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Just Evil Enough: The Subversive Marketing Handbook
Looking for an advantage in an unfair world?
The rules of poker tell you how to play—but not how to win. You win by bluffing, looking for your opponent’s tells, remembering cards, and intimidation. So why is it that in business we spend so much time teaching the rules, and so little finding new ways to win?
For the last decade, expert in strategic communications Emily Ross and bestselling business author Alistair Croll have studied hundreds of brands, start-ups, leaders, and activists that employed an unfair advantage to conquer their competition. Here they offer an insight into their innovative go-to-market strategy in an attention economy that they call Just Evil Enough.
Packed with fascinating case studies that will inspire your inner supervillain, Just Evil Enough includes practical frameworks like the Recon Canvas and the Long Funnel, along with eleven fundamental tactics such as Reframing, Bait-and-Switch, and Misappropriation that show up time and again when underdogs challenge the status quo and reinvent their industries.
Revealing the secrets and mindset of some of the best subversive marketers in the business, Just Evil Enough is the essential handbook for anyone who wants to cut through the noise and stride ahead in the attention economy.
The rules of poker tell you how to play—but not how to win. You win by bluffing, looking for your opponent’s tells, remembering cards, and intimidation. So why is it that in business we spend so much time teaching the rules, and so little finding new ways to win?
For the last decade, expert in strategic communications Emily Ross and bestselling business author Alistair Croll have studied hundreds of brands, start-ups, leaders, and activists that employed an unfair advantage to conquer their competition. Here they offer an insight into their innovative go-to-market strategy in an attention economy that they call Just Evil Enough.
Packed with fascinating case studies that will inspire your inner supervillain, Just Evil Enough includes practical frameworks like the Recon Canvas and the Long Funnel, along with eleven fundamental tactics such as Reframing, Bait-and-Switch, and Misappropriation that show up time and again when underdogs challenge the status quo and reinvent their industries.
Revealing the secrets and mindset of some of the best subversive marketers in the business, Just Evil Enough is the essential handbook for anyone who wants to cut through the noise and stride ahead in the attention economy.
- GenresBusiness
621 pages, Kindle Edition
Published March 6, 2025
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
August 3, 2026
I don't work in marketing but I am interested in how products are marketed as a "survivor" of two startups and now onto my third. I thought the book was interesting enough but I was weirdly struck by two mistakes that jumped out at me because I am a comic book nerd and a 30 year veteran of tech.
The first, stated that Stan Lee was the creator of comic book characters Peter Parker and Lois Lane. Well Stan surely got credit for co-creating Peter Parker he had nothing to do with Lois Lane (Siegel and Shuster).
The second was that Windows 95 was the first graphical user interface. Which is weird considering the book references Xerox contributions to the field in other chapters.
These two bloopers made me question the veracity of the rest of the books facts.
The first, stated that Stan Lee was the creator of comic book characters Peter Parker and Lois Lane. Well Stan surely got credit for co-creating Peter Parker he had nothing to do with Lois Lane (Siegel and Shuster).
The second was that Windows 95 was the first graphical user interface. Which is weird considering the book references Xerox contributions to the field in other chapters.
These two bloopers made me question the veracity of the rest of the books facts.
May 8, 2025
I think this is now the ABC of modern go to market strategy. Must have for anyone building a business or stuck in non-growth place.
November 12, 2025
It’s good. Audiobook version has some weird errors where the narrator clearly reads the wrong line or slips up on a sentence and then goes back to re-read it.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews