The cover of Preston John’s book on 21st Century Advertising for New Home Builders features a digital representation of a house on a sleek new laptop, visually promising a book full of information on utilizing today’s technology to its fullest potential when selling homes in today’s marketplace.

What you’ll find inside, however, is a brief little refresher on the basics of marketing and advertising, the kind that you might find yourself subjected to at an overpriced motivational seminar. With its small novelty book dimensions, the book looks, feels, and reads like something you might receive in a goody bag at such an event.

The book opens with an eight page comparison of the housing market to buying eggs, and the level of usefulness never really rises above that. The selling of new homes is neatly broken down into “The 5M’s” (which I will not reveal out of courtesy to prospective readers), which are listed and explained in great detail, but with as little actual detail as possible.

All of the advice and information given is done so in the broadest of general terms. For example: the chapter titled “Questions & Answers” contains only three questions spend over six (little) pages, and the answers are overwhelmingly self-explanatory. “How should I handle TV advertising?” The answer given, of course, is that you should hire a professional advertiser.

The author urges new home builders to purchase and utilize the proper computer software to chart and analyze their market research, but makes no attempt to recommend any specific programs. The chapter dedicated “Online Advertising” does not site a single website. Not even willing to offer the proper documentation for the definition of “Market”, the author forgoes an actual dictionary and instead offers his own definition of what you might find “If you were to look it up in a very conservative dictionary.”

If you were to look up advice in a very informative book, you might actually find detailed examples and lists of sources for further research. Unfortunately, this isn’t that kind of book. ( )

Received this as an Early Reviewer book. Shared this with my husband who is the builder in the family. He found it very interesting and helpful. Reinforced some ideas he had, and gave new ones for advertising homes. ( )

Everything may have changed, but you wouldn't know it from this book. It's the same old marketing rules-of-the-road in a slightly updated, but inconsequential package. Two thumbs down.

The book is barely readable. The pages are small with a big font. As a result, there are but a handful of sentences on each page. You are turning the page before a thought has even appeared.

Even with such a short book, it is in need of some strong editing to get the message across and remove the ramblings. ( )

This is a fairly small book that covers the essence of advertising (similar to many marketing books, but focused on the new home builder here). The book is arranged around the 5 M’s. (1) Market – know your customer, (2) money – no rules-of-thumb other than to try different ideas and test to see what works, (3) media – mostly customer segmentation and descriptions of different advertising mediums, (4) message – copy writing with little integration with the other M’s, and (5) messenger – creative strategy with little on the topic.

I am not sure why this book is subtitled “everything has changed” since the main example of change given in the first chapter addresses broad changes in the procurement of eggs reflecting change over several centuries. Also, little of the change brought about by the internet is really addressed other than one of many advertising mediums and the importance of the web site as a marketing centerpiece. In a later chapter that focuses on the builder’s web site, most recommendations remain at a high level with a recommendation to use advertising to drive people to the web site since that is where they are likely to already be going for information. From a marketing perspective, most marketing books published in the last decade captures the essence of this book, usually in much more detail though not specific to the new home construction industry.

The book is entirely one of text with no charts, figures, or images. Many of the topics discussed would benefit from visual examples, especially when advertising is concerned.

From another point of view, what is missing is a good discussion on strategic market segmentation and assistance for the builder looking for the right niche to meet his/her resources, business model, and stage of life. The book (admittedly by design) remains focused on advertising while overlooking recent trends in what new home buyers are looking for in new custom or spec homes. The author said “the builder who gets ahead is the one who is dedicated to fully understanding and incorporating modern sales and marketing techniques into their day-to-day advertising and business maneuverings.” From this reader’s perspective, the successful builder is the one who integrates their marketing and advertising techniques within a comprehensive and well thought out business strategy.

The book provides no background on the author, making it difficult to judge his expertise in this field. ( )