The Fall of Advertising and the Rise of PR

by Al Ries, Laura Ries

Bestselling authors and world-renowned marketing strategists Al and Laura Ries usher in the new era of public relations. Today's major brands are born with publicity, not advertising. A closer look at the history of the most successful modern brands shows this to be true. In fact, an astonishing number of brands, including Palm, Starbucks, the Body Shop, Wal-Mart, Red Bull and Zara have been built with virtually no advertising. Using in-depth case histories of successful PR campaigns coupled with those of unsuccessful advertising campaigns, The Fall of Advertising provides valuable ideas for marketers -- all the while demonstrating why Bold and accessible, The Fall of Advertising is bound to turn the world of marketing upside down.

Genres: Business, Nonfiction, Communication

320 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2002

About the author

Alfred Paul Ries was an American marketing professional and author. He was the cofounder and chairman of the Atlanta-based consulting firm Ries & Ries with his partner and daughter, Laura Ries. Along with Jack Trout, Ries is credited with resurrecting the idea of "positioning" in the field of marketing.

Reviews

[Adriana · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book makes a strong point. It’s a bit outdated by the time I read it – almost 14 years after original publication – but the importance of setting up a brand identity long before you try to sell it to a consumer is still something important to remember.
On the other hand, it’s really obvious that the authors’ job is PR. They give tons of examples of the failures of advertising but only skim thru them with numbers and superficial comments without really going into “why” they didn’t work. It would have read as a lot less skewed if the parts that talked about the “fall of advertising” were a few in-depth studies of why it’s failing instead of 20+ name drops that are nothing more than numbers and opinions.
It’s worth reading, if only for the chuckles you’re sure to get when the authors seriously fail to see the importance of certain things. There’s a chapter where they mention how farfetched they consider the idea of phones with internet access being successful.

[Shita Dewi · Rating 3 out of 5]

As A Marketing Communication Specialist, I would say that The Ries' book on PR is an absolute must for ALL the companies out there.

Before I work as A Marcomm, I've worked @ several Advertising Agencies, it helped me to understand the reality that this book shows to me. The reality behind the Advertising empire: an empire that seems to have lost its function, effectiveness and credibility.
"Creativity wins awards, but does it also win sales?" is the question, and the answer follows: " To be effective, advertising doesn't need creativity. It needs credibility", and that is where PR comes into the picture.

The strenght of this book is in the back-up evidence that the Ries bring forward, the simplicity and sincerity.

Companies have to follow their advice: "You can't live in the past. Advertising is no longer fresh and exciting. There's just too much of it.", and start focusing on the future: on PR.

So,..I think I've picked the right career,..

[Ahmad hosseini · Rating 4 out of 5]

عنوان: سقوط تبلیغات و ظهور روابط عمومی
نویسندگان: آل ریس – لورا ریس
مترجم: سنبل بهمنیار
مشخصات نشر: تهران، سیته، 1392
296 صفحه
شابک: 9-4-96276-964-978

ارائه دهنده یک دید تازه!
روابط عمومی چیست؟
"روابط عموی یک کارکرد مدیریتی ویژه است که به تثبیت و حفظ خطوط مشترک ارتباط سازی، تفاهم، توافق و همکاری بین یک سازمان و مخاطبانش کمک می کند. این کارکرد شامل راه گشایی و مدیریت مشکلات یا موضوعات است و به مدیران در حفظ آگاهی و پاسخ دهی به نظرات مردم یاری می رساند؛ مسئولیت مدیران در خدمت رسانی هم سو با خواست های جامعه را تشریح و تاکید می کند؛ همچنین به مدیران در تطبیق و استفاده ی موثر از تغییرات بازار و جامعه کمک می نماید؛ و به عنوان عامل هشداردهنده، در پیش بینی تغییر مسیر بازار وارد عمل می شود. ابزارهای آن در این راه تحقیق وبررسی، رسایی و شیوه های اخلاقی برقراری ارتباط است."
طبق متن کتاب مهم ترین نقش روابط عمومی ساخت نام های تجاری است.

تفاوت روابط عمومی و تبلیغات چیست؟
کتاب در بخش چهارم به صورت کامل به تفاوت های بین تبلیغات و روابط عمومی می پردازد. برخی از این تفاوت ها در ادامه ذکر شده اند:
حرکت تبلبغات مارپیچ است، حرکت روابط عمومی خطی است.
تبلبغات به شیوه ی انفجاری عمل می کند، روابط عمومی به شیوه ی آهسته و پیوسته کار می کند.
تبلیغات تصویری است، روابط عمومی کلامی است.
رسایی تبلیغات همه را در بر می گیرد، رسایی روابط عمومی اشخاص موردنظر شما را در بر می گیرد.
تبلیغات خود محور است، روابط عمومی دیگر محور است.
تبلیغات می میرد، روابط عمومی زنده می ماند.
تبلیغات گران است، روابط عمومی ارزان است.
...

