wisdomgame Male, Single. USA

• 

  • The Fifth Agreement (6)
  • A Practical Guide to Self-Mastery
  • By Don Miguel Ruiz
  • Finished on Feb 19, 2011
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  The Fifth Agreement

  The Fifth Agreement

  
  My new website is wisdomgame.com
  For many years I was a performing poet in Santa Barbara. My mentor, Walt Hopmans, once took me aside and commented that my poems were really excellent except for the last line. When you write a poem there is often the tendency to add an extra tidbit. . . and thi ... (continue)

  
  My new website is wisdomgame.com
  For many years I was a performing poet in Santa Barbara. My mentor, Walt Hopmans, once took me aside and commented that my poems were really excellent except for the last line. When you write a poem there is often the tendency to add an extra tidbit. . . and this destroys the lingering forcefulness of the poem. For instance:

  Blah blah blah
  She lowered her eyes with a tear.
  Then you add,
  “That proves she lovea me.”

  That’s how I feel about Miguel and Jose Ruiz’s “The Fifth Agreement.”

  Miguel Ruiz’s previous book, “The Forth Agreement” and the companion mastery books are like a beautiful poem. They all seem to fit with astounding simplicity and grace. Then here comes the Fifth Agreement like added line of a poem.
  Now here’s the paradox. The gist of the Fifth Agreement is that we can get rid of the parasite of our mind when we stop judging . . . particularly when we stop judging ourselves. An interesting point the authors expound is the last card of the Tarot deck is the resurrection card. This is often called “The Last Judgment.” They point out that when you stop judging people and stop judging yourself this will be your last judgment. Then you will be reborn. Get it: Your Last Judgment.

  So what’s the paradox? How can you write a critical review and not judge, at least a little bit. Okay, I will:

  I loved this book. Buy it and read it for your own good, forget about me.

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  — Feb 19, 2011 | Add your feedback

• 

  • The Astonishing Power of Emotions (9)
  • By Esther Hicks, Jerry Hicks
  • Finished on Feb 2, 2011
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  The Astonishing Power of Emotions

  The Astonishing Power of Emotions

  By Ester and Jerry Hicks
  Channelled Abraham

  The process of interpreting your emotions, -- if you feel good or if you feel bad, -- is the process by which you are able to know if you are in touch with your essence, that is, your Source. Moment to moment, the vibrations of your emotions gi ... (continue)

  By Ester and Jerry Hicks
  Channelled Abraham

  The process of interpreting your emotions, -- if you feel good or if you feel bad, -- is the process by which you are able to know if you are in touch with your essence, that is, your Source. Moment to moment, the vibrations of your emotions give you directions or indications if you are aligned with your Source essence. Since this essence resides in Joy and positive anticipation, when you feel bad you are not aligned. At any particular moment you have the option of lifting the way you feel toward this Joy. This works best as a gradual process. For instance, if you were feeling bored you may reach to a higher feeling of hopefulness. This needs to be gradual because it is very difficult, for instance, to jump from worry to appreciation. So the Abraham work, attracting whatever you want in to life, boils down to finding relief from wherever you are. When you get this working and get good at it, you begin to flow in the river of Joy which is your Stream. You float into desired circumstances and events because the only thing that was keeping them from you was that before you were paddling upstream against the flow.

  . . . Recognizing your emotions and consciously working to offer thoughts in order to deliberately produce better feeling emotions is what Deliberate Creation is . . . it is what the Art of Allowing is.

  Steve . . . view my website http://wisdomgame.org

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  — Feb 3, 2011 | Add your feedback

• 

  • Ask and It Is Given (47)
  • Learning to Manifest Your Desires
  • By Esther Hicks, Jerry Hicks, Wayne W. Dyer
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  Ask and It Is Given

  Ask and it is Given

  Ask and it is Given
  by Abraham
  Channeled by Ester Hicks

  The premise of this book is that you have an immortal essence which is connected to your Source and that Source resides in pure joy. Since everything in the Universe vibrates, when you bring yourself up the emotional scale to the leve ... (continue)

  Ask and it is Given
  by Abraham
  Channeled by Ester Hicks

  The premise of this book is that you have an immortal essence which is connected to your Source and that Source resides in pure joy. Since everything in the Universe vibrates, when you bring yourself up the emotional scale to the level of enthusiasm, love, and joy you are attuned to your Source. When your thoughts concerning abundance reach this level . . . the level of Joy . . . then more thoughts of abundance, joy, and enthusiasm are attracted to you by the Cosmic Law of Attraction

  As you think you are, you are.

