Hype

Blunt, fair, fearless and outrageous – just like the marketing style they espouse.
– Publishers Weekly

It’s about taking risks, yet giving the consumer control of the brand.
– Business 2.0

Taken together, their anecdotes show that truly original, engaging, and—most important—surprising ads will always prevail, whether they’re labeled “punk” or not.
– Business Week

The best book on marketing. I devoured every single word here – and I don’t even CARE about marketing!
– Nick Digilio, WGN Radio

A mix of in-your-face punk flair and practical techniques, Punk Marketing is a manifesto for anyone looking to break away from the old methods and dropkick their sales campaign into the new millennium.
– Sales & Marketing Management

Welcome to a brand new brandscape. Despite its newness the authors maintain that the message is still the message — it’s just delivered with a new media
–Silicon Valley Business Journal

“Punk” reads like the insider wisdom your tattooed brother gave during your first nose-piercing session: “Don’t show Mom, but the girls at school will dig it.”
– Advertising Age

The book opens your eyes to the power your audience has over your brands…With the new communication tools and formats today, this book has been a great source of provocative thinking for strategizing and executing communications for client campaigns. Executives can understand the practical applications of new communications technology.
- St. Paul Pioneer Press (Minnesota)

Punk Marketing is the best marketing book I’ve ever read by far. It leaves all the old ways of getting marketing done in the dust, and mocks and brushes aside clichés that don’t work.
- Noggin Blog

I found your bold red opening statement of “This is a nonfiction work” to be a refreshing relief. Thank you.
– gasexperiment.com blog

It is a skewed version of the world that us, normal consumers would never expect and likewise probably never get to know. It is fantastic in its ability to relate to the real world that we seem to live in, not just figures and numbers, the usual “chiffre.””
– Mirum blog

From the very beginning they begin to make statements that you thought about but were too kind to say.”
– Tinfoiling blog

This should be required reading for all marketing and advertising people who still think that the world hasn’t changed much…
– Technorati

These forward-thinking authors wrote the perfect four chord rabble-rousing song in the form of Punk Marketing. It’s a new world, and they have some great analysis and advice for marketers and business leaders, who better listen or they will really feel the sting of mediocre or negative publicity that we scream in 4/4 time.
– InBubbleWrap publishing site

Richard Laermer and Mark Simmons employ their considerable experience and explain in no uncertain terms the importance of marketing in an environment where the power is shifting from corporation to consumer, and expertly explain why, in today’s day and age, “marketing must be both brave and intelligent to succeed.
– Website magazine

Cutting edge marketing strategies…Outrageous book format.
– History in the Making

The blend of hard data (studies and surveys and such) with qualitative examples, insight and predictions creates a manual that is neither overly academic (like so many marketing tomes are) nor industry-specific (this one works for any industry…or marketing specialty, for that matter).
– Reading Mind magazine

Half how-to manual, half radical manifesto, this is a marketer’s no-bullshit guide to selling the product without annoying, ignoring, insulting, or otherwise alienating the consumer.”
– Writing.com

Recommended read for those who would like to live and tell the tale.
– Hindu Business Line magazine

Refreshing ain’t it to hear more than you can sell more through to this or that? Right? I recommend the book to people who don’t want a diploma but an education

Taken together, their anecdotes show that truly original, engaging, and—most important—surprising ads will always prevail, whether they’re labeled “punk” or not.
– Read Now magazine (Philippines)

The Businessweek.com review in full:

Rebels with a Marketing Cause
The authors of the new book Punk Marketing talk about the emergence of advertising that rejects tradition and embraces edgy attitude

by Reena Jana

Punk-rock impresario and Sex Pistols producer Malcolm McLaren once said, “Punk was just a way to sell trousers.” The quote appears, appropriately, in a new book, Punk Marketing, by Richard Laermer, chief executive of public-relations firm RLM PR, and Mark Simmons, a marketing consultant and former executive at hot ad agency Crispin Porter + Bogusky.

The duo defines punk as “an attitude of rebellion against tradition” and the genre of punk marketing as “a new form of marketing that rejects the status quo and recognizes the shift in power from corporations to consumers.” They apply the term to any type of ad or marketing campaign that defies traditional tactics—think consumer-generated ads that spread via YouTube or guerrilla-marketing stunts such as the Cartoon Network’s controversial electronic displays that were mistaken for bombs by Boston residents last month (See BusinessWeek.com, 02/09/2007, “Guerrilla Marketing Gone Wild“). The book, which is perhaps not as rebellious as the snappy title suggests, is best seen as a neatly organized time capsule of late-2000s marketing and ad strategies.

While Laermer and Simmons christen today’s newest forms of advertising “punk,” giving them an air of youthful edginess, the authors also place current ad trends within the context of media history.

