" it through the regular channels (including advertising venues), the book does offer a PR perspective, albeit an alternative view of what can be accomplished in brand introduction. However, the majority of Integrated Marketing Communication campaigns adequately do the same and even more. Securing space in newspapers (the standard PR vocation), and attempting to get something for "free" still drives the PR industry. The demise of advertising is highly premature ($249.2 billion in 2003). The business of America Mr. Ries is still business. The "spin" remains too thin and lacks legitimate credibility. IMC....That's where we're going.
Rating:
Summary: Ries and Trout
Review: Most of us in marketing have grown up on a steady diet of Al Ries and Jack Trout. From their first foray into publishing with "Positioning" in the 70's, these guys have set new paradigms for how we think about the work we do and given us new insights into better ways to serve our clients. This book is no exception. Like 'Positioning,' 'Marketing Warfare,' and 'Bottom Up Marketing,' which preceded it, this book by Al Ries is an oversimplification, BUT that doesn't detract from the basic premise that advertising can guarantee us placement, frequency and position, but it can't give us credibility. I read the other reviews posted here with interest. Based on the response of the other reviewers, I guess we all take ourselves a little too seriously. The point of the book is to focus on our radical over-emphasis on the tool of advertising over the tool of PR, and the apparent inability of advertising to free itself from the campaign thinking that often does more harm than good for the clients that we are trying to represent. It's a fun read, and if it doesn't make you sit back and take a long look at your own 'strategic' thinking, maybe you should read it again.
Rating:
Summary: The Fall of Advertising
Review: Al Ries and Laura Ries offer the opinion that no one believes advertising and using public relations is the way to get your product out there. The book also uses examples of companies and how spending more on advertising doesn't guarantee more sales. The book goes in-depth in describing a lot of the public relation campaigns.
Rating:
Summary: Interesting opinions, but calling it research is a stretch
Review: The central theme of the book is credibility and how PR is the surest route to building it, since "No one believes advertising." As other reviewers have pointed out, there are a number of arguments based on correlation, rather than cause-effect: "Chevrolet spends the most on advertising and has (therefore?) the lowest sales." Even more irritating are the armchair assessments of what other companies/countries should have done when building their campaigns with no real supporting evidence that the recommended strategies would have been effective. Guatemaya? In addition, even though the authors assert that PR is the best way to build a brand, they point out that it doesn't appear that the professional PR organizations (which are few and far between) even mention this fact in their charters. So, what it really comes down to is a very specific view of PR, using a very specific PR strategy which, as luck would have it, can't be found at a local PR firm...
Rating:
Summary: Great Book from Al Ries
Review: Al Ries (and Jack Trout at that time) created blockbusters classics books POSITIONING and MARKETING WARFARE. I think Al Ries still wrote a great marketing book and this one is worth reading and thinkering. PR creates branding, advertising defend the brand, hmmm. both are important. The book is easy to read and hold a lot of truth. It is a bit "bitter" for the advertising people (and they will probably hate the book or play some other defences). But i agree that a lot of new advertising is more of an "ART" than a tool for better sales. I love Al Ries thinkering about whatever loses its functions will become an "art" ( think horse, paintings, even architectures etc) and that advertising is in the danger of losing its function (to make better sales) and becoming an "art" instead. A lot of truth and things to think about and to learn from the book, even that it is very "opinionated". I think this is one of the "have to read" for people in advertising, PR, marketing and even CEO.
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