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No B.S. Marketing to the Affluent (Fourth Edition): The Ultimate No Holds Barred, Take No Prisoners, Guide to Getting Really Rich
THE SCARY TRUTH: The middle-class consumer population?and their buying power?is massively shrinking. Customers are buying less and in fewer categories.
360 pages, Paperback
Published September 2, 2025
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1128 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 31 reviews
June 22, 2023
The beginning of this book is a love letter to Donald Trump. So much so that I thought I had the wrong book. I bought a book on marketing not politics but once you get past that, this individual goes on to break down different entry points to wealthy clientele.
The part I found particularly disgusting was his section on the LGBTQ community. Having run an LGBTQ chamber since 2010, I already knew that the community had over a trillion dollars in spending power. I have no idea where he got his facts regarding the LGBTQ economy but a huge number of trans and LGBTQ youth are homeless or make under $10,000 a year due to the homophobia Dan Kennedy seems to co-sign at the beginning of the chapter (“The thought of marketing to the LGBTQ community is probably making your skin crawl”) but what’s particularly disgusting is he tells marketers to market to the LGBTQ community but to be sure to HIDE THEIR LGBTQ MARKETING FROM THEIR HETEROSEXUAL CUSTOMERS 😳
What??
First, how do you hide marketing? That is the strangest thing I’ve ever heard. Hide your marketing from your customers? How do you do that exactly? I guess you’re supposed to tag and segment your LGBTQ customers with a scarlet letter and be very careful to send them emails that don’t go to your heterosexual customers. But wait! You’re marketing to get new customers so these people would not be on your email list to begin with so again, I’m confused.
Any real marketer knows that you cannot market to a community that you do not understand. We create avatars of our ideal customer and in order to do that, we have to know that customer as well as their pain points. Mr. Kennedy has no interest in Understanding the LGBTQ community, only marketing to them because of their perceived wealth. Doing this will not work because the LGBTQ community, just like any other community, is savvy and they can tell when a marketing asset is not truly aimed at them, but rather their rainbow dollars. And also, painting the LGBTQ community as a monolith is as dangerous as painting communities of color as monoliths
Marketing to the LGBTQ community requires an internal culture of inclusion which isn’t happening if you’re hiding LGBTQ marketing assets from the heterosexual community. To market to the LGBTQ community, you must have cultural competency in a way that Mr. Kennedy doesn’t understand. A marketer who takes his advice is going to end up getting canceled because they’re not going to do the additional work necessary to truly connect with the LGBTQ community, make a huge bungling mistake and end up damaging their brand.
He says in the book “marketing to the LGBTQ community is probably making your skin crawl but not marketing to them is a bad business decision”.
Listen: if the very thought of the LGBTQ community makes your skin crawl, stay away. A seasoned marketer should not blur the lines between marketing and exploitation. There are other communities with wealth who are better in line with your values, market to them instead. With over 400 anti-LGBTQ bills this year alone, the community has enough problems.
The part I found particularly disgusting was his section on the LGBTQ community. Having run an LGBTQ chamber since 2010, I already knew that the community had over a trillion dollars in spending power. I have no idea where he got his facts regarding the LGBTQ economy but a huge number of trans and LGBTQ youth are homeless or make under $10,000 a year due to the homophobia Dan Kennedy seems to co-sign at the beginning of the chapter (“The thought of marketing to the LGBTQ community is probably making your skin crawl”) but what’s particularly disgusting is he tells marketers to market to the LGBTQ community but to be sure to HIDE THEIR LGBTQ MARKETING FROM THEIR HETEROSEXUAL CUSTOMERS 😳
What??
First, how do you hide marketing? That is the strangest thing I’ve ever heard. Hide your marketing from your customers? How do you do that exactly? I guess you’re supposed to tag and segment your LGBTQ customers with a scarlet letter and be very careful to send them emails that don’t go to your heterosexual customers. But wait! You’re marketing to get new customers so these people would not be on your email list to begin with so again, I’m confused.