  You can check out one of my books, The World’s a Feast at http://wisdomgame.org/feast.html

  This is a workbook to get you in touch with your essence. It’s a simple workbook to bring abundance into your world.

  So I really like what Abraham is saying. My recommendation is you purchase this book. Get to know where you are on the emotional scale and understand how by raising your emotional vibration you can attract and so create the life you really want.

  Think like this.

  “Nothing is more important than that I feel good. The better I feel, the more I am allowing all the wonderful things of life to flow to me.”

  Abraham

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  — Jan 22, 2011 | Add your feedback

• 

  • Ignore Everybody (28)
  • By Hugh Macleod
  • Finished on Apr 5, 2010
    
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  Ignore Everybody

  

  I read this book in one sitting and it was marvelous! The text was swift, written in true professional copyrighting style—with brevity and to the point. I liked his point of view: It’s not wealth nor fame nor riches or failure that matters. It’s living your life. Your life!
  Anyway . . . I thin ... (continue)

  I read this book in one sitting and it was marvelous! The text was swift, written in true professional copyrighting style—with brevity and to the point. I liked his point of view: It’s not wealth nor fame nor riches or failure that matters. It’s living your life. Your life!
  Anyway . . . I think that’s what he was saying. I was pretty busy laughing my head off over his art work, cartoons on the back of business cards. Funny cartoons! I was a stock broker in New York City for a short time at the twin towers, so I know a little about what he’s talking about. . . and now with my internet business,

  http://wisdomgame.org

  selling my books—I know it’s not about just making money, or acclaim, or anything else. You must be creative for you.
  His “back of business card” cartoons reminded me of the point of this question: What does this word, SDRAWKCAB, spell . . . backwards? The humor is so obvious, why didn’t I think of it?
  I give this book five stars because I laughed out loud at least five different times and for the rest of the reading it tickled my fancy. I call it my fancy. That’s a different story.

  Thanks for reading.
  Stephen P. Means

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  — Apr 6, 2010 | Add your feedback

• 

  • No Size Fits All (2)
  • From Mass Marketing to Mass Handselling
  • By Tom Hayes
  • Finished on Apr 5, 2010
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  No Size Fits All

  This is a fantastic, seminal work about the changes coming on the internet and in our social lives. Human beings may never be the same. Life is changing at a tremendous rate. What are marketers going to do? How can large and small businesses survive? Who can you trust? And how are you going to s ... (continue)

  This is a fantastic, seminal work about the changes coming on the internet and in our social lives. Human beings may never be the same. Life is changing at a tremendous rate. What are marketers going to do? How can large and small businesses survive? Who can you trust? And how are you going to sell? Is it all about word of mouth?
  A powerful book. . . When I started reading this book I was very impressed, I might even say “stoked,” as if I were riding not only a big wave . . . but “the” wave. (I’m in California.) Then I got stuck in the middle, dead in the water, and I had to sit down and purposefully paddle through. After reading it, I looked a little differently at my website http://wisdomgame.org
  This book is about the revolutionary developments of and within the internet as it evolves into smaller groups (social nodes). It’s about how corporations, business, and individuals can survive and market to the large mass on the Internet and also to smaller social nodes.
  Trust within the social node will become the medium of exchange. The book’s title “No Size Fits All,” refers to trust. The variations in the amount of trust needed on the Internet and in the social node will differ.
  Because of many different factors, selling to the smaller social node will be like selling from person to person. It will be mass handselling.
  I have to argue a bit with the authors. I think when you look a chimera in the face you’d better not be happy to be the next meal. That’s what’s happened to the average marketer, and perhaps these book authors. Books are probably dead and marketers are out of jobs.
  But I jest. Put metaphorically, from within the beast you can’t describe the beast nor can you predict what it eats or where it goes.
  Like the post, the telegraph, the telephone, the radio, and TV, . . . the internet is a social utility. It allows us instantaneous to connect digitally, electronically, and virtually. However the authors didn’t seem to mention what humans crave and require is physical contact and physical interaction with other living humans. That’s what makes us seek out groups and group interaction. Weather or not the sitting in front of a computer on the internet can provide this basic human need is yet to be seen.
  I think “No Size Fit’s All,” is a seminal book written at a high level that provides tremendous food for thought which I’m still mulling over. As I’m being an author and marketer with my website Wisdomgame and my books, I Hope I don’t get indigestion. This books is a heady meal. I give it 5 stars.

