Different

Winning at Marketing by Breaking the Rules

"Different" is probably only of interest to people involved in marketing.

Through a variety of examples author Youngme Moon illustrates that breaking the rules of conventional marketing wisdom is often the right path for companies to follow. All too often marketers and senior management aim for the big middle, but in markets where the middle is already reasonably well served, this is often a mistake. Instead, radical positionings can be far more effective. For success in the marketplace, it doesn't matter how many people think your product is okay. What matters is how many people love your product. Moon describes and gives examples of ways this can be achieved by breaking various rules of marketing, such as taking what may be considered a product's weakness and exaggerating it and promoting it as a positive feature; whereas conventional marketing wisdom would dictate playing down the negative attribute and focusing on other attributes.

If you're a marketer, this is a great read which may stimulate your marketing thinking.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

Different is different in every GREAT way

If you could sum up Different in three words, what would they be?

insightful, fun, creative

Any additional comments?

Loved her approach to writing this book - different than any other book I've read and one that should be on the must read list for all entrepreneurs and investors

An enlightening book on marketing

I love books that help you are things in a different way and add you listen based on your own world experience you know the author is correct in their observations. a great read (or listen)

Waste of Time

I loved the author's comfort with big words, but beyond that the book is painful listening. There are no new ideas here, just different words to describe branding, market life cycles and so forth. If this is the sort of dreck coming out of Harvard Business, it is no wonder we're in the state we're in.

2 of 5 people found this review helpful

different is a different plan for success.

Would you consider the audio edition of Different to be better than the print version?

I always like audible version better.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Different?

I like seeing the thought process of becoming successful, but not following the crowd! Being different can be cool and work!!

Which scene was your favorite?

Discussions of Ikea and Mini cooper

If you were to make a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?

All of you guys follow the cowd and the trends, I'll be over here, being successful!

1 of 3 people found this review helpful

Hard to listen to, very few insights

I love reading books and I love the topic. I had high hopes for this book.

The first thing you need to know is that you should not listen to this book while driving. The narrator could make you go to sleep. Her tone and rhythm are so monotonous I had to really concentrate to the words.

Then, the author is one of those who likes using big words. While my vocabulary, thank good, is ample enough to understand them, she makes every sentence longer and more complex than usual.

Now, combine that with text that is long, slow, full of fluff and with very little emotion and mostly absent of practical value - it is a boring book. I have listened to over 100 audiobooks, this is probably the third I stopped listening to after an hour . I skipped to the beginnings of the other chapters hoping it would get better, but no.

Her example of Yahoo vs Google misses the heart of the story and the reasons why Brin and Paige designed Google they way they did it. The author gets the causality and intent wrong

For the time I invested in this book (about an hour and a half total), I got no value. I am returning it. If you want a book on differentiation may I suggest Differentiate or Die by Jack Trout,.

0 of 1 people found this review helpful