4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
Mediocre follow-up to "Jump Start Your Brain", 2005-08-06
The average 5-star rating that this book has received to date is interesting. My 2-star rating credits Doug Hall's follow-up to his classic "Jump Start Your Brain" text with introducing readers to basic marketing in an enthusiastic manner. However, unlike the first "Jump Start" book (refer to the associated 5-star review I wrote for that text), there really is no uniqueness to this book when compared to other business-related marketing books except for the style in which the material is presented. Hall constantly brings up his "Merwyn" probability success tool that is being sold to the reader as a good way to predict the outcome of their product ideas, but since it is a proprietary tool there is no concrete explanation of the analytics behind the tool. Often, the book seems like it is merely a 300+-page sales pitch for Merwyn (and by the way, there is even a coupon in the book to get a one-time discount on use of his tool through the author's firm). After reading "Jump Start Your Business Brain" line by line for the first few chapters, it became quickly apparent that there is definitely a large amount of non-value-added fluff in the material. I still highly recommend "Jump Start Your Brain", but I do not believe this new Hall effort is worth your time unless you are completely new to marketing theory.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
If you own just one buisness book, this is the one to have., 2005-04-09
If there is only one business book to own, this is it!
Doug Hall lays out a straight forward, highly logical, and common sense means to communicate with your customers. Using his approach of communicating through overt benefits, dynamic difference, and real reason to believe, your business is sure to grow. This is a keeper!
3 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
What a disappointment, 2004-03-24
I buy about a book a week from Amazon and never write reviews - but I have to on this one. Did you buy one of the original Apple Ipods? All the PR and reviews got your expectations up - only to find out that they went cheap on the battery. It lasts about 3-minutes. Big disappointment. It was capable of so much more.
Same with this book. I LOVED Hall's first book. Great breakthrough stuff. So when this one was released I got in the pre-publication line. I saved the book for a Saturday cross-country plane ride ready to savor. Had the highlighter all ready and - bummer. Couldn't believe it.
It's the equivlant of "Eat plenty of vegetables, get plenty of sleep and brush your teeth every day." Mundane, sophormoric stuff to be associated with the name Doug Hall. Not at all in the same league as his first book - a masterpiece. This guy is so much better than this cute little book of lists. I'll buy his next one, pay money to go see him - but this isn't the Doug Hall of the first book.
6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
Tried and true ideas, reasonably well presented., 2003-12-31
The book is full of marketing truisms that are presented better elsewhere, but set forth here as if they were new discoveries. For example, "benefits sell more than features." Well, duh! You already know this if you have read a single introductory marketing text. That said, the book's positive point is the energy with which he conveys the information, and it is a reasonably engaging read. The negative point is the ego of the author rises to the level of distraction.
So what's with all the glib five star reviews this book has received? Was I missing the point, was I reading a different book, or were there a few reviews planted by the publisher?
3 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
Up Your Business Success Odds to 80 percent/TESTED !!, 2003-04-29
Up Your Business Success Odds to 80 percent/TESTED TO WORK!!
Is your business or business or product idea focused in a way that makes its success chances from 60 to over 80%?
Or is it in the 17 to 23 % range that most people achieve?
Would you like a guide that explains the 3 principles that can help you to make that upgrade & that has been tested to work ??
Would you like a way to test your marketing materials IN ADVANCE & know how successful they're likely to be--that also has been found to be accurate in practice to within a few percentage points?
How about detailed, reasonably easy to use, tips from a man who successfully teaches Fortune 500 exec's how to do all this?
If so, immediately buy, read, & use this book !!
You'll be dramatically glad you did !!
I think it's one of the 3 best business books ever written.
David Eller