  Thanks for reading.
  Steve http://wisdomgame.org

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  — Mar 17, 2010 | Add your feedback

• 

  • The Social Network Business Plan (12)
  • 18 Strategies That Will Create Great Wealth
  • By David Silver
  • Finished on Feb 28, 2010
    
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  The Social Network Business Plan

  

  I found the author’s thinking and the writing in this book very elevated. Sometimes I got a little bogged down, but in general this is an outstanding book with a revolutionary concept contained within it.

  What’s this book about?

  From the introduction, the author says:

  “There is a lot o ... (continue)

  I found the author’s thinking and the writing in this book very elevated. Sometimes I got a little bogged down, but in general this is an outstanding book with a revolutionary concept contained within it.

  What’s this book about?

  From the introduction, the author says:

  “There is a lot of money to be made if you get a lot of smart people talking and then sell their anonymized conversations to vendors.” (here “anonymized” is used as in anonymous.) Throughout the book he points out that our world, the world wide transparent net, is quickly developing into separate social communities which have tremendous power. He calls them “Recommender online Communities.”

  What’s a Recommender Community?

  As the name implies, products which are recommended by people of your community sort of sell themselves. The old method of force feeding advertisement to the masses is becoming as antiquated as trading of bread was in the Egyptian milieu. By the way, that’s an interesting facto. Have you got any dough? Give me some bread. We still use the terms, but we don’t trade in dough or bread.

  Oligopsony Power?

  That’s a strange new word. From Wikipedia:

  An oligopsony (from Ancient Greek ὀλίγοι (oligoi) "few" + ὀψωνία (opsōnia) "purchase") is a market form in which the number of buyers is small while the number of sellers in theory could be large. This typically happens in market for inputs where a small number of firms are competing to obtain factors of production. It contrasts with an oligopoly, where there are many buyers but just a few sellers. An oligopsony is a form of imperfect competition.

  So I’m a little confused. I think he means there’s a lot of buyers, but the sellers are reduced because the buyers are trustworthy and verify that the products are excellent.

  He says “The social networks, acting as consumer rating services or recommenders of products and services, will eliminate the need for finding the customer." . . . “The social network that encourages reviewing, ranking, and recommending is the new marketing tool.”

  Recommender communities will lower the price of all consumer goods and services by gathering consumers into membership clubs where they will have conversations about products and services, candidates, and local civic issues.

  The single most important words are trust and verify. The members of the community must be real people, not representatives of large corporations.

  Now, he goes on throughout the book to delineate 18 different strategies to create great wealth which are built around the recommender community which he shows you how to create. Social networks which recommend and support products are the wave of the future which we’re ridding now. At least, the momentum is beginning to build.

  Immediately after reading this book I went to Onesite.com and got a seminar on their social network products for my emerging websites, wisdomgame.org and wisdomgame.tv. This is big time commitment and big time money. Is it worth it? Time will tell. I invite you to follow along.

  Thanks for reading

  Stephen Philip Means
  Wisdomgame
  http://wisdomgame.org

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  — Mar 1, 2010 | Add your feedback

• 

  • Blue Ocean Strategy (308)
  • How to Create Uncontested Market Space and Make the Competition Irrelevant
  • By W. Chan Kim, Renee Mauborgne
  • Finished on Feb 27, 2010
    
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  Blue Ocean Strategy

  

  Wow! I loved this book. It gave me a perspective on which companies from the past and which companies today create themselves in an elevated category higher than all the rest. Some corporations are stuck in price war syndromes while others soar so far beyond and are so successful they can’t be compa ... (continue)

  Wow! I loved this book. It gave me a perspective on which companies from the past and which companies today create themselves in an elevated category higher than all the rest. Some corporations are stuck in price war syndromes while others soar so far beyond and are so successful they can’t be compared. Why is that?

  Red Oceans vs. Blue Oceans

  Some companies exist in self-created oceans filled with sharks and barracudas that attack each other through competition. This fills their relations with blood making them red oceans. Other companies devise and develop a system singular to the products and services they are offering. They are so far ahead of other companies that they swim alone in a clear field, in a “Blue Ocean.” The purpose of this book is to delineate Blue Oceans and to provide a strategy to put your company so far ahead of the competition, that there is no competition.

