Rating: 
Summary: A marketing genius shares his method
Review: BUY THIS BOOK, and make yourself a business success. Find the secrets to Happiness, Joy, and True Love in the pages of this book!!!!
(okay so I used some of his principles to help sell the book). This book is very different from his first book on creativity. The focus is on marketing ideas, and making those ideas a success. Doug's first book was filled with great information, but a little hard to read. Jump Start your business brain, is not only filled with excellent, practical information, but is extremely well written. I found it very easy reading. He talks a lot about the, "MERWYN", system which is fascinating in itself. He has applied scientific methods to evaluating the success of ideas. So the first part is a marketing primer. The second part is how to get more and better ideas. No one does this better than Doug. He does repeat some of the tools if you read the first book, but the explanations and examples are much clearer. If you have a small business, or just want to own a well-written book on business oriented creativity, this is a MUST BUY, book. Plus, he includes a real bonus of a "FREE", idea evaluation. I am a trainer in innovation, and creativity. I have read hundreds of books on creativity. This is my new favorite! ...
Rating:
Summary: Simply Brilliant
Review: Doug Hall does one great job of giving you theory and practical application together in an easily understood form. This is the type of "how-to" that you can be easily implemented.
Rating:
Summary: Science and Practically Meet with Explosive Force
Review: Doug Hall is a Chemical Engineer by education, a master marketer by training and experience. He's a superior innovator. No, he's a research-based stimulator who helps corporate executives innovate and follow-through to sell their products and services at high profits. You could be one of those successful corporate executives if you read this book and follow the abundant advice. You're not a big-shot executive of a major well-funded corporation? Not a problem. Hall's specialty is helping small companies (97 percent of American companies earn less than $1 million in revenue in a year) achieve greatness. Yes, he works with large clients like Mattel, AT&T, Johnson & Johnson, Pepsi-Cola, Tyson Food Service, and John Hancock Insurance. The learning he gleans from them is then shared with smaller companies as Hall enjoys his role as a modern-day corporate Robin Hood. His readers are the beneficiaries of his knowledge, insight, and experience. If you've read marketing books, some of Hall's urgings will sound familiar. He's a self- admitted follower of marketing guru David Ogilvy. But, that's just the beginning. Hall will take you to the next level. Before I even finished the book, I was re-writing my firm's marketing messages. In the first part of the book, Hall delves into what he calls the Three Laws of Marketing Physics. You'll learn about Overt Benefit, Reason to Believe, and Dramatic Difference. The concepts presented will awaken your thinking and fuel your idea generator. This section is valuable for readers who need to understand the principles that underlie what Hall prescribes. The second section jumps into the nitty-gritty, exploring the Three Laws of Capitalist Creativity: Explore Stimuli, Leverage Diversity, and Face Fears. In addition to the inspiring flow of material in the chapters themselves, you'll find value in the frequently asked questions sections, the bibliography, and the index-which you'll probably use liberally as you convert the book from a good read to a powerful tool. Think you know a lot of this stuff already? Take the Quick Quiz at the start of the book and you'll discover there's more to learn. Doug Hall will be your teacher.
Rating: 
Summary: What a disappointment
Review: I buy about a book a week from Amazon and never write reviews - but I have to on this one. Did you buy one of the original Apple Ipods? All the PR and reviews got your expectations up - only to find out that they went cheap on the battery. It lasts about 3-minutes. Big disappointment. It was capable of so much more. Same with this book. I LOVED Hall's first book. Great breakthrough stuff. So when this one was released I got in the pre-publication line. I saved the book for a Saturday cross-country plane ride ready to savor. Had the highlighter all ready and - bummer. Couldn't believe it. It's the equivlant of "Eat plenty of vegetables, get plenty of sleep and brush your teeth every day." Mundane, sophormoric stuff to be associated with the name Doug Hall. Not at all in the same league as his first book - a masterpiece. This guy is so much better than this cute little book of lists. I'll buy his next one, pay money to go see him - but this isn't the Doug Hall of the first book.
Rating:
Summary: What a disappointment
Review: I buy about a book a week from Amazon and never write reviews - but I have to on this one. Did you buy one of the original Apple Ipods? All the PR and reviews got your expectations up - only to find out that they went cheap on the battery. It lasts about 3-minutes. Big disappointment. It was capable of so much more. Same with this book. I LOVED Hall's first book. Great breakthrough stuff. So when this one was released I got in the pre-publication line. I saved the book for a Saturday cross-country plane ride ready to savor. Had the highlighter all ready and - bummer. Couldn't believe it. It's the equivlant of "Eat plenty of vegetables, get plenty of sleep and brush your teeth every day." Mundane, sophormoric stuff to be associated with the name Doug Hall. Not at all in the same league as his first book - a masterpiece. This guy is so much better than this cute little book of lists. I'll buy his next one, pay money to go see him - but this isn't the Doug Hall of the first book.
Rating:
Summary: The one marketing book for technologists ...
Review: I just posted this one on my Object Technology web site and every well rounded technologist should read it. A successful product is 80 percent marketing, 19 percent compelling implementation, and, as Einstein once said, 1 percent inspiration. So every technologist needs to understand marketing. But where does one look, when the average marketing book sounds either like warmed over pablum, or airheaded nonsense. Well, if you're going to read one book, take a look at the one Tom Peters begs you to read. It's based on real data, millions of data points, and communicates what's really important in a way that you'll won't forget it. Strongly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: Great book I learned alot
Review: I really enjoyed this book. As a small business owner it was totally relevant for me. I am going to start reading it a second time soon so it will all sink in.
