In Ignore Everybody: and 39 Other Keys to Creativity, Hugh MacLeod shares his 40 keys to creativity with straight talk and no apologies.

There are no silver bullets, and instead he talks about refreshingly honest things like the fact that selling is harder than it looks, you have to put in the hours and you should keep your day job.

My favorite: Meaning scales, people don’t.

You won’t agree with everything he says, but that won’t matter: there are a few gems in it that make it worth your time.

It’s only 154 pages and is packed with his little illustrations so you’ll be able to read it one sitting—and you probably will.

‘Nuff said.

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Special thanks to Ray Basile for giving me this book. You are a gentleman and a scholar.

Seems every marketing book claims to offer the silver bullet—the marketing secret that guarantees incredible success. I’ve read 100’s of marketing books—including some great ones—but there are no shortcuts, folks.

To be a Responsible Marketer, you need a strong grounding in the fundamentals.

You won’t learn them in a three-day seminar, and probably don’t have the time to return to college, so what do you do?

Read Marketing Management by Philip Kotler and Kevin Lane Keller.

Amazon’s description is spot on:

Kotler/Keller is the gold standard in the marketing management discipline because it continues to reflect the latest changes in marketing theory and practice.

Topics covered include brand equity, customer value analysis, database marketing, e-commerce, value networks, hybrid channels, supply chain management, segmentation, targeting, positioning, and integrated marketing communications.

For marketing professionals who place special emphasis to creativity and imagination in marketing management.

At 816 pages, this book is huge, but don’t let the size fool you. It’s filled with diagrams and case studies that make it an easier read than many textbooks. This book will back-fill the things you don’t know and give you a great foundation to build on.

Though it’s expensive ($120 at Amazon with a $53 discount!) I’d suggest owning a copy to use as go-to marketing reference (I do).

If you are serious about Responsible Marketing, you should read it, at least once, cover to cover.

So, if you could recommend just one good foundational marketing book, what would it be?

Please comment below to share.

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I’m not sure why, but for some reason, The Tipping Point, by Malcolm Gladwell has come up in four or five conversations I’ve had in the last few weeks.

It’s hard to believe the book has been out since January of 2002. Given the fact it was on most best-seller lists for over two years and still does strong sales, it’s harder to believe how many people still haven’t read it.

Since it still has buzz, here’s an itty-bitty summary/review:

What does the resurgence of Hush Puppies, the reason Paul Revere’s midnight ride succeeded when William Dawes failed, the reduction of crime in New York City and the decline in teen suicide have in common?

Malcolm Gladwell masterfully pulls it all together, showing how the Law of the Few, the Stickiness Factor, and the Power of Context all worked together to help trigger viral epidemics that achieved unprecedented success while other ideas never gained traction.

It’s not quite a how-to manual, and his explanation of how to create stickiness wasn’t as deep as some may like (Made to Stick by Chip and Dan Heath fills that gap quite well).

But at Outsource Marketing, we’ve been preaching and teaching about the challenges of marketing amid information overload since the late 90’s, and this book promised—and delivered—a better understanding of what it takes to drive word-of-mouth and create buzz.

Read it? How would you rate it?

Comment below to weigh in.

Gilmore Group

I’ve spoken about the effects of information overload for over a decade, and have written a post or two on the subject as well.

Because info glut makes it so difficult to break through, as marketers we’ll try just about anything:

In Permission Marketing, Seth Godin sums up the irony of advertising well:

The more they spend, the less it works.
The less it works, the more they spend.

The truth hurts, doesn’t it?

We’re fans of permission here, and use it whenever it makes sense.

But we’re always looking for better ways to responsibly get attention.

Usually that means pumping up the creativity, not the volume.

How do you break through responsibly?

Comment below to weigh in.

I first learned about Clotaire Rapaille back in 2004 in a fascinating Frontline episode entitled The Persuaders that discussed the way advertisers and some of the world’s largest companies’ are working to persuade consumers what to buy, whom to trust, and what to think.

Watch the entire program by clicking on the link above, or your can view a snippet here:

A fair amount of the program was dedicated to Rapaille, a cultural anthropologist that got his start working with autistic children—and his big break with Nestle—where he helped them uncover the ‘code’ for coffee. Born in France, the author has lived in the U.S. for twenty-five years but conducts his research sessions at his 9th century French castle. Fascinating and a bit eccentric, Rapaille made for great television, but he is even more charismatic in person.

During his book tour for The Culture Code, the author presented to a packed American Marketing Association luncheon in Seattle. No notes. No Powerpoint. Just Rapaille and a captivated room full of people that hung on his every word. Every attendee bought a book including three Outsource Marketing team members. Full disclosure: I sat next to the author prior to his presentation.

The Culture Code breaks new ground. Rapaille’s research seeks the subliminal, “reptilian” feelings we all have below the surface that gives us a “new set of glasses” to understand the differences between many Western cultures and offers the “codes” on a host of topics, including:

• Health and Wellness
• Obesity
• Doctors
• Nurses
• Hospitals
• Youth
• Beauty
• Seduction
• Sex
• Home
• Dinner
• Food
• Work
• Quality
• Perfection
• Money
• Shopping
• Luxury
• Alcohol

The codes have obvious mass marketing appeal, and since most of Rapaille’s clients are major corporations it makes sense. True, most marketers are looking for ways to move closer to a one-to-one relationship with prospects and customers, but the codes provide useful customer and categorical insights most marketers have never considered before.

Rapaille has his detractors, but my only real gripe with the book is its Western European/U.S. focus. Economic giants that are reshaping the world’s economy in Asia and India aren’t discussed. I’m hopeful Rapaille will consider that in the next edition.

What do you think? Can a human’s irrational behavior be broken down into a single word?