For instance, Laermer and Simmons point out that in the 1950s, marketers created TV shows to push products. So the current trend of company-produced shows serving as ads, such as those promoting Unilever’s Axe body spray on MTV, aren’t really a new concept. The authors also argue that the remote control, rather than TiVo (TIVO), delivered the first blow to TV ads. By allowing consumers to switch stations during commercial breaks and skip 30-second spots, the remote forced marketers and ad executives to come up with imaginative ways of capturing consumers’ attention.

Taken together, their anecdotes show that truly original, engaging, and—most important—surprising ads will always prevail, whether they’re labeled “punk” or not.

The book features the occasional dubious prediction, such as “someone will make a bundle in the next few years with $100 Qwerty keyboard accessories that can be connected to phones.” (The idea, presented in a footnote, seems unlikely, as consumers are growing more and more comfortable thumb-typing on small keys.) But the elegantly designed book, illustrated with pencil drawings, offers a spunky snapshot of today’s trends. BusinessWeek.com’s Reena Jana spoke with Laermer and Simmons about how they coined the phrase “punk marketing,” and real-world examples of it, both from the pages of the book and beyond.

What do you mean by the term “punk marketing”?

Simmons: I was a teen in the 1970s, and in 1977, punk was such a breath of fresh air. Marketing needs that same breath of fresh air today.

Laermer: In the States, the whole idea of punk was “stand up and slap people in the face….”

Simmons: And punk marketing is about always having a fresh ideas. We see a need for a punk attitude now.

Laermer: Hence this book. We want people to use it. And that also means making notes on the pages and submitting suggestions to our Web site [www.punkmarketing.com].

What campaigns exemplify punk?

Laermer: Here’s an example. I’m not a fan of chain restaurants. But I saw a print ad for Outback Steakhouse in USA Today recently. It featured a picture of a red chili pepper with seeds falling out. It looked succulent. The seeds were shaped like boomerangs [the restaurant’s logo]. In tiny letters, there was a line: “Our seeds aren’t shaped like boomerangs, but we thought this was funny.” I would call this punk, because it’s not what you expect from ad copy.

What about, say, Apple’s (AAPL) “I’m a Mac” ads. Those certainly have a cheeky attitude.

Simmons: All of Apple’s ads tend to work, simply because its products are so good. So their ads fall into place. We’re not talking about a difficult brief for the ad executives.

Laermer: I have some criticism of Apple, though. I think they’re not looking at the big picture, beyond the ads. I use Apple products, and now I get so much spam from Apple. I wouldn’t think Apple would send out a lot of annoying spam. By sending out the spam like everyone else, Apple’s not as cool as it seems in the ads. It almost seems like a separate company doing that.

You discuss how companies successfully use blogs as marketing tools. Give us an example.

Laermer: Netflix (NFLX) has a good blog, by [Chief Executive] Reed Hastings. I like reading about upstart companies taking over. You feel like you’re part of an inclusive society. But I’m shocked that Jeff Zucker [chief executive of NBC Universal] hasn’t blogged more. He’s articulate and angry. That’s a great voice for blogging.

Simmons: It suggests that he doesn’t understand the online world.

Speaking of the Internet, what fresh sites do you recommend paying attention to?

Simmons: Joost, by the guys who first did KaZaa and Skype (EBAY). I’m amazed by what they’re starting to do: putting TV, with shows and ads, on the Internet. Others are trying to do it, sure. But Joost is all about simplicity and content. It allows marketers to target individuals really specifically by location and offer them tailored marketing messages. And it has way less ads than traditional TV channels, just a couple of minutes an hour.

That means a more compelling viewer experience. That it’s subtle and highly targeted is a marketer’s dream.

Laermer: I’m watching an online network called xy.tv. It’s a promotional tool for brands like American Express (AXP) to show off their products and services with instructional videos that show people using them. These shows are sponsored by companies. But xy.tv creates the content.

Consumer-generated ads are gaining a lot of attention. Do you think they’re just a fad?

Simmons: Totally. We won’t see them during the Super Bowl next year. What’s long lasting about consumer-generated ads is the broad idea that companies and agencies now need to involve consumers more. If they don’t invite consumers in, the consumers can now create and distribute parodies and their own ads anyway.

Laermer: It’s important for companies to embrace criticism and play along when they see consumers making fun of their products.

Simmons: Even if consumer feedback is negative, it can be great. It allows a company to learn about its own product. If you can say, “We heard and we listen. So give us another chance,” consumers might even trust the brand more.

What are the punk-est ads you’ve ever seen?

Laermer: There was an ad for Carleton cigarettes that was brash and straightforward. The campaign said something like “Try our cigarettes. You’ll really like them.”

Simmons: My favorite punk ads were an outdoor campaign in Australia, advertising beef. The ads said, “Buy more beef, you bastards.” Funny. To the point. And unexpected.

Laermer: I also liked a recent Chevrolet TV ad that ran during this year’s Grammy Awards, featuring different pop songs about Chevy cars. I liked how it made you think of the brand’s cultural legacy.

