The full title of this book by Sammy Blindell and Miles Fryer is
The 7 Reasons Why Customers Don’t Choose YOU!: And How You Can Change That
In my review posted on Amazon.co.uk, I gave it Three Stars. This means Worthwhile.
Here is my review.
This is a book about branding and that surprised me given its title
This wasn’t the book I was expecting to read because the title doesn’t summarise the contents.
I was expecting to read about the seven reasons why people (not customers) don’t buy. Things like they don’t know you exist or they don’t believe your claims or they don’t think your value exceeds the price you charge and especially when compared to the competition.
This is a book about branding and it is based on seven elements like “who are you”, “what is your mission”, “why was your company created” etc.
Branding is a controversial subject in how it relates to marketing, strategy etc. Some see it as all encompassing but others see it as a small element.
I tend to be in the Jack Trout and Al Ries camp. Ultimately brand is positioning in the mind eg Volvo are safe cars. No one else owns that position in the market like Volvo, even though the company has edged away from it in recent years. Everything else like the badge and the logo are symbols to remind you of that position or to increase its authenticity.
There are plenty of good points in the book and I think some people will love it. I wasn’t convinced. I had a quick look at some of the glowing reviews and it seems to be one of those examples where the reviewers have reviewed little else. I understand why authors encourage this practice but as a buyer of a lot of business books, I don’t like it.
One of my problems was that the authors have a style that disparages other approaches and continually brags about their own methods. There seemed to be sneaky testimonials in every single chapter which you drift into reading until you start actively resisting. Well that’s what I did.
There was also a story told positively along the lines of “fake it to you make it”. Personally I prefer marketing that’s honest and authentic. Anything else is cynical exploitation of perceptions. This brings me back to the issue that the book title doesn’t match the contents and whether that’s inconsistent with having a clear brand.
I’m also reading from a small business perspective and prefer direct response marketing to brand building. Much of the big company advertising you see on TV which promotes the name and not much else are poor examples for business owners to follow.
If you have Kindle Unlimited then give it a try if you’re interested in branding. As I say, I thought the book does make some important points. If you don’t then make sure you try the sample first. That should give you a feeling for the style of the book and whether it’s going to suit you.
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