WARNING: "Empirical" Slight of Hand

Wow. This book is absolutely riddled with data slight of hand techniques. Take extreme caution before buying into any of these theories. I have spent almost 15 years working in a professional capacity with many of the brands cited within and have run well over a hundred research studies - and the author is incredibly manipulative with the way his conclusions are "empirically" drawn.

The pattern is as such:
1) Use data to force an extreme classification (e.g. classifying someone as "not loyal" to a brand if they deviate from it even once, instead of looking at, for instance, people that consume a brand consistently 90% of the time)

2) Make a sweeping suggestive claim about why (e.g. "this MIGHT be due to the fact that consumers see no difference between brands' positioning")

3) Translate #1 and #2 into a "Law" (e.g. "Thus, the Law of Inevitable Buyer Promiscuity")

...this pattern is repeated over and over.

Not only that, but he keeps oscillating between how the data is viewed and interpreted in order to force fit it into his theory, such as:

- Switching between percentages and means and comparing the two
- Comparing one statistic from a category to another analogous statistic from a completely different category (versus an 'apples to apples' comparison within a category)
- Subtly switching between an isolated data point (correlation) and a conclusion (causation), without there actually being an "empirical" link
- Reaching back to ancient datasets (if you look at the reference material, it toggles back and forth between the 1980's and mid-2000's) scraping for some numbers that can "empirically" fit his theories

It was infuriating to listen to as a professional who has seen the data AND the implications of proper research, insights, and brand strategy.

Again, definitely exercise a lot of caution in taking the suggestions within to heart. Not only does it marginalize and inaccurately portray the impact of branding and research, but the methodologies and strategies he discredits are only getting wildly more applicable with the micro-targeting abilities afforded to marketers through emerging online techniques.

Good luck.

3 people found this helpful

Performance was Robotic

the performance kind of ruined this book for me. There Re a lot of interesting insights but I couldn't grasp them because I was being put to sleep by the reader.

1 person found this helpful

Great content - robotic speaker

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

I found the content to be really interesting and thought provoking. Really made me rethink my approach to my business.

What did you like best about this story?

Confirmation that advertisers need to talk to all customers: loyals, switchers, competitive loyals and even non-category users!

Would you be willing to try another one of Daniel May’s performances?

No - his reading was awful. Actually sounded like a machine-voiced performance. The author should have done this - I saw his Ted talk and his voice was just fine.

If this book were a movie would you go see it?

N/A

Any additional comments?

Better packaging of the downloadable PDF when buying the book would have been smart. I had to hunt for it after I had already begun listening to the book.

1 person found this helpful

Painful

Quite painful to get through, very negative gloom and doom without actionable solution, big brand focused, no need to print charts mentioned

4 people found this helpful

Revolutionary

It will turn inside out your mind regarding sales and marketing. It’s all about truths of science.

Not your usual book on branding and positioning

A very contrarian approach to many commonly held views. Not ideal as an audio book, because it refers to a lot of charts and graphs, but the content is great.

Roman
Splento.com

A Must “Listen” for Marketers

I️ just re-listened to this book. I️t is even better the second time. This should be mandatory reading for anyone who is in marketing or sales.

Great content, boring reader

Every marketer should read this book. If you are considering it, read a physical copy. The narrator is brutal and you need the charts.

Poorly conceived, badly written, and boringly delivered

A snake oil sales pitch delivered by the driest narration you can imagine. Filled with sweeping generalizations about "science" supported by "data" but never challenging, questioning its own assertions or looking at the multiple marketplace examples that contradict the assertions made. A great book to convince accountants they can be great marketers written by someone lacking any instinct or basic logic.

1 person found this helpful

Good read with some outdated aspects

Great concepts worth revisiting how Marketing and Market Research are used.
One major flaw is distinguishing what it takes to build a brand in a new or non-existing category.