That ad actually sounds pretty mainstream. In your book, you predict that all ads will one day be “punk.” If that happens, won’t your conception of “punk” lose its meaning?

Laermer: All good marketing and ad campaigns keep people guessing. So in that sense, all good campaigns are punk, as we define it.

Simmons: What we mean is that the current establishment will change in the next few years and adopt today’s punk strategies. But there’s always a need for fresh attitude to challenge those ideas. And that’s punk.

____________________________________________________________________

Review from: Publishers Weekly Annex

TV co-host Laermer (of TLC’s Taking Care of Business) and agency alum Simmons (formerly of Crispin Porter + Bogusky) combine their considerable experience and wit to jolt readers into a new understanding of marketing’s ever-changing arena. The premise— and the promise—of their approach to marketing is likely a familiar one: power is shifting from corporation to consumer, meaning that “a brand is formed in the eye of the beholder—the consumer—and is not the property of the marketer.” As such, old-fashioned truisms like “any publicity is good publicity” have been subsumed by a new paradigm: “mediocre [marketing] does more harm than doing nothing.” Blunt, fair, fearless and outrageous—just like the marketing style they espouse—Laermer and Simmons explicate the marketing methods of the future in a tour of blogs, lingo, games, the “real simple” concept and the new standards of cyber-socializing. Techniques involve story-telling, contests, product placement, emerging technology and the increasingly tricky business of crafting emotional connections. Asides include tales of planned scarcity (like “limited edition” sneakers), examples of broadcasters’ waning power and the potential for targeting audiences “at every moment of the day.” Though it covers some well-trod ground, there’s plenty of sound analysis and prescient advice here (not to mention humor) for forward-thinking marketers. (Mar.)

Our first review is in. Read it and cry with joy, as Mark did!

Monday 25th, December 2006
Book Review - Punk Marketing by Richard Laermer and Mark Simmons
12/25/2006 12:10 PM
Written By: Tom Duff
Category : Book Reviews

I got the chance to get an advanced reader copy of the book Punk Marketing: Get Off Your @$$ And Join The Revolution by Richard Laermer and Mark Simmons. This should be required reading for all marketing and advertising people who still think that the world hasn’t changed much…

Contents:
Prologue - Welcome to the Revolution: Don’t Blame Us, Just Thank Us
1 - The Punk Marketing Manifesto: You Read - We Make Your Life Better
2 - Kill the Middlemen: Do So Before They Kill You
3 - Brand Not Bland: How to Stand Out So That You Are “The Chosen”
4 - Who’s Eating Your Lunch?: Make Them Spit It Out
5 - The Sell Phone: Use and Abuse of the Cell Phone for Marketing
6 - The Captive Consumer: Do Not Try This At Home
7 - Now It’s Story Time: Art of Making a Case through Storytelling
8 - Leave Me Alone, Will Ya!: Too Much Stuff, Too Little Time
9 - Lies Lies Lies - The Truth About Truth: And Factoids about Facts
10 - As Seen on TV: Place It Baby, Place It
11 - At Last, a Job in Hollywood!: You Are the Content
12 - Game On: No One Is A Loser
13 - It’s More Than Just Us: Hard as That Is to Believe
Notes
Index

Last Words
Punk marketing is defined as a rebellion against tradition, an attitude that says the same old thing doesn’t work any more. Laermer and Simmons take a irreverent, no-holds-barred look at today’s marketing landscape, and how consumers interact with advertising. The days of throwing a 30 second ad on TV and calling it good are over. There are so many media outlets clamoring for attention, and the advertising din has made it nearly impossible to stand out using traditional styles. Furthermore, the old ad agencies no longer hold the power to control the market. TiVOs have reworked the way people view a program, and the odds are high that your audience is fast-forwarding past your multi-million dollar ad budget. Punk marketing looks at how nontraditional methods of marketing are needed to reach your specific markets. Techniques such as viral marketing, cell phone interaction, and product placement in shows and movies are becoming the way to make a mark without just talking louder and longer. But even these avenues are fraught with peril if you don’t remember the attitudes of the persons being marketed to. For instance, cell phone interaction can be great if it’s participatory. But if you just start sending repeated ads to a cell phone audience, you’ve sealed your fate. Bottom line… you have to be different in order to be seen, and you *will* make mistakes. But standing pat on the past campaigns are becoming less effective with every passing year.

Even if you’re not necessarily involved in marketing, you’ll enjoy the attitude of the writers. I was reminded often of Tom Peters’ style of writing with even more raw emotion. I knew I was in for a different read when I hit the dedication page… “To everyone who’s ever s**t-canned us… and their spouses.” That same in-your-face attitude carries through the entire book, and it makes for a compelling read. The fact that they nail the attitudes and habits of today’s consumer makes it great…

Definitely worth preordering…

Read some excerpts from the book.