Any real marketer knows that you cannot market to a community that you do not understand. We create avatars of our ideal customer and in order to do that, we have to know that customer as well as their pain points. Mr. Kennedy has no interest in Understanding the LGBTQ community, only marketing to them because of their perceived wealth. Doing this will not work because the LGBTQ community, just like any other community, is savvy and they can tell when a marketing asset is not truly aimed at them, but rather their rainbow dollars. And also, painting the LGBTQ community as a monolith is as dangerous as painting communities of color as monoliths
Marketing to the LGBTQ community requires an internal culture of inclusion which isn’t happening if you’re hiding LGBTQ marketing assets from the heterosexual community. To market to the LGBTQ community, you must have cultural competency in a way that Mr. Kennedy doesn’t understand. A marketer who takes his advice is going to end up getting canceled because they’re not going to do the additional work necessary to truly connect with the LGBTQ community, make a huge bungling mistake and end up damaging their brand.
He says in the book “marketing to the LGBTQ community is probably making your skin crawl but not marketing to them is a bad business decision”.
Listen: if the very thought of the LGBTQ community makes your skin crawl, stay away. A seasoned marketer should not blur the lines between marketing and exploitation. There are other communities with wealth who are better in line with your values, market to them instead. With over 400 anti-LGBTQ bills this year alone, the community has enough problems.
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January 31, 2017"The most successful marketers learn not to question how the public or their customers get value--only to strive to find out about it, recognize it, and capitalize on it. To be of service means offering and delivering what customers value; that's the role of the businessperson" (135).
May 31, 2016
Dan Kennedy's book can be summed up in four words: Good strategies, questionable principles. The book, despite its numerous claims to the contrary, is clearly written for the rich white straight male. While it provides a lot of useful information about the psychology and the behavior of the affluent, several asides and comments- such as those assuming that the reader has partaken in certain luxury goods and services- tell the reader that Dan Kennedy is communicating to others of his ilk. Furthermore, there is the line that Dan Kennedy drops in the preface, underlined and written in all caps for emphasis:
"If you would rather chop off your own hand with a dull axe before letting it hand over your credit card to buy a $4,195 cloth purse or spend $8,000 to fly somewhere that Southwest goes to for $49, or join former Senator John Edwards at the salon for a $400 haircut and then the architect's office to plan a 26,000-square-foot-home or pay $6,200 for a hand-carved mahogany umbrella rack, then you do not understand the rich and are therefore banned from success in selling to them." (Page xx)
This, I think, is Dan Kennedy's biggest error: assuming that those who market to the rich must think like the affluent in order to find success with them, and this is simply untrue. One can market to the affluent without becoming like them. Furthermore, Kennedy repeatedly indicates that he believes the rich should answer to no one and that they should have no societal obligations of any sort, and he frequently takes a moment to mention the fact that he quite looks up to Donald Trump- which, in and of itself, is a huge red flag. This veers into the territory of the philosophical/political and is not the main subject of this review but I wanted to demonstrate the kind of mindset that Kennedy has throughout the entire book.
His techniques and strategies seem solid and are well-researched, in many areas it's clear that the man knows what he's talking about. The last half of the book is where most of the concrete information that can be applied to business is found, and for that I would give the book a solid three stars. Perhaps Kennedy is simply doing his best to keep and attract the affluent customers he caters to, but in many areas, he doesn't give the issue of class the complexity it deserves.
"If you would rather chop off your own hand with a dull axe before letting it hand over your credit card to buy a $4,195 cloth purse or spend $8,000 to fly somewhere that Southwest goes to for $49, or join former Senator John Edwards at the salon for a $400 haircut and then the architect's office to plan a 26,000-square-foot-home or pay $6,200 for a hand-carved mahogany umbrella rack, then you do not understand the rich and are therefore banned from success in selling to them." (Page xx)
This, I think, is Dan Kennedy's biggest error: assuming that those who market to the rich must think like the affluent in order to find success with them, and this is simply untrue. One can market to the affluent without becoming like them. Furthermore, Kennedy repeatedly indicates that he believes the rich should answer to no one and that they should have no societal obligations of any sort, and he frequently takes a moment to mention the fact that he quite looks up to Donald Trump- which, in and of itself, is a huge red flag. This veers into the territory of the philosophical/political and is not the main subject of this review but I wanted to demonstrate the kind of mindset that Kennedy has throughout the entire book.