درباره کتاب
در واقع کتاب سعی در تخریب تبلیغات ندارد بلکه بر این موضوع تاکید دارد که باید از روابط عمومی و تبلیغات به روش درست و درجای مناسب استفاده کرد. در واقع باید ابتدا برای ساخت یک نام تجاری از روابط عمومی استفاده کرد، سپس با استفاده از تبلیغات این نام تجاری را تثبیت کرد.
کتاب حاوی مثال های زیادی از دنیای واقعی است که با به توجه به موضوع هر فصل، هر یک از آنها بررسی می گردد و نکات آن تشریح می گردد.
مشکل این کتاب و کتاب های مشابه این است که اکثرا به شرکت های بزرگ می پردازند و آنها را بررسی می کنند. علاوه بر این تنها به دوران رشد و بلوغ این شرکت ها می پردازند و از دوران شروع آنها و روش های استفاده از تبلیغات و روابط عمومی چیزی بیان نمی شود.
سوالاتی که در ذهن من بی جواب باقی ماندند:
شرکت های بزرگ در دوران شروع که توانایی در جلب توجه رسانه ها نداشته اند چگونه از روابط عمومی استفاده می کردند؟
با توجه به اینکه روابط عمومی به رسانه وابسته است، آیا روابط عمومی منحصر به شرکت های بزرگ است؟
در صورت منفی بودن جواب سوال قبل، کسب و کارهای کوچک چگونه باید از روابط عمومی استفاده کنند؟

[Ariel · Rating 2 out of 5]

Maybe this book was impressive and revolutionary when it came out in the early 2000s (in terms of how we think about advertising and PR), but man was it a snooze today. I spent the whole book arguing with the author and pulling out my hair at all the logical fallacies and mis-attributions in his examples. Beyond that, his unbalanced presentation started to give his reasoning the same flaw that he says advertising suffers from: you didn't feel like you could trust it any longer. A classic, classic example of a book that should have been an article (poorly edited), and an excellent example of a book that needed to cite sources to make its point.

This book gets two stars instead of one, because I DO buy into its main message; I just think it does an ABYSMAL job of presenting its case.

PS, Amazon and 3G? Yeah, despite what this book predicted, those things did JUST fine.

[Arthur Charlez · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book heralded the coming of what is currently known as Inbound Marketing.

Al and Laura cements their position as thought leaders and visionaries in the area of Marketing.

The book draws strong comparisons between the two disciplines, outlining the tangible benefits of both disciplines as marketing subsets, and then goes on to explain why PR is to become the dominant force in brand building.

What I like most is how they explain the place of advertising in the marketing mix, and at which point in the product/brand lifecycle advertising is to be applied.

[Jaycee · Rating 2 out of 5]

DNF (for now).

There is no doubt that Al Ries is great at marketing, however, this book wasn't like his other books. I learned something from his other boos while this one just repeated itself every chapter. And it was more statistics than actual lessons.

[Dmitry · Rating 5 out of 5]

(The English review is placed beneath the Russian one)

Крайне важная книга, как для маркетинга, так и для темы маркетинговых коммуникаций.