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1. Communicate fewer ideas.

Google’s initial success was due to the fact that they eliminated nearly everything from the search page. Remember what search engines looked like before Google? So often, less is more. Two ideas are better than three. But one idea is best.

2. Don’t use big words when small words will do.

Read On Writing Well, twice, and avoid buzzwords like the plague.

3. Don’t be afraid to say less.

Consider Advertising Age’s Ad of the Century, Volkswagen’s “Think Small” from 1959:

+Click to enlarge

4. Reduce word count on the web. . . in print . . . everywhere.

“On the average Web page, users have time to read at most 28% of the words during an average visit; 20% is more likely.”

Jakob Nielsen’s Alertbox, May 6, 2008

5. Sound bites aren’t just for politicians.

Some claim this sound bite was the single most important quote by either candidate during the 1984 Presidential election. It completely neutralized all concerns regarding Ronald Reagan’s age and quashed all hopes that Walter Mondale might beat the incumbent.

What are your key messages? Can you state them clearly and convincingly?

6. Replace the “elevator pitch” with the “pass in the hall” test.

Read Word of Mouth Marketing by Andy Sernovitz to learn more.

7. A picture is worth a thousand words.

Increase your photography budget, use stock photography that doesn’t look like stock photography, and don’t be afraid to hire a professional photographer.

Great photos are a marketing asset worth having.

8. If a picture is worth a thousand words, what’s a video worth?

Video is more affordable than ever. Having a customer say how wonderful you are is worth 100 times what it’s worth when you say it.

9. Simple beats slick every time.

Distill your ideas down to their core to get started, then check out Common Craft’s Explanations in Plain English videos for inspiration.

10. Gimme white space, or gimme death.

Use my formula: Take the amount of space you think you need, then double it. Then cut your word count by half.

One way to break through the noise is to make less of it.

What can you do to make your marketing simple?

Comment below to weigh in.

Earlier this year, I asked you to Help define the buzzword marketers love (and I hate). Yep, that buzzword was (and remains) the word “branding.”

Enter The Brand Gap: How to Bridge the Distance Between Business Strategy and Design by Marty Neumeier.

The first thing you notice, the book is perhaps the shortest 200 pages you’ll ever read. The second thing: you’ve probably never learned so much with so little time. A blend of sparse words, graphics, typography and images, the author makes it work—because he’s found a perfect mix of form and content.

We read the book in the Outsource Marketing Book Club, and here’s what we appreciated most:

Neumeier cuts through the brandinista gibberish and offers something for everybody—business executives, marketing managers and salespeople will all benefit from his straightforward, clear approach.

And that might solve one of the biggest challenges branding has—getting everyone on the same page regarding what branding really is.

Are you a fan of branding? Why or why not?

Each month, the Outsource Marketing Book Club gathers to review a marketing book of interest and chat it out. Our goal is simple: find new ways to help our clients.

Everyone knows word of mouth is the most effective form of marketing, and for that reason it’s one of the ingredients of Responsible Marketing. Problem is, few marketers seem to do it well.

Today we reviewed Word of Mouth Marketing, by Andy Sernovitz, one of the founding members of WOMMA. There have been a host of books on the topic, BuzzMarketing by Mark Hughes, The Anatomy of Buzz by Emmanuel Rosen and of course, Seth Godin’s Unleashing the IdeaVirus. I’ve read ‘em all, and Sernovitz’s book is every bit as good, and in some ways better than it’s predecessors.

Our book club deemed it one of the best we’ve read in the last year. Why? Sernovitz finds the right balance between theory and application. Examples are simple and his how-to templates are actually usable straight out of the book. You read that right. And since we serve companies of all sizes (from the largest in the world to some small, interesting startups) we were excited to see his ideas really are for organizations of all sizes.

In the introduction, Sernovitz explains that word of mouth has made us more honest as marketers, that because of social media and ease of sharing information the following statement is true:

For the first time in the history of modern business, we have a force for good that is also driven by the all-powerful profit motive.

Can you see why I like it?

What’s the best word of mouth book you’ve read? I’d love to hear about it.

Recently I shared a copy of On Writing Well, by William Zinsser with an Outsource Marketing client. It may well be the 10th copy of the book that I’ve given away. It’s that good.

My former partner Ken Mays said it best:

We bought a copy of this book after reading an article about an antique baseball board game by its author, William Zinsser. It was so fascinating, we typed Zinsser’s name into Google to see if he could find other articles. We learned that Zinsser was a former New York Herald Tribune editor and taught writing at Yale. And that his book, On Writing Well, was in its seventh printing.

We ordered it immediately.

The amazing thing is how much fun it was to read a book about writing. Zinsser supplies generous advice about writing non-fiction in general, and in some of its specific forms (e.g., travel, sports, technology). He makes these practical guidelines as interesting as antique board games (or, one suspects, anything else he writes about). We can’t really describe how he does it. We just wish we could do it half as well.

Good marketing has to do with selection: of markets, audiences, media, and images. At its core, though, is the selection of words that will make a product understandable, interesting, and appealing. This is the best book we’ve read about how to write that way.

This is a book I guarantee you’ll read more than once. Grab a copy today.

After all, effective marketing can’t happen without good writing.

Why is marketing ROI is an oxymoron for most companies? “Spend more, get less” just doesn’t pencil. There is a pathway to marketing that delivers results, but it might not be the path you’d expect.

Here’s a link to a white paper-length preview of my upcoming book entitled, you guessed it, Responsible Marketing. In it, you’ll learn about a holistic approach to marketing that combines the tactics our mind tells us we need to prioritize with the principles our heart tells us we need to embrace.

I’d love your feedback, content ideas, quotes and comments – the book is well underway but who knows? Maybe you’ll end up in the book!

Happy reading.