His techniques and strategies seem solid and are well-researched, in many areas it's clear that the man knows what he's talking about. The last half of the book is where most of the concrete information that can be applied to business is found, and for that I would give the book a solid three stars. Perhaps Kennedy is simply doing his best to keep and attract the affluent customers he caters to, but in many areas, he doesn't give the issue of class the complexity it deserves.
June 17, 2016
I'm very disappointed by this book after having such high expectations for it. My main gripe is that it lists too many examples which focused on some types of businesses, not psychological theories which can be universally applied across all industries – so I skipped some parts to get to the pages which might have /some/ relevance to my individual situation.
"No BS Guide to Attracting Wealth in the New Economy" might be of greater help to you if you're interested in the psychological aspect of marketing to the ultra-rich.
"No BS Guide to Attracting Wealth in the New Economy" might be of greater help to you if you're interested in the psychological aspect of marketing to the ultra-rich.
March 22, 2015
Every so often a book comes along that has an interesting title or the promise of some great insight, yet once you open it up it is a bit too easy to put down thanks to its style or approach.
This is one such book, sadly, as the concept is interesting – how you can market your company’s products or services to the affluent, those who often have the money and desire to consume and price is rarely the key factor.
Yet this book just stood out and irritated the heck out of this reviewer from the get-go. Stupid graphics, meaningless font changes and irrational styling issues just meant that any useful content got lost in the noise and probably will remain ignored, unread and not implemented. Life is too short, there is no shortage of business books and you need to form a close affinity or relationship with your book.
This is a shame as the book’s publicity blurb promised a lot and it might have delivered it. Certainly random jumps into the book yielded nuggets of interesting information and issues to think about, yet the “buggeration factor” just felt too great. This is a real disappointment as this publishing company has produced a lot of great entrepreneurship and business-related books in an entirely different style that combines powerful information dissemination with accessibility and friendliness. Let’s hope that normal service will be resumed in the future.
Unsure? Check the book in a store and see if you can live with the irritations. It might still work for you.
No B.S. Marketing to the Affluent, written by Dan S. Kennedy and published by Entrepreneur Press. ISBN 9781599185361, 428 pages. YYY
This is one such book, sadly, as the concept is interesting – how you can market your company’s products or services to the affluent, those who often have the money and desire to consume and price is rarely the key factor.
Yet this book just stood out and irritated the heck out of this reviewer from the get-go. Stupid graphics, meaningless font changes and irrational styling issues just meant that any useful content got lost in the noise and probably will remain ignored, unread and not implemented. Life is too short, there is no shortage of business books and you need to form a close affinity or relationship with your book.
This is a shame as the book’s publicity blurb promised a lot and it might have delivered it. Certainly random jumps into the book yielded nuggets of interesting information and issues to think about, yet the “buggeration factor” just felt too great. This is a real disappointment as this publishing company has produced a lot of great entrepreneurship and business-related books in an entirely different style that combines powerful information dissemination with accessibility and friendliness. Let’s hope that normal service will be resumed in the future.
Unsure? Check the book in a store and see if you can live with the irritations. It might still work for you.
No B.S. Marketing to the Affluent, written by Dan S. Kennedy and published by Entrepreneur Press. ISBN 9781599185361, 428 pages. YYY
January 9, 2024
This was a brilliant read - written in true 'NO BS' fashion as with all Dan Kennedys genius work and books...
Some may disagree with its harsh principles , but they are true and it really helped broaden my mind and help me see how should position my business , think outside the box - to the massive affluent market and oceans of money really is on offer for us marketers out there without worrying about competition or lack of abundance thinking
My review won't do it justice - if your a marketer / biz owner - regardless your niche ... Simply go and buy this book and read it NOW , you will not be disappointed
To Our Continued Success!
Seemy
Waseem.tv/Blog
👆🏼 P.S -
If you found this review helpful - I’d like to invite you to discover more on our blog. Where the community share some of our most important insights to level up each others knowledge 💡- from experience in studying books like this, training programs, podcasts and much more - visit the blog link above to find out more.