Уже во многих книгах по маркетингу было многократно переговорено, что рекламы день ото дня становится всё больше и больше и что она заполняет собой всё пространство из-за чего даже в туалете от неё невозможно укрыться. В связи с чем, покупатели строят всё выше и выше свои ментальные заборы от этой надоедливой рекламы. Это с одной стороны, а с другой, рекламе просто не доверяют. Рекламе не доверяли и раньше, но сейчас, когда и компаний и брендов и самой рекламы стало в разы больше, рекламе стали доверять заметно меньше, ибо в XX веке можно было ещё поверить, что бренд A и бренд Б, оба хороши, ибо брендов было тогда мало и это вполне могло выглядеть как правда. Плюс, тот факт, что многие рекламные носители были в новинку. Сегодня же просто логически не может быть, чтобы все те сотни брендов, что постоянно появляются на рынках и плюс те, что уже существуют, действительно являются лучшими. В общем, с начала XXI века, реклама существенно потеряла свои позиции в качестве средства убеждения людей. Особенно это актуально в отношении новых брендов, с которыми публика ещё не знакома. Именно поэтому у многих маркетологов такой страх к созданию нового бренда с нуля, что на самом деле является нормальным требованием при выведение бренда для новой категории. Т.е. маркетологи предпочитают добавлять к основному бренду новое слово (создавать суббренд), призванное символизировать и старый и новый бренд, как например пиво Miller и пиво Miller Lite. Но из-за этого бренд как бы разрывается на две категории, т.е. пытается усидеть на двух стульях, что невозможно (конечно, очень многое зависит от шагов конкурентов). В итоге мы видим всё больше рекламы, чья эффективность только падает, что вызывает гнев руководства и непонимание самих рекламщиков. Но, как точно пишут авторы, «Как часто случается с маркетинговыми программами последнего времени, существует явный разрыв между рекламой и восприятием потребителя. Реклама «Target» сосредотачивается на визуальных образах, использующих логотип «Target», в то время как пользователи говорят о широких проходах, аккуратно разложенном товаре и отличном ассортименте. Никто не говорит: «Я езжу туда, потому что у них красивый логотип»». Что же делать в таком случаи? Вот именно на этот вопрос и даёт книга ответ. Я считаю, это одна из обязательных книг для тех, кто занимается классическим маркетингом.

Итак, авторы пишут, что при выводе нового бренда, нужно сначала использовать PR и только после этого можно воспользоваться рекламой. PR действует как ледокол, реклама же призвана закреплять в сознании людей тот успех который был достигнут с помощью PR. В таком случаи мы не только обходим весь тот шум, которая создаёт сегодняшняя рекламная индустрия, мы не только обходим ментальные стены выстроенные потребителями, но мы используем источник, которым люди доверяют – СМИ. Таким образом, мы убиваем сразу двух зайцев. Как я написала выше, никто не верит не только в искренность рекламы, но и саму рекламу люди воспринимают не так, как руководители рекламных агентств. Как правильно отметили авторы, «Захотите ли вы купить рекламируемый товар, если у вас сложится мнение, что его реклама просто великолепна, а сам товар – средненький? Или вы скорее купите прекрасный товар, несмотря на то, что реклама показалась вам так себе?». Когда же компания выводит новый бренд, ей именно это и нужно, т.е. ей нужно чтобы потребители поверили, что её новый бренд заслуживает их внимания, что это стоящий новый бренд. Им нужно, чтобы потенциальные потребители прочитали об этом событии не как очередную рекламу, а как новостной репортаж. Только тогда они заинтересуются новым брендом. Как продолжают авторы, «При создании нового бренда реклама остаётся не у дел. Роль рекламы – оборонительная. Реклама может только защитить уже сформировавшийся бренд». Как и во всех книгах Райса, здесь присутствует уйма примеров того, как компании успешного применяли PR при выводе нового продукта.

Вторым важным плюсом книги является современна критика рекламы с точки зрения маркетинга. Т.е. авторы критикуют рекламу не за какие-то там моральные, этические вопросы, а с точки зрения её сегодняшней неэффективности. К примеру, авторы очень точно подметили, что сегодняшняя реклама делается с уклоном в креативность в ущерб эффективности. Т.е. целью становится не стимулировать потребителей купить рекламируемый товар, который зачастую зрители даже не могут вспомнить после такой рекламы, а получить очередной приз на фестивале рекламы. Как пишут авторы, «Традиционная реклама не направлена на то, чтобы сделать известным товар. Её цель – сделать известной саму рекламу. Вместо того чтобы увеличивать объём продаж, она стремится увеличить объём обсуждений». Авторы приводят множество примеров того, как одна и та же реклама и побеждала на таких конкурсах и одновременно не приносила никакой прибыли, из-за чего вскоре снималась с эфира. Как только реклама становится искусством, она сразу же теряет свою основную и единственную функцию – продавать рекламируемые товары. В общем, реклама, не является искусством. Как точно замечают сами авторы, «Что плохого в том, что реклама стала искусством? Плохого немало, но вот главное: создателей такой рекламы больше волнует, что будут думать об их работе потомки, а не что будут думать о бренде потребители». Собственно, это лишь один из примеров той критики, что присутствует в книге в отношении современного мира рекламы. Но главным для авторов является всё же желание подчеркнуть важность PR и ту последовательность – сначала PR, а потом реклама – которую следует использовать при выводе нового бренда на рынок. Книга объясняет, почему это важно понимать и что происходит, если это правило игнорировать. Ведь как правильно сказано в этой книге, «Реклама подобна неудачной шутке: бессмысленно острить насчёт лишнего веса голливудской знаменитости Дрю Кэри, если ваши собеседники не знают, кто это такой».