  How to do this?

  Value innovation is the key. The authors say:

  “Value innovation is the cornerstone of blue ocean strategy. We call it value innovation because instead of focusing on beating the competition, you focus on making the competition irrelevant by creating a leap in value for the buyer and your company, thereby opening up new and uncontested market space.”

  In effect, your company finds, opens, and develops the blue ocean and then swims uncontested through it because your service or products are new and they provide outstanding . . . or at least considerably more . . . value . . . than anyone else. There is simply no competition.

  The Blue Ocean Strategy

  How to reconstruct market boundaries to break from competition and create blue oceans.

  The Six Paths

  • Look across alternative industries. What are the alternative industries to your industry? Why do customers trade across them?

  • Look across strategic groups within industries. Why do customers trade up for a higher group? Why do they trade down for a lower group?

  • Look across the Chain of Buyers. What is the chain of buyers in your industry? Which group does your industry typically focus on? Can you unlock new value?

  • Look across complementary product and service offerings. Untapped value is hidden in complementary products and services. What is the context in which your product or services is used?

  • Look across functional or emotional appeal to buyers. If you compete on emotional appeal, what elements can you take out to make it functional? If you compete on function, what can you take out to make it emotional?

  • Look across time. What trends will impact your industry. Are they reversible or evolving in a true direction? Can you open a new customer utility?

  Using this strategy companies can invent or reinvent themselves. Using value innovation they create the blue ocean and swim beyond the competition.

  Blue Ocean Strategy is now a classic must read book. It’s a fascinating, enjoyable read. If you don’t read this book you will be left behind. The world is changing very, very fast. I give this book five stars. It really is a book you have to read. Buy it.

  Value innovation is what we’re about at our company. We develop new products and solutions. We invite you to follow us as we develop our ‘Blue Ocean’ strategy.

  ®
  Wisdomgame. . . .
  To Entertain, Educate, and Enlighten. . . . Serious Fun!
  http://wisdomgame.org

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  — Feb 28, 2010 | Add your feedback

• 

  • BrandDigital (3)
  • Simple Ways Top Brands Succeed in the Digital World
  • By Allen P. Adamson
  • Finished on Feb 18, 2010
    
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  BrandDigital

  

  Brand Drivers
  . . . a “relevantly different" promise.

  The brand “driver” is a word or phrase, or notion, that captures the essence of the brand. It is a promise that’s different than any other company’s promise and it must have clarity of meaning. It must work inside and outside the organizatio ... (continue)

  Brand Drivers
  . . . a “relevantly different" promise.

  The brand “driver” is a word or phrase, or notion, that captures the essence of the brand. It is a promise that’s different than any other company’s promise and it must have clarity of meaning. It must work inside and outside the organization so that it intuitively stimulates every brand-related activity and behavior, from advertising to product design to customer service. It’s important to make the idea behind the brand the brand as simple and memorable as possible.

  When those responsible for creating the brand understand exactly what the brand stands for, they can implement it with greater precision and creativity. For instance, Burger King: “Have it your way.”

  A brand is a promise in which you call attention to what makes your brand relevantly different, and most importantly, the author says “. . . to succeed, a brand has to stand for something that is different from its competition and this difference must be relevant to consumers. , , , Consumers can immediately understand what sets these brands apart from the competition and why it will make life better in some meaningful way.”

  Successful branding makes people care about and experiencing this difference in a consistent and compelling way. An organization makes it easier for consumers to see why it’s brand is better than any other brand.”

  TOUCH POINT TO TOUCH POINT

  There must be point after point that the consumer can identify with.The challenge to the branding engineer is how, in a world run amok with products and promises, does an organization go about determining something to stand for that’s meaningfully different. The way to do this is to find out what’s on your customers minds and what unmet needs your brand can meet.

  How do you do this?

  1. Look for something obvious that other companies might have missed.
  2. Ask your customers.
  3. Go back to the Customer’s Journey.
  4. Ladder up to a more emotional promise.

  KEEP YOUR BRAND'S PROMISE

  1. Think like a consumer.
  2. Make everyone in the company accountable for the brand promise.
  3. Instigate a management alert system.
  4. Delight your customers, and deliver in such a way that they become brand evangelists.

