How Are Business Books Like Restaurants?

How are business books like restaurants?  For one thing, you can say that books provide food for thought. Sometimes the book is the intellectual equivalent of Steak au Poivre served at a high-end gourmet restaurant and sometimes it’s the warm comfort of a greasy burger and fries from your local dive.

Today, I’m getting down and dirty with not one, but two books of the “greasy burger” variety. This is a super-two-fer book review you’re just not going to be able to resist!

• The first book is called “No B.S. Marketing to the Affluent : No Holds Barred Kick Butt Take No Prisoners Guide to Getting Really Rich” by Direct Marketing guru Dan Kennedy.
• The second book is called “Outrageous Advertising That’s Outrageously Successful – Created for the 99% of Small Business Owners Who are Dissatisfied with the Results They Get From Their Current Advertising” by Dan Kennedy’s side kick, Bill Glazer.

I bought these two books together for two reasons. The first is to use them in tandem. I wanted to combine the insight into the affluent demographic that Kennedy offers with the practical and adaptable strategies that Glazer offers in my marketing strategies.

The other reason was that I was bored and tired of the over-engineered, over-strategized and over-produced pabulum that passes for marketing and doesn’t work. In short, I wanted down and dirty, in-your-face marketing ideas that would comfort me and my craving for unpretentious low-budget marketing systems and strategy.

What You Don’t Know About the Affluent Can Kill Your Profitability

The “No B.S. Marketing to the Affluent” book was born about five years ago when Dan Kennedy started looking into the affluent population. What he found will surprise you.

His research showed that an overwhelming majority of the affluent actually worked their way up from nothing. And it’s this set of life history and circumstances that feeds their emotional purchasing triggers.

Here is just a taste: “Everybody’s buying behavior is driven by emotions, justified as necessary, after the fact, with logic.”

He then gives a list of generic E-factors (emotional factors) that effect everyone such as Fear, Pride, Love, Guilt, Greed. He goes on to say “In addition to the E-Factors that affect everybody, the affluent have a particular set some of which may surprise you:  Insecurity;  Fear of being found fakers;  Desperate desire not to commit a faux pas;  Feeding emotional emptiness;  Giving themselves gold stars;  and, After all, what’s the point of being rich.” Developing offers that address these emotional needs and tweaking your marketing message to show this demographic how your offer addresses any of these, is a sure path to profits and great loyal clients.

If you’re running a small business such as a retail shop, real estate, doctor’s office, financial planning or legal practice, this book is a NO BRAINER choice for you right now. If you’re a B2B company, don’t make the mistake of thinking this book isn’t for you. Remember, people make buying decisions, not companies. Take the time to play with the ideas he offers and see how you can adapt them to your business.

The Practical Marketer’s Cheat-Sheet to Attracting Profitable Customers

If Dan Kennedy’s book whets your appetite for attracting an underserved market segment, then Bill Glazer’s book “Outrageous Advertising That’s Outrageously Successful” will give you all the examples, ideas and formats of advertising and direct marketing programs that actually worked.

And you won’t believe this:  they encourage everyone to “swipe and deploy” all these ideas. That means take the idea, the copy, and anything else that appeals to you, adapt it to your product or service and use it.

This book is brilliant because it also includes worksheets that you can use to come up with your own marketing campaigns. Another wonderful feature this book includes is the ability to go online and see the actual examples in full color.

A Word of Warning: Dan Kennedy is an Acquired Taste

Dan Kennedy is a proven, successful and wealthy master-marketer. He is NOT tactful and he doesn’t mince words or hide how he really feels about the state of business, some business owners and the government when it interferes with an entrepreneur’s God-given right to get and keep customers. If you already know that you will be put off by an opinionated author – don’t get the Dan Kennedy book – it isn’t for you. This would be an unfortunate choice for you because you will miss out on some of the best accumulated data and resources on people who have and spend money and what a small business needs to do to service this woefully under-served market.

Don’t Wait. Act Now

If your business is still reeling from the economic downturn, you will be relieved to know that there is a population out there that is ready, willing and able to buy what you’re selling. All you need to do is reach out to them with an offer and experience that few providers are willing to give.

Don’t wait another minute, click over to Amazon and order your copy of “No B.S. Marketing to the Affluent” and “Outrageous Advertising That’s Outrageously Successful” NOW. You’ll not only be entertained by the writing, your brain will be overwhelmed with creative marketing ideas. In fact, you just might find yourself having more fun implementing marketing programs than you ever thought possible.

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