An extremely important book for both marketing and the topic of marketing communications.

It has already been said many times in many marketing books that there is more and more advertising day by day and that it fills all the space so that even in the toilet it is impossible to hide from it. In connection with this, customers are building higher and higher mental fences from this annoying advertising. This is on the one hand, but on the other hand, they simply do not trust advertising. Advertising was not trusted before, but now when there are many times more companies and brands and advertising itself, there is much less trust in advertising, because in the 20th century you could still believe that brand A and brand B were both good because there were few brands and it might as well have been true. Plus, the fact that many advertising media were new. Today it is simply not possible that, logically, all those hundreds of brands that constantly appear in the markets, plus the ones that already exist, are really the best. In general, since the beginning of the twenty-first century, advertising has significantly lost its position as a means of persuading people. This is especially true for new brands that the public is not yet familiar with. This is why so many marketers have such a fear of creating a new brand from scratch, which is actually a normal requirement when branding a new category. That is, marketers prefer to add a new word to the main brand (create a sub-brand) to symbolize both the old and new brands, such as Miller beer and Miller Lite beer. But because of this, the brand is torn into two categories, i.e., it tries to sit on two chairs, which is impossible (of course, a lot depends on the steps of competitors). As a result, we see more and more advertising, whose effectiveness only decreases, which causes the anger of management and incomprehension of the advertisers themselves. But, as the authors accurately write, "As is often the case with recent marketing programs, there is a clear disconnect between advertising and consumer perception. Target ads focus on visual images using the Target logo, while users talk about the wide aisles, neatly laid out merchandise, and great assortment. No one is saying, 'I go there because they have a beautiful logo." What to do in such a case? This is the question the book answers. I believe it is one of the must-reads for anyone involved in classical marketing.

So, the authors write that when launching a new brand, you should first use PR, and only after that you can use advertising. PR acts as an icebreaker, while advertising is designed to cement in people's minds the success that has been achieved through PR. In this case, we not only bypass all the noise created by today's advertising industry, we not only bypass the mental walls built by consumers, but we use a source that people trust: the media. In this way, we kill two birds with one stone. As I wrote above, not only does no one believe in the sincerity of advertising, but people do not perceive advertising itself the way advertising executives do. As the authors correctly noted, "Would you be willing to buy an advertised product if you thought its advertising was great, but the product itself was average? Or would you rather buy a great product even though the advertising seemed so bad to you?" And when a company launches a new brand, that's exactly what it needs, i.e., it needs consumers to believe that its new brand deserves their attention, that it's a worthwhile new brand. They need potential consumers to read about this event not as just another commercial but as a news report. Only then will they be interested in the new brand. As the authors continue, "When a new brand is created, advertising is left out. The role of advertising is defensive. Advertising can only protect an already established brand." As in all of Rice's books, there are plenty of examples of how companies have successfully used PR when launching a new product.

The second major plus of the book is the modern critique of advertising from a marketing perspective. That is, the authors criticize advertising not for any moral or ethical issues but in terms of its current ineffectiveness. For example, the authors very accurately point out that today's advertising is done with a bias toward creativity to the detriment of effectiveness. In other words, the goal is not to encourage consumers to buy the advertised product, which viewers often cannot even remember after such advertising, but to win another prize at the advertising festival. As the authors write, "Traditional advertising does not aim to make the product known. Its goal is to make the advertisement itself known. Instead of increasing sales, it seeks to increase discussion." The authors cite many examples of how the same ad both won in such shows and at the same time did not bring any profit, due to which it was soon taken off the air. As soon as advertising becomes art, it immediately loses its primary and only function: to sell the goods advertised. In short, advertising is not art. As the authors themselves accurately point out, "What's wrong with advertising being art? There is a lot of bad, but here's the main thing: the creators of such advertising care more about what posterity will think of their work than what consumers will think of the brand." In fact, this is just one example of the criticism that the book contains about the modern world of advertising. But the main point for the authors is still to emphasize the importance of PR and the sequence - the first PR, then advertising - that should be used when bringing a new brand to market. The book explains why this is important to understand and what happens if this rule is ignored. As this book correctly states, "Advertising is like a bad joke: It's pointless to make a joke about the overweight Hollywood celebrity Drew Carey if the people you're talking to don't know who he is.