P.P.S 😅 - You probably noticed from my profile that I’ve reviewed a LOT of books over the years now - if you love seeking knowledge like me I’d love to connect with you further as a like minded person (send me a friend invite! 😀) - Also if you are curious - here is my preferred and recommended resource for seeking timeless wisdom - Check it out via the website invite link below 👇🏼 (You’ll be able to claim some awesome books for free 📚)
https://Waseem.tv/GoodReadsBookInvite
Some may disagree with its harsh principles , but they are true and it really helped broaden my mind and help me see how should position my business , think outside the box - to the massive affluent market and oceans of money really is on offer for us marketers out there without worrying about competition or lack of abundance thinking
My review won't do it justice - if your a marketer / biz owner - regardless your niche ... Simply go and buy this book and read it NOW , you will not be disappointed
To Our Continued Success!
Seemy
Waseem.tv/Blog
👆🏼 P.S -
If you found this review helpful - I’d like to invite you to discover more on our blog. Where the community share some of our most important insights to level up each others knowledge 💡- from experience in studying books like this, training programs, podcasts and much more - visit the blog link above to find out more.
P.P.S 😅 - You probably noticed from my profile that I’ve reviewed a LOT of books over the years now - if you love seeking knowledge like me I’d love to connect with you further as a like minded person (send me a friend invite! 😀) - Also if you are curious - here is my preferred and recommended resource for seeking timeless wisdom - Check it out via the website invite link below 👇🏼 (You’ll be able to claim some awesome books for free 📚)
https://Waseem.tv/GoodReadsBookInvite
September 26, 2025
Have you ever wondered why anyone would be willing to pay $14,000 for a watch when there are perfectly good alternatives on Groupon for like...$12 bucks?
Not only that, but have you ever wondered how someone could afford to spend such an obscene amount of money on something so ubiquitous as a watch?
Well, clearly you don't understand the rich.
If you want to be able to understand what makes the top 10% of the wealthiest people in the world tick, and you want to be able to start putting together offers for these folks then...it's time to read this book.
The enemy of success is ignorance and inaction.
Learn this basic outline of how your BEST target customer with money thinks, what they want to spend their money on, why they want to spend it on those things and how to setup your own game plan to be able to do it yourself, and go do it for yourself.
The road map is right here.
Not only that, but have you ever wondered how someone could afford to spend such an obscene amount of money on something so ubiquitous as a watch?
Well, clearly you don't understand the rich.
If you want to be able to understand what makes the top 10% of the wealthiest people in the world tick, and you want to be able to start putting together offers for these folks then...it's time to read this book.
The enemy of success is ignorance and inaction.
Learn this basic outline of how your BEST target customer with money thinks, what they want to spend their money on, why they want to spend it on those things and how to setup your own game plan to be able to do it yourself, and go do it for yourself.
The road map is right here.
April 11, 2015
This was an awesome book.
Dan Kennedy definitely outlines a lot of psychology around marketing and selling to the affluent and I have a lot of stuff I've underlined and taken away from this book.
It really goes into detail about how you need to market differently than an average product to the masses and what tools you need to use to make that happen. I particularly liked the case study at the end of the book to wrap up as a whole what was written in the book.
Lot of great ideas that I should act on and something I should read every 2-3 years.
Dan Kennedy definitely outlines a lot of psychology around marketing and selling to the affluent and I have a lot of stuff I've underlined and taken away from this book.
It really goes into detail about how you need to market differently than an average product to the masses and what tools you need to use to make that happen. I particularly liked the case study at the end of the book to wrap up as a whole what was written in the book.
Lot of great ideas that I should act on and something I should read every 2-3 years.
October 21, 2014
This was a very good book. It was very honest (in other words, it lived up to its name of No B.S.!). I think that other entrepreneurs should read a variety of books like this from different authors. Dan Kennedy's perspective is just one of many. While his tough advice may have worked for him, it's not necessarily going to work in every market (even if you are exclusively marketing to the affluent!).
July 6, 2008
Seems to me one of his better books I've experienced reading of his. Very informative in detailed in giving insights of the mind of the various types of affluent people. Like all of his books, it leads you to subscribe to his service(s). He's one of the top in marketing.
September 7, 2012
Awesome book. Super insightful into the lives and mindset of the affluent. Helps to get to know them better and understand business/marketing much much better. Definitely reading the other books from D. Kennedy as well!
