Just ran across a review of BRANDING UNBOUND from Public Relations Quarterly.
I appreciate the excellent job this reviewer does in not just considering the benefits of the mobile medium as I've spelled them out in the book, but also the caveats I've attached to this notion. As I say in the book, mobile marketing offers great potential for those who judiciously use its power to connect with their audience and deliver value to them, and peril to those who don't.
This particular review is geared to public relations professionals, but is true for all marketing communications disciplines. It reads, in part:
“Wireless technology has improved dramatically for businesses and consumers today helping to shorten the business supply chain, track product and consumer habits and increasingly reach people at the right time and right place. In slightly more than 200 pages, Mathieson has done an excellent job of explaining the broad wireless arena that impacts every segment of business and industry.
More importantly and uniquely he has tailored the technology in terms that public relations people can understand. A great part of the credit for the clarification has to be in his approach of involving marketing and communications experts into the book who understand the technologies. We found the Q&A sections of the book with Seth Godin, Don Peppers, Christopher Locke, Gary Hamel and Howard Rheingold to be extremely meaningful in helping PR people get a good grasp on how the technology can be used in a practical and progressive marketing effort for firms large and small. “
…“The challenge for public relations people as Branding Unbound clearly emphasizes is to implement the messaging technology based on a well thought-out and staged complete communications program. Widespread and poorly strategized implementation will only cause a pushback by consumer groups, corporations, governmental agencies and consumers that can have direct and immediate repercussions for the initiator of the unnecessary, unrequested and undesirable intrusion.
As Mathieson points out, all of this information and technology are already available to organizations and some firms like McDonald's, Starbucks, Kellogg's, Apple and P&G are using it very effectively to strengthen their brands and brand relationships.
Anyone who is developing programs and strategies should read Branding Unbound at least two to three times before they map out their tactics. If they don't carry out their effort in a planned and controlled manner the backlash will be more than they even want to think about. Some people will read the book and skip over some important discussion points like measured program roll-outs of programs so that they can show management immediate and impressive results. While restrained implementation may be difficult we're pretty certain that if the effort isn't well thought out and executed it may appear in a form and shape to do the organization - and more importantly its PR people - more brand damage than they want to endure.
Fortunately, Mathieson has done much of the research for us and does a very good job of understanding how you can put the wireless technologies to work as a part of the overall public relations effort.”
For the entire review, click here.
For more on BRANDING UNBOUND the book, visit:
www.BrandingUnbound.com
For ADWEEK Magazines' recent excerpt from BRANDING UNBOUND the book, visit:
ADWEEK Excerpt
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