Punk Marketing: Get Off Your Ass and Join the Revolution

The marketing revolution is here, so get on the right side of the barricade and become a part of it! Let's thank Mr. and Mrs. Consumer and their little Consumerlings who have seized power from the corporations and are now firmly in control.

In Punk Marketing, Laermer and Simmons take an irreverent, penetrating look at the seismic change in the relationship between the people who sell stuff—products, services, entertainment—and those who purchase it. They demonstrate that to survive in business, a revolutionary approach is needed—one they have branded "Punk Marketing"—and it's one we all need to understand, for the traditional divisions among commerce, content, and consumers are continuing to blur ever more rapidly.

Never dull, sometimes controversial, but always a helluva lot of fun, Punk Marketing presents a manifesto for any businessperson needing to engage consumers—or any consumer seeking to understand and employ their newfound power. And here's the good news: It's based on principles that have existed forever. In an age of digital video recorders, "branded" entertainment, cell-phone TV, multiplayer online games, and never-ending social networking, a coherent approach to marketing has never been more vital. With Punk Marketing, there's a built-in plan to equip you with tools to make all this change work out just fine, thanks.

Punk Marketing is the first shot—soon to be heard 'round the world—of a long-awaited and breathless uprising that businesses want, deserve, and desperately need.

TV co-host Laermer (of TLC's Taking Care of Business) and agency alum Simmons (formerly of Crispin Porter + Bogusky) combine their considerable experience and wit to jolt readers into a new understanding of marketing's ever-changing arena. The premise-and the promise-of their approach to marketing is likely a familiar one: power is shifting from corporation to consumer, meaning that "a brand is formed in the eye of the beholder-the consumer-and is not the property of the marketer." As such, old-fashioned truisms like "any publicity is good publicity" have been subsumed by a new paradigm: "mediocre marketing does more harm than doing nothing." Blunt, fair, fearless and outrageous-just like the marketing style they espouse-Laermer and Simmons explicate the marketing methods of the future in a tour of blogs, lingo, games, the "real simple" concept and the new standards of cyber-socializing. Techniques involve story-telling, contests, product placement, emerging technology and the increasingly tricky business of crafting emotional connections. Asides include tales of planned scarcity (like "limited edition" sneakers), examples of broadcasters' waning power and the potential for targeting audiences "at every moment of the day." Though it covers some well-trod ground, there's plenty of sound analysis and prescient advice here (not to mention humor) for forward-thinking marketers.
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