Dave Balter
Autore di Grapevine: The New Art of Word-of-Mouth Marketing
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Informazioni generali
- Sesso
- male
- Breve biografia
- CEO Dave Balter founded BzzAgent in 2001. Since that time, his company has provided word-of-mouth media services for dozens of Fortune 500 companies and has been featured in The New York Times Sunday Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, The Economist and on National Public Radio.
A co-founder and current executive council member of The Word of Mouth Marketing Association, Dave is an international speaker on the topic of word-of-mouth marketing. The author of two books on the subject, Grapevine: The New Art of Word-of-Mouth Marketing and The Word of Mouth Manual: Volume II, Dave has presented for corporations, associations and non-profit groups around the world.
Dubbed a "serial entrepreneur" by The Boston Globe, Dave built and sold two promotional agencies prior to forming BzzAgent. In 2008, he was recognized as a Future Legend by the AdClub and he was named to the "40 under 40" list by The Boston Business Journal and Advertising Specialty Institute.
His commitment to corporate transparency has resulted in five innovative blogs, which were profiled in Inc. Magazine and the Harvard Business Review and later earned an Award of Excellence from the Society of New Communications research. Dave earned a B.A. in Psychology from Skidmore College and aspires to build the world's largest rock garden.
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I had high hopes when I snagged this book from the shelf at my local Barnes & Noble. Jacket copy was great. Concept was right on. And the early chapters held a lot of promise. But what I discovered once I had read it all the way through, was that it was more an advertisement for BzzAgent (the author's company) than a true "here's how you can leverage wom marketing" book. I did learn some things. It raised my own awareness as to how much we talk about products in our daily conversations. The power of the "average" person's opinion vs. a maven. The "weird" power of negative wom. And a few other things. But overall I was disappointed. The author loathes schills--people who pretend to pass along their endoresement without revealing their connection to the manufacturer. Yet his own BzzAgents, as their called, pretty much do the same thing. I suppose if they disclose they ARE BzzAgents when they talk about a product it sort of makes it OK. But overall, I can't really recommend shucking out $24.95 (as I did) for the book. Borrow mine instead!… (altro)
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Statistiche
- Opere
- 4
- Opere correlate
- 1
- Utenti
- 73
- Popolarità
- #240,526
- Voto
- 3.5
- Recensioni
- 2
- ISBN
- 7
I was invited to download this book for free as a member of BzzAgent, a word of mouth marketing company. BzzAgent is sort of like Early Reviewers, only with all sorts of products. I've mostly stuck to their book-related campaigns in the years I've been a member, but I've also discovered some other interesting products through the site.
The book is pretty interesting. It's evidently a sort of extended add for BzzAgent and for the marketing concepts Balter has developed, but I didn't find that that took too much away from the reading experience. Balter backs up his ideas with concrete examples of word of mouth marketing that's worked. Most of these are pretty modern, (ie, the iPhone and the hoopla that surrounded its release), but there are also a few older examples, (ie, the Grateful Dead). As is often the case with books that discuss marketing phenomena, I can see it reading as somewhat dated in a couple of years, but right now I found it very effective. I also found many of the stories pretty entertaining. I can see myself bringing up some of these examples in conversation.
The book is nicely organized. Balter begins by discussing some basic marketing concepts, then moves into a deeper discussion of word of mouth. He talks about its strengths, its weaknesses, and the ways companies can make it work for them. As a private individual, I do find it rather disconcerting to read about the ways companies try to manipulate consumers, but I don't think there was much, if any, emphasis on bilking people here. Balter emphasizes that word of mouth needs to be true. People can and should talk about what they liked about products, but they should also tell each other what they disliked. It's an interesting approach, and according to the author companies can benefit just as much from negative publicity as from positive endorsements. As long as people are talking, it's all good.
All in all, I found this worth reading. I'd recommend it to anyone with an interest in admin studies or marketing techniques. You can download it for free from this website..… (altro)