  The Brand Promise:

  Start with a simple idea. It is essential to capture the simple thought you want consumers to associate with your brand in a brand driver. The author sites many examples, one of them Johnson and Johnson: “Having a baby changes everything.”

  Brand Drivers:

  1. Simple – it must capture the brands promise in a way understandable, if not explainable by a fifth grader.
  2. Specific – use the concept by expressing it in a book title or movie poster.
  3. Surprising – If something is surprising its easy to remember. The objective of brand drivers is to be memorable.

  You've got to give the brand driver a clever or surprising twist. Make it easy for people to remember and it will live and grow organically. If it’s not inspiring on it’s own, it will never intuitively lead to appropriate and brilliant branding expectations.

  4. Story Worthy . . . a brand driver must be inspirational to the people who do the branding.

  Establish a Clear Brand Voice

  It’s essential that consumers be able to perceive a brand as a living, breathing individual with well-defined characteristics and behavior traits.

  In the case of my brand, Wisdomgame and Wisdomgame.tv I ask myself is using the voice of ‘Steve Martin,’ or ‘Robert Denero?’ and I answer probably both. We’re out to have “Serious Fun!” but back to the review:

  In our transparent information age, digital drivers create social experiences, so organizations must think about how their brand would behave as participants in these experiences. As such, they must be able to articulate these “human” attributes precisely and how they play out in branding initiatives.

  How to do this:

  1. Define your brand voice as a character from a book or movie, or even blend character qualities.
  2 Create a prototype facebook page for your character.
  3. Create an e-harmony profile for your character.
  4. Capture the essence of your brand. See how few words or phrases you need to capture the essence of this person.
  5. Share with the company.
  6. Build some simple guidelines and tools.

  The Customer’s Journey

  Access the journey your potential customer (consumer) would take with your product. Find the touch point – of your brand –

  • The trick is to be able to uncover and then take advantage of insights about consumers in order to determine which points of touch along a consumer’s journey with the brand will have the greatest potential to attract people and gain traction.

  How to do this:

  1. Become a fly on the wall. Join on line communities and find out what’s being said about your brand.
  2. Experiment – try new things.
  3. Give someone the name of “Brand Director”.
  4. Don’t overlook social responsibility.
  5. Unlearn old knowledge and play to win. Take a fresh look at everything you do.
  6. Look for branding activities that will actively change consumer behavior.

  Thank about over the backyard fence – telling your friends about your product in a friendly sincere way.“It’s a branding truism that the best brands are based on powerful, yet simple, consumer insights.”

  The need is for a company to establish and hold on to a point of relevant differentiation if it want to succeed in the long term.

  As I am still “branding” my companies, Wisdomgame and Wisdomgame.tv so I thought this book was “the real thing” and also I’m “having it my way.” Anyway, I decided on a logo for my videos. Here it is: “Serious Fun!” Now all I have to do is keep my promise. . . What is serious and funny?

  A note about the five star system: I look at a lot of books each week and I don't write my synopsis/review unless the books are tops.

  BrandDigital by Allen P. Adamson is top of the tops. I give it 5 stars. If you're into marketing in our transparent age you need to have this book . . ..

  Thanks for reading.

  Stephen Philip Means

  Wisdomgame and Wisdomgame.tv
  http://wisdomgame.org

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  — Feb 18, 2010 | Add your feedback

• 

  • Differentiate Or Die (10)
  • Survival in Our Era of Killer Competition
  • By Jack Trout
  • Finished on Feb 14, 2010
    
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  Differentiate Or Die

  

  IT’S ALL ABOUT PERCEPTIONS

  In the mind of the consumer you must use a differentiating idea to market yourself or your product. To build your brand you must use a differentiating idea and that idea must be simple and built around differentiation.

  WHAT’S “DIFFERENTIATION?”

  Within our product ... (continue)

  IT’S ALL ABOUT PERCEPTIONS

  In the mind of the consumer you must use a differentiating idea to market yourself or your product. To build your brand you must use a differentiating idea and that idea must be simple and built around differentiation.

  WHAT’S “DIFFERENTIATION?”

  Within our product and service culture we are bombarded by endless choices . . . millions of similar products and services impinge with demands to “buy, buy!” There is an ever expanding sea of categories and they are constantly dividing so more and more choices present themselves. The only way a product can stand out is to show that it is different from the rest. This is differentiation and the author say you must be unique to be a success.