Rating:
Summary: The ROI of Eureka!
Review: Perhaps you have already read Hall's previous book, Jump Start Your Brain (1996) to which David Wecker was a contributor. Most of the core concepts introduced in that book are developed in much greater depth in this sequel. However, Hall makes a much greater effort to explain their direct relevance to achieving business success. He shares "good news" in the Introduction: "Business success is not random. There are patterns in the universe of business. There are reproducible scientific lessons and laws that, when applied with diligence, can help you win more, lose less, and make more money with your new products, services, sales, and advertising efforts." Contrary to Darwinists, Hall rejects the term survival, replacing it with "thriving" through the effective use of data-validated scientific laws. Although he states that small business owners are the "focal point" of his book, I believe that literally anyone can benefit from this book who needs to formulate better ideas within a competitive marketplace. These new ideas need not be limited to "new products, services, sales, and advertising efforts." On the contrary, they could also help substantially to improve the cycle time and first-pass yield of a process to produce new products and services, to increase both sales and profits, and to maximize the impact of marketing (i.e. creating demand for) whatever is offered for sale. In addition, effective application of "reproducible scientific lessons and laws" can generate new ideas which help a company to strengthen its relationships with customers, vendors, and strategic allies as well as with its own employees or "associates," as they are called at companies such as Wal-Mart and JCPenney. Hall introduces and then explains what he calls "The Three Laws of Marketing Physics" in Part I (Overt Benefit, Real Reason to Believe, and Dramatic Difference) in Part II and then what he calls "The Three Laws of Capitalist Creativity" in Part II(Explore Stimuli, Leverage Diversity, and Face Fears). If I understand Hall correctly (and I may not in some instances), he works with a rather inclusive definition of "scientific" which bears greater resemblance to the thought processes of a Benjamin Franklin and Eli Whitney than those of, lets say, Frederick W. Taylor and W. Edwards Deming. Moreover, writing with what I characterize as a "Batman Style" (i.e. Pow! Bam! Gadzooks!), he seems to attach much greater value to enthusiasm, indeed PASSION! than he does to highly structured deductive and inductive reasoning. Hall asserts that ideas "are the only true fuel for winning customers and growing profits." How they are generated is determined by both attitude and process. With regard to scientific laws (however derived), they "provide a foundation for making decisions and taking action in the face of chaos." Throughout this book, Hall includes all manner of exercises by which to "jump start" a brain. (FYI, each brain has about 12-trillion cells and is capable of 10,000 connections -- neurons forming synapses -- with other cells. To jump start is to expedite as well as increase such connections.) In Chapter 10, "How to Fuel Your Brain for Maximum Productivity," Hall includes several "Practical Tactics" such as those which can help anyone to break "mental constipation," "walk the talk," and complete a "mind dump." The extent to which a brain can make connections is determined almost entirely by the quantity and quality of what is available to connect. Hall recommends various specific strategies and tactics by which to increase, constantly, the number of one's "connectibles." Near the end of many of my reviews, I ask "For whom will this book be most valuable?" With regard to this book, that is an easy answer to provide: Anyone who has a brain and wants to make much more effective use of it. If your primary interest is in increasing "creativity" and "innovation" within primarily a business context, I highly recommend this book as well as Lynne C. Levesque's Breakthrough Creativity: Achieving Top Performance Using the Eight Creative Talents, Joey Reiman's Thinking for a Living: Creating Ideas That revitalize Your Business, Career, and Life, Stephen M. Shapiro's 24/7 Innovation: A Blueprint for Surviving and Thriving in an Age of Innovation, and Roger Von Oech's Expected the Unexpected (Or You Won't Find It): A Creativity Tool Based on the Ancient Wisdom of Heraclitus. If I were to buy only one of these books, Hall's would be my choice. If your interest is more general in nature, check out Bernie DeKoven's The Well-Played Game: A Playful Path to Wholeness, Guy Claxton's Hare Brain, Tortoise Mind: How Intelligence Increases When You Think Less, Michael Michalko's Cracking Creativity: The Secrets of Creative Genius, and Roger Von Oech's A Kick in the Seat of the Pants: Using Your Explorer, Artist, Judge, and Warrior to Be More Creative and A Whack on the Side of the Head: How You Can Be More Creative.
Rating: 
Summary: Tried and true ideas, reasonably well presented.
Review: The book is full of marketing truisms that are presented better elsewhere, but set forth here as if they were new discoveries. For example, "benefits sell more than features." Well, duh! You already know this if you have read a single introductory marketing text. That said, the book's positive point is the energy with which he conveys the information, and it is a reasonably engaging read. The negative point is the ego of the author rises to the level of distraction. So what's with all the glib five star reviews this book has received? Was I missing the point, was I reading a different book, or were there a few reviews planted by the publisher?
Rating:
Summary: The Marketing Bible
Review: The Marketing Bible. Truthfully one of the best "marketing" books I have
ever read. It is practical, hands-on and yes, tells a great story. I
especially like chapters 11 and 12 on Diversity and Fear. It is so true! 20
years of experience is poured into this book and it does show. The book has
really had an impact on me - personally and professionally.
|