December 31, 2010
Mmm. I got bogged down in the Boomers section.
March 6, 2013
Good information. The presentation of the information is good, with some practical tips for targeting a number of demographic profiles of affluent audiences.
April 4, 2015
Very good book about different marketing concepts. Very well researched and lots of information.
September 7, 2015
Probably Dan's meatiest book to date. I read it twice.
January 11, 2022
Great tips and practical advice. However, for much of the book, I half cringed by the adulation of Donald Trump, capitalism, and his insensitivity to those who are not straight, white males.
"For those of you who are gender- or political-correctness sensitive, to head off letters: I have predominately used he, him, and so throughout the book with only occasional exception, rather awkwardly saying he or she, him or her. I do not mean this as .1 slight to women, only as a convenience. I am not getting paid the word..."
He prefaced the book by taking the time to write this, but didn't put in the time to correct his own writing?
Additionally, he dedicates an entire chapter to how the rich are largely optimistic, gleefully using an example of the stock market and the media. Multiple times he expresses his disdain for the mainstream media, which are such overused buzz words from the far-right that it makes me cringe.
Finally:
"I'm willing to say here what hardly anybody else is: The vast majority of readers of this of marketers, heterosexuals who may having no problems with gays, but are, in truth, uncomfortable and squeamish about the very idea of designing advertising and marketing programs to attract them as customers, clients, or patients. This chapter may even be making your skin crawl. You may have religious or morality-based beliefs that interfere with tolerance, let alone acceptance. "
This chapter about gays and lesbians made me uneasy, as if he did not fathom that gay and lesbian people could actually be reading his book.
"For those of you who are gender- or political-correctness sensitive, to head off letters: I have predominately used he, him, and so throughout the book with only occasional exception, rather awkwardly saying he or she, him or her. I do not mean this as .1 slight to women, only as a convenience. I am not getting paid the word..."
He prefaced the book by taking the time to write this, but didn't put in the time to correct his own writing?
Additionally, he dedicates an entire chapter to how the rich are largely optimistic, gleefully using an example of the stock market and the media. Multiple times he expresses his disdain for the mainstream media, which are such overused buzz words from the far-right that it makes me cringe.
Finally:
"I'm willing to say here what hardly anybody else is: The vast majority of readers of this of marketers, heterosexuals who may having no problems with gays, but are, in truth, uncomfortable and squeamish about the very idea of designing advertising and marketing programs to attract them as customers, clients, or patients. This chapter may even be making your skin crawl. You may have religious or morality-based beliefs that interfere with tolerance, let alone acceptance. "
This chapter about gays and lesbians made me uneasy, as if he did not fathom that gay and lesbian people could actually be reading his book.
August 19, 2025
This book is light in style and charged with useful (and rather eye-opening) statistics.
I think those who liked books like The Millionaire Next Door by Thomas J. Stanley or Risk Savvy by Gerd Gigerenzer will love this.
I found it to be nothing super new on one side, but also refreshingly objective in terms of various sources and numbers it describes.
I think the primary reason it has so many negative reviews is that there are still people out there who like to believe what they read, and not what's playing out in front of their eyes. Because the book-presented reality of the market has been somewhat more comfy. While "No B.S. Marketing To The Affluent" calls out many other false claims and, for once, is actually describing (and backing it up with statistics that include longer periods of times - meaning you realize you might've been wrong about so many of your beliefs before...) what's been happening and is happening right in front of our eyes.
I found all the chapters about the baby boomer generation to be the most gratifying. Finally someone has set the record straight.
I highly recommend this to any start-up or sales person who wants a competitive edge in the real world.
Thank you to Entrepreneur Press for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.
I think those who liked books like The Millionaire Next Door by Thomas J. Stanley or Risk Savvy by Gerd Gigerenzer will love this.
I found it to be nothing super new on one side, but also refreshingly objective in terms of various sources and numbers it describes.