  LACK OF DIFFERENTIATION IS GROWING

  Because of the gigantic spread of products and product categories, the author, Trout, cites the work of Rosser Reeves who codified the term UPS – Unique Selling Proposition. To counteract this trend of poor advertising focus in a gigantic sea of choices, advertisers must return to these three principles;

  UNIQUE SELLING PROPOSITION

  • Each ad make a proposition to the customer.
  • It must be a unique offer.
  • It must move the listener/reader to action.

  HOW TO BUILD A BRAND

  I was very interested in this section . . . because I’m building my brand, Wisdomgame. Our logo is to Entertain, Educate, and Enlighten but our motto is “Serious Fun!”

  Trout says the most important aspect of branding is differentiation -- being different in the perception of the consumer. That’s easy to understand. If there are a million choices, there must be some reason to pick certain products. They have to be special, or different in some way.
  So I’m making my brand different. Wisdomgame is not just fun. We’re “Serious Fun!”

  UPS UNIQUE SELLING PROPOSITION

  He says “Since logic is a science, it’s logical that constructing a unique selling proposition should be a science, not an art. Here are the steps he gives;
  1. Make sense in context. What you really want to get is a quick snapshot of the perceptions that exist in the mind (the general “Mind.”)
  2. Find the Differentiating Idea. You have to be unique and one of a kind and find something that separates you from the competitors.
  3. Have Credentials: Be able to demonstrate your product's difference.
  4. Communicate your Difference. Change the perceptions of the consumer.

  Bottom line: Since a real differentiating idea is also a real motivation tool, you can’t over-communicate your difference. The lesson is not to try and tell your total story. You just have to focus on one powerful differentiating idea and drive it into the mind. (The general Mind).

  i.e. WISDOMGAME=SERIOUS FUN!

  This book was a real eye opener to me and really helped me as I wade around the internet trying to figure out exactly what I am doing with Wisdomgame and Wisdomgame.tv. Look for our new videos on
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wwsiT179qv4

  or go to Youtube. . . WisdomgameTV

  It’s just an introduction, but it’s fun, “Serious Fun!”

  This book is very deep and goes on to explain human motivation and the needs of business in the age of the transparent internet. I have only explained a small portion of “Differentiate or Die.” It’s full of very interesting examples from Mr. Trout’s extensive business knowledge and corporate experience as a marketer. I really enjoyed this book as it is written with a wry sense of humor. The depth of information is probably best suited to professionals, but if you’re interesting in the subject and if you take a little time to understand what he’s saying, your personal brand and your business brand will benefit greatly as you see the necessity of standing out by being unique. You must differentiate or die!

  A fine book and very informative. I loved it. Five stars.

  Stephen Philip Means Wisdomgame® and Wisdomgame.tv

  Thanks for reading. http://wisdomgame.org
  

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  — Feb 15, 2010 | Add your feedback

• 

  • You Have the Right to Remain Silent (1)
  • . . . Unless you Talk
  • By Stephen Philip Means
  • Finished on Apr 11, 2010
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  You Have the Right to Remain Silent

  I wrote this book. It’s my humorous philosophy developed over many years of searching. It’s about 100 pages long and is selling on Amazon for $10.99. But right now you can read it for free.

  I’m not going to review it here, except to say I think it’s both interesting and funny. Instead of me revi ... (continue)

  I wrote this book. It’s my humorous philosophy developed over many years of searching. It’s about 100 pages long and is selling on Amazon for $10.99. But right now you can read it for free.

  I’m not going to review it here, except to say I think it’s both interesting and funny. Instead of me reviewing it, I’m going to let the you read it for free. Yipee!

  Click on http://wisdomgame.org/read_silent_free
  and then click on the book image and read it.

  Thanks. Steve

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  — Apr 12, 2010 | Add your feedback

• 

  • Igniting the Brand (1)
  • Strategies That Shot Brands to Success
  • By Jonathan Cahill
  • Finished on Feb 9, 2010
    
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  Igniting the Brand

  

  Fascinating! This book is Britishly humorous and investigates the basic concepts of marketing in an uncomplicated way. With many in depth examinations of both British, American and world-wide corporations, the author posits that the “brand” is the center around which all activity should originate. ... (continue)

  Fascinating! This book is Britishly humorous and investigates the basic concepts of marketing in an uncomplicated way. With many in depth examinations of both British, American and world-wide corporations, the author posits that the “brand” is the center around which all activity should originate.