[ahmad · Rating 4 out of 5]

تا به امروز چند تبلیغ دیده اید؟ چند تبلیغ را به خاطر دارید؟ پنج تبلیغ آخری که دیده اید چه محصولاتی بودند و آنها را کجا دیده اید؟ در زندگی تان کدام تبلیغ شما را مجاب به خرید محصولی کرده است؟ آیا تا امروز بعد از دیدن تبلیغی وسوسه شده اید که من باید این محصول را بخرم یا باید آنرا امتحان کنم؟ فرق بین دو برند مایکروسافت و کوکا کولا چیست؟ چطور افراد زیادی تبلیغات کوکا کولا را به خاطر دارند اما تقریبا هیچ تبلیغی از مایکروسافت ندیده ایم؟
شاید تا امروز چنین سوالهایی را از خود نپرسیده بودید و یا شاید پرسیده بودید ولی جوابی برای آن نداشتید. اما امروز میخواهم کتابی را معرفی کنم تا بتوانید در آینده ی اقتصادی خود از آن استفاده کنید. کتاب "سقوط تبلیغات و ظهور روابط عمومی" کتابیست عامه پسند که مخصوص تمام کسانیست که می خواهند در آینده، کسب و کار خود را راه بیندازند.

کتاب در فصل اول با دلیل و مدرک اثبات می کند که چرا تبلیغات دیگر کارایی گذشته ی خود را ندارند. در کتاب تصریح شده است که در گذشته تبلیغات مانند امروز مردم را احاطه نکرده بود پس مردم توجه بیشتری به تبلیغات داشتند اما امروزه مردم اهمیتی به تبلیغات نمی دهند، امروزه مردم یاد گرفته اند که تبلیغات را نادیده بگیرند. امروز تبلیغات تبدیل به یک شوی تمام عیار شده است که صرفا برای بردن جایزه های مختلف ایجاد می شوند و نه برای فروش بیشتر. در ادامه، نویسنده تبلیغات را به هنر تشبیه می کند و میگوید زمانی که نقاشی کاربرد داشت قیمت آن مشخص بود اما امروزه که با ورود دوربین های عکاسی با کیفیت بالا، دیگر نقاشی کاربرد ندارد، تبدیل به یک هنر شده است و قیمت آن نیز سر به فلک کشیده است. تبلیغات نیز امروزه یک هنر است و کارکرد گذشته ی خود یعنی ساختن نام تجاری را از دست داده است برای همین امروزه شاهد کمپین های تبلیغاتی چند صد میلیون دلاری هستیم که قطعا هیچ کارکرد مطلوبی نخواهد داشت.

تبلیغات هم همان مسیری را میرود که مجسمه سازی، نقاشی و شعر رفتند. مارشال مک لوهان گفته است:تبلیغات برترین شیوه هنری قرن بیستم است.
نه فقط نظریه پردازانی مانند مک لوهان بلکه متصدیان عالی رتبه تبلیغاتی هم در کار خلق ارتباط هنری هستند. مارک فنسک نویسنده ی معروف آگهی های تبلیغاتی نایکی میگوید: تبلیغات به احتمال زیاد قوی ترین شیوه هنری روی زمین است.
چه اشکالی دارد اگر تبلیغات را با هنر هم ارز کنیم؟ اشکالات زیادی دارد. ولی اساسی ترین مشکل این است که پدید آورندگان چنین تبلیغاتی بیشتر نگران این هستند که آیندگان در مورد کارشان چه فکری خواهد کرد نه اینکه مخاطبان در حال حاضر درباره ی نام تجاری مورد تبلیغ چگونه می اندیشد.
به همین نسبت مصرف کنندگان هم به تبلیغات به عنوان یک اثر هنری نگاه میکنند تا یک شیوه برقراری ارتباط. حتما تا به حال چندین بار برایتان پیش آمده است که از کسی این جمله را بشنوید:"دیشب یک آگهی خیلی باحال توی تلویزین دیدم که داشتم از خنده روده بر میشدم" ولی اگر از او بپرسید که اسم آن محصولی که تبلیغ میشد چه بوده احتمالا پاسخ میشنوید که: نمیدونم یادم نیست.
مردم از تبلیغات و آگهی ها همان برداشتی را دارند که از یک رمان جدید یا یک سریال تلویزیونی دارند. آنها با شخصیت ها و موقعیت ها یا داستان آگهی درگیر می شوند بدون اینکه کمترین توجهی به خرید آن محصول داشته باشند. این یعنی هنر.
در ادامه نویسنده روابط عمومی و رسانه ها را عامل اصلی موفقیت یا عدم موفقیت یک برند معرفی میکند. در بخش دوم، نویسنده با مثال های بسیار زیبا روابط عمومی و کارکرد آن را در موارد مختلفی مانند بازسازی یک نام تجاری، یا تصدیق اعتبار، گسترش و ارتقای نام تجاری، ساخت یک نام تجاری آموزشی یا جغرافیایی بررسی میکند.