I think the primary reason it has so many negative reviews is that there are still people out there who like to believe what they read, and not what's playing out in front of their eyes. Because the book-presented reality of the market has been somewhat more comfy. While "No B.S. Marketing To The Affluent" calls out many other false claims and, for once, is actually describing (and backing it up with statistics that include longer periods of times - meaning you realize you might've been wrong about so many of your beliefs before...) what's been happening and is happening right in front of our eyes.
I found all the chapters about the baby boomer generation to be the most gratifying. Finally someone has set the record straight.
I highly recommend this to any start-up or sales person who wants a competitive edge in the real world.
Thank you to Entrepreneur Press for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.
July 22, 2025
Surprisingly large amounts of Bullshit. The first 5 to 10% of this edition, published early in the first Trump administration was actually about how Obama was running the middle class into the ground and how, maybe Trump was going to save the middle class. You can agree or disagree with his politics, but I think it is more difficult to argue that this is anything other than bullshit unrelated to marketing. To name your book “No BS Marketing” and then tee off with pure political bullshit unrelated to marketing struck me as a strange move. He tries to tie it into his overall argument, but he failed to sufficiently justify it. I skipped ahead to the meat of the book, but I did not find it any less BS.
Read between 5-10%, hard to tell because I jumped around.
Read between 5-10%, hard to tell because I jumped around.
December 17, 2022
I feel there is so much information here that I have no clue how to absorb it effectively. Don't get me wrong, it's a great book! It's just overwhelming and it will be hard to apply the lion's share until some basics are in play. I'll be looking into more of Dan Kennedy's books. I feel they can make a difference to business owners like myself.
September 29, 2025
Awesome read. This was my first book read from Dan Kennedy and suffice it to say I plan on reading more of his materials.
While this book wasn't the most tactical, the frameworks for interacting with the affluent are invaluable to read clearly laid out. There is a little information nuanced for mass-affluent buyers from material found in Dan's other books.
While this book wasn't the most tactical, the frameworks for interacting with the affluent are invaluable to read clearly laid out. There is a little information nuanced for mass-affluent buyers from material found in Dan's other books.
April 21, 2020
Interesting book that teaches some good economic lessons and takes an unbiased approach. The main point of the book that I understood was pay attention as a business owner and adapt weather the reality fits your ideals or not.
February 3, 2024
A worthwhile addition to the library, including parts about de-linking price from product, approaching selling to the affluent from the customer's perspective, elements of the "Value Pyramid", the "7 Pillars of Authority Marketing", and how to appeal to the emotional factors in decisions to buy.
November 16, 2024
For a book proclaiming to be "no B.S.", he sure rambles a lot. As a true marketer, he talks a lot without saying much.
It seems the first 10% of the book is just scaring you to realize that you must target rich people or see your business destroyed. Of course he is then "calling you to action" to contact him for helping your market your business better. A true marketer, scaring you and then presenting the solution (paying him more money).
I will update this if he gives any actionable advice. Until now it's a LOT of filler and rambling, and not much actionable info.
UPDATE: I'm at half the book and there is quite a bit of information, so it's useful after all. Could have still been half in size.
It seems the first 10% of the book is just scaring you to realize that you must target rich people or see your business destroyed. Of course he is then "calling you to action" to contact him for helping your market your business better. A true marketer, scaring you and then presenting the solution (paying him more money).
I will update this if he gives any actionable advice. Until now it's a LOT of filler and rambling, and not much actionable info.
UPDATE: I'm at half the book and there is quite a bit of information, so it's useful after all. Could have still been half in size.
December 4, 2019
Great book for business owners who want to go premium in their business.
January 5, 2021
A couple of useful nuggets, but the author comes across as so sleazy and horrible that I'd be hard pushed to recommend this to anyone.
May 18, 2022
Very good and a quick read. Kennedy provides a lot of good ideas, and things to think through for any business along with tons of practical example.
May 19, 2022
Dan Kennedy absolute big deal marketing master, his knowledge about marketing and understanding the top 20% of the rich help you to determine your products.
July 11, 2023
Great case studies towards the end. Showing practically how to use the strategies across industries. Great breakdown of generations too.
January 21, 2024
Selling and marketing is hard. This is one of those books I found to be useful for selling to a certain target demographic.
February 19, 2024
Some useful knowledge and insights. I have mixed feelings about some of the author's opinions though.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 31 reviews