  Positioning is Everything

  It’s not advertising that counts, but setting up your product in the right way. This is done by using strategies that grow out of the brand and their context. The beauty lies in using strategies that are deceptive simple. It’s not a easy journey, but it pays off.

  MUST BE EMOTIONAL!

  Your product must fill a functional need, but the key is that it also meet an additional emotional need. You have to take in through an “It’ to “Thou” process. That is, the buyer must be familiar and know your story. What is the story behind your product? Why will people relate to it? What are you saying about it that creates empathy?

  Get Connected.

  The customer leads, and the brand follows. You do this by making a connection with the consumer, by understanding their quirks and foibles. You have to understand the broad context of the person to whom you are selling. There is one key to remember in all of this:

  PERCEPTION

  It’s not about reality. It’s about how the consumer perceives reality. It’s about what they feel, especially how they feel about themselves, their self-image . . . The author, Cahill, points out that identity, in particular when it relates to one’s emotional identity, operates at a profound level. Your brand's strategy has to reach into the emotional heartland of the consumer.

  Emotions, Emotions, . . . Yes! Yes! Emotions!

  The brand must plant the seed of its success in the mind of the public and cultivate it by actually caring about the consumer on an emotional basis. This is done through sharing, though shaping the brand under an emotional cloak that links the product to the buyer. You pull a strong emotional cord that links to the consumer.

  This book is reasonably short, about 170 pages of real examples – real situations from the business world where brands were built or destroyed by their strategies. I found it fascinating. It’s much deeper than my small Wisdomgame review allows. It goes into entrenched markets, short term pricing, and how to reverse the habitual ways of looking at brands. And it’s written in a fascinating, easy to read manner.

  I give it five stars and recommend that you buy it. If you’re in the corporate world, starting a brand, or selling a product -- you have to read it. I felt connected to the author, because I’m building my brand, Wisdomgame, and we care about people and we care about you. So does Jonathan Cahill.

  Read “Igniting the Brand.” You’ll enjoy it.!

  Thanks!

  Stephen Philip Means
  http://wisdomgame.org
  http://wisdomgme.org/play.html

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  — Feb 10, 2010 | Add your feedback

• 

  • Crush It! (61)
  • Why Now is the Time to Cash in on Your Passion
  • By Gary Vaynerchuck
  • Finished on Feb 3, 2010
    
    
    
    Finished (re-read) on Feb 3, 2010
    
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  Crush It!

  

  
  NOW! CRUSH IT!

  This book is about insuring your own happiness by allowing you to live passionately and productively everyday. Maybe you can make a million bucks, like Mr. Vaynerchuk. Maybe not, but you certainly are going to have fun, learn a lot, and enjoy every minute of it. You will only be ... (continue)

  
  NOW! CRUSH IT!

  This book is about insuring your own happiness by allowing you to live passionately and productively everyday. Maybe you can make a million bucks, like Mr. Vaynerchuk. Maybe not, but you certainly are going to have fun, learn a lot, and enjoy every minute of it. You will only be limited by how well you navigate and how far you want to surf the wild wave of the new, open, transparent world we live in.

  Get Wild! Get Passion!

  . . . But be yourself. He says, “The Internet makes it possible for anyone to be 100 percent true to themselves and make serious cash by turning what they love into their personal brand." Vaynerchuk did it through video broadcasts of wine tasting which created a large community around him and gigantic demand for his products. You can do it do. He shows you how.

  Be Different, Live Your Brand

  You need to be authentic. When you are yourself you differentiate yourself from everyone else. No one is exactly like you. You’re special. That’s what we say at Wisdomgame. We’re here to Entertain, Educate, and Enlighten. In today’s world your business and your personal brand need to be the same.

  “Where eyeballs go, opportunity follows.”

  A sea change is coming and nothing can stop it. The world of TV and magazine commercials is dying. The time is now, and it’s all about community. If you need to monetize (make money off your ideas, products, etc.) then get into position. The gigantic opportunity is right now!

  Transparency

  Consumers want you to tell them the truth, Above all they want to know who they are dealing with, and they want the truth. You have to expose your being, your talents, in a clear transparent manner . . . because the future is opening tremendous potentials. The old