در کتاب، موفقیت نام های تجاری مانند: زارا (zara)، ردبول، کتاب های معروف مانند هری پاتر و... را بررسی کرده است و نشان داده است که چگونه با استفاده از روابط عمومی توانسته اند آهسته و پیوسته به فروش بالایی دست یابند و صاحبان خود را به ثروت های افسانه ای برسانند.

رد بول کالایی است که هیچ ارتباطی با تکنولوژی پیدا میکند. این نوشیدنی به عنوان اولین نوشابه انرژی زا در سال ۱۹۸۷در اتریش معرفی شد. رد بول تقریباً بدون هیچ تبلیغ و با کمک روابط عمومی گسترده و بازرگانی صحیح موفقیتی بین المللی کسب کرد. یکی از عواملی که سبب جلب افکار عمومی شد ممنوعیت مصرف رد بول در آلمان بود. درنتیجه همه نوجوانان آلمانی میخواستند آن را امتحان کنند
نام تجاریای که درزم ٔ ینه مد، سریعترین پیشرفت را در دنیا داشته است متعلق به یک شرکت تولیدی پوشاک اسپانیایی به نام زارا است. این شرکت جز برای حراج دوسالانه فروشگاههایش تقریباً هیچ تبلیغ دیگری میکند.
زارا مثل رد بول آهسته شروع کرد. ۱۳سال طول کشید تا ایندیتکس ) Inditexشرکت مادر زارا( اولین فروشگاه خود در خارج از اسپانیا را افتتاح کند. زارا هم مثل رد بول یک ایده منحصربهفرد داشت. یعنی اولین تولیدکننده انبوه پوشاک مد روز بود که از استراتژی "سر بزنگاه" استفاده کرد. بهطورمعمول برای یک نام پوشاک مد روز، مرحله طراحی لباس تا عرضه به فروشگاهها، ۹ماه زمان میبرد ولی روند سریع زارا تنها ۱۵روز یا کمتر زمان میبرد.
به شخصه این کتاب را یکی از بهترین کتاب ها در زمینه ی روابط عمومی و تبلیغات که تاکنون خوانده ام می دانم. این کتاب را نه تنها به کسانی که به فکر فعالیت اقتصادی هستند بلکه به تمام کسانی که میخواهند به طریقی بر روی مردم تاثیر بگذراند (در زمینه های سیاسی، فرهنگی، هنری و...) توصیه می کنم

[Brittany · Rating 3 out of 5]

How I Came To Read This Book: I snagged it off my sister's bookshelf eons ago. It was published it 2002. So yeah, it's been awhile.

The Plot: Al Ries & Laura Ries want to drive home one primary fact: advertising cannot launch a brand. Public relations must launch your brand to establish credibility, and advertising must only come into play at a later stage in a brand's lifestyle in order to defend the brand. They start by pounding you with statistics on advertising's shortcomings, follow it up with how public relations can be applied to all sorts of industries, cap it off with a tit for tat comparison between the two, and have a short denouement of manifestos for both PR and ad professionals.

The Good & The Bad: As someone that previously worked at a *branding* agency, I had a lot of problems with this book. It was sort of like watching a Michael Moore movie. There is a ton of good, logical information here, but the feeling that you're being manipulated and the skewering of facts against the ad industry downplay the value of this book. Ironically, the authors who are so vehemently claiming that advertising is untrustworthy have actually painted themselves as untrustworthy.

Two key examples: the first section of the book really hammers home the fact that no matter how critically acclaimed or how much buzz a campaign gets, it doesn't translate into sales (always and / or often enough). Yet when the book dives into PR, it almost never ever EVER talks about sales figures, thus nullifying the output vs. ROI point they're driving home for the first 100 pages. A second smaller example. They talk about how ad agencies themselves do not advertise, by citing the fact they flipped through several issues of Ad Age magazine, and not seeing any ads. Well yeah. Who the hell advertises to their own industry in an industry publication? It would be like the Ries' advertising their PR firm in a PR trade pub. Stupid.

Regardless, I think this book's biggest weakness came from the fact they tried to attribute branding and positioning to public relations. The truth is, those are things an agency (PR or ad) should be doing from day one before setting down either path. I fully agree they are absolutely critical, but I also believe that both PR AND advertising help shape a brand in the public eye. It really felt like the authors were ringing the death knell for advertising simply to cause a splash (thus following their own advice, brava). Their ideas for PR were great throughout, but the lack of quantitative evidence / case studies as shown in the first half of the book, and the backtracking on how bad advertising really is (or isn't) made it hard to swallow.

Also as an amusing sidenote, sometimes the authors delved a little too deep into matters of opinion. As the book was published so long ago, it's hilarious to see them lambaste web-enabled cell phones and Amazon, both of which are hugely prominent today. Stick to what you know kids.

The Bottom Line: A skewed book that could have been a helluva lot better. Easy to read and enjoyable journey through PR and advertising though.

Anything Memorable: Nope.

50-Book Challenge: Book #15 in 2010.

[W. Holmes · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really Repetitive, but a strong powerful message. Funny predictions Circa 2002 are that "These 3g internet phones will never catch on because they are convergent products" He railed on how stupid the idea was for a while. Also he said Amazon was doomed because they were expanding out into "Line-extensions" selling other things besides books. These two predictions show that he has no business predicting the business world, as these two platform have been the strongest forces of the past 10 years.

The guy is super arrogant, and proves that Marketing and Advertising should be nowhere near product development. This guy is a leader in the field and came up with Positioning. While this guy and most in the field are terrible at picking winners, it reinforces that they should only be involved once a concept has been created.

[Ferdi Anggriawan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Definitely awesome! Totally changed the way I perceive the media now. If you've already read his previous books, you may find this one a bit 'refurbished'. But nevertheless, it's still worth your penny.

[Deepak · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had picked up this book with a lot of anticipation. And while it makes some strong provocative points, it overall fails to convince on the uber message - that PR builds brands, while advertising simply maintains them (and nothing more). Why so -

- The book is from early 2000s and hence misses the entire revolution brought about by performance marketing and what that has done for internet companies. Also, it does not speak to the media situation of today, and the choices before PR to drive impact
- The examples are mostly from the West, but personally I am aware of many success stories on the other side in India
- The book’s messaging is super repetitive - just because the same thing is called out 10 times does not mean it is more believable (much like the claim that over advertising does not make something credible; it in fact does the opposite)
- All the extra real estate spent on repeating the same messages could have been used to articulate what organisations need to do to extract the maximum juice from PR
- The authors would have done well to go deeper into a few examples, than spread themselves thin with so many cursorily explained examples

Having said the above, I still take away the point that PR has its role to play in brand building and driving awareness in the early stages of a brand’s journey.

Some notes from the book:

- PR builds brands; advertising maintains / defends brands
- PR needs to be creative, not advertising
- Line extensions do not work. They blur the singular identity of the brand and they bleed advertising support from the base brand
- Advertising is overpowering; an average person is exposed to 237 tv commercials a day
- Advertising is now an art form - has lost its functionality
- Advertising wins awards. But rarely does it drive business outcomes
- The goal of traditional advertising is not to make the product famous. It is to make the advertising famous
- The CEO’s personal brand is a critical component of PR
- The job of advertising is to remind, educate ( new customers), deepen (including the market), protect

[Quốc Khánh · Rating 5 out of 5]

The core idea of the book is about the new role of advertising & PR in building Brands (create new perception in customers'mind): PR is to create brand, Advertising is to defend/maintain it.

Why?
1. Credibility: In the new situation, when there are too many advertiments, people tend to doubt them more. Therefore advertising is loosing its credibility in customers' eyes. But PR is different. It can earn brands credibility through the third parties.
2. Price: From the same situation, advertising is going to be more expensive, while PR it not.
3. Necessary Conversion period: To change or to insert new perceptions/brands into customers'mind, it's necessary to be patient to wait customers (to reject the old perceptions) to accept a new idea. And PR is a suitable way to build brands or to broaden the perception of brands, while advertising is not because of being expensive and lack of credibility.
4. The uncertainty of PR: advertising's job should be to reinforce the same key message to customers because its target and content is controllable while PR its not.

Theirfore PR should be creative, natural, and orginal(make the new product attrative) While advertising should clarify the message of brands.

The idea is somehow similar to the idea of inbound marketing at the point: make customers remember brands by INDIRECTLY long-term seeding strategy. However there is a difference.
With the same goal which is indirectly seeding brand's name/or products into minds, they perform that by:
- PR: the directly suggestion/mention about products/brands from third parties.
- Inbound marketing: companies directly help customers' problems with contents by themselves.

Again, Al Ries haved broken into the new concept which have been true until now (2001-2018).

[Quangcaophoenix · Rating 5 out of 5]

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[Robert · Rating 2 out of 5]

At some point I read Ries' book "Positioning" which was kind of interesting so I decided to give this a try.

It's glib, extremely repetitive and very simplistic.

According to Ries and Ries, product quality, service, distribution, etc. have nothing to do with a product's success, only branding matters.

Also every company should have a celebrity CEO, because apparently only the CEO can properly sell the product.

In addition, they recommend that this CEO should change his name to match the name of the company, to make the branding even easier!

But the larger issues is that they say a 1,000 times that PR is better than advertising but they don't really explain how a product is supposed to get good PR. Advertising is easy - just spend the money. Getting media companies to say something nice about you is much harder.

[Mèo Điên · Rating 3 out of 5]

Khá hay, cách viết dễ hiểu với nhiều ví dụ , minh họa giúp mình rất nhiều trong việc "xây dựng thiện cảm" với môn Nhập môn PR ở lớp. Tuy nhiên, nó chưa thật sự thỏa mãn mình lắm khi có su hướng sa đà vào việc "ngợi ca" PR quá nhiều mà chưa đi sâu vào Tại sao Quảng cáo thoái vị. Chính vì vậy mà khi đọc sẽ thấy sự lặp đi lặp lại, đôi khi khiến người đọc thấy rất nhàm chán.
Dù sao thì mình nghĩ, đây là cuốn sách mà bất kì ai đang học PR/Truyền thông/Marketing...hoặc quan tâm đến lĩnh vực này nên đọc (Mặc dù nó hơi bị outdate khi được viết hồi 2004 )

[Russell Romney · Rating 2 out of 5]

I ended up not really liking the book due to repetitiveness and obvious bias leading to baseless declarations of truth for the reader to processd. Ironic considering the book's thesis.

Also, the authors refer to the Segway launch as genius and say that, and I quote: "We don't think that 3G phones are going to become a big business, but the psychological appeal of this third-generation concept is very powerful." (as being better than 2G phones). So yeah, this is just an advertisement for PR using endless examples. Caveat: 2003.

[Sophie Kulyashova · Rating 4 out of 5]

Наверное, если бы я прочла эту книжку на 1 курсе университета, мое понимание происходящего во время обучения было бы лучше. С другой стороны, всему свое время. И читать теорию (тем более западную) гораздо интереснее, когда за плечами уже есть практика. Что-то уже можно сравнить и увидеть так ли на самом деле в жизни.

[Kalle Wescott · Rating 3 out of 5]

As the title implies, this book is about how PR, in many situations, especially for new products and brands, can be more important than advertising.

The book covers the relations between PR and advertising.

The most interesting parts were real-life anecdotes from the authors' consulting engagements.

(and yes, the book was fairly dry).

[Noah Vass · Rating 2 out of 5]

Biased because I’m so uninterested in the subject but the whole book reads like a contradiction. The authors try and make their point while making themselves incredulous with scant evidenced claims and quick anecdotes. I would love a more rigorous book about PR’s and advertising’s functions but this is marketing heebly-geebly.

[Светлина Трифонова · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book with clean insight and enough humour to keep reading through.

Svetlina

Перо от Древна Тишина

[Amir · Rating 4 out of 5]

A must read for marketing people.
Although the book is old or authors tone may be biased. Or few examples are outdated and invalid, the idea behind the book is really valuable.
I strongly recommend you to read this book. However I should pray that my competitors dont find this book.

[S A · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic

[Alexandra · Rating 2 out of 5]

Although there are some good pieces of advice in it and it might have been useful back in 2002, right now this book outdated and I think that most of the things don't apply to today's world.

[202 unknown · Rating 4 out of 5]

Khó đọc, không thuyết phục và có phần cực đoan

[DeBora Rachelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pure and simple. PR=brand building

[Karen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hilarious prediction that Amazon wouldn't do well. Great point and even more relevant regarding the influencer era.

[Phạm Trúc · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sách này chỉ có thể đọc online vì k tái bản nữa. Kiến thức trong đây hoàn toàn ko lỗi thời dù gần 10 năm đã qua

[Natalie Hernandez · Rating 2 out of 5]

While there are good points made, it is generally a tired and oversimplified explanation of the PR function

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

公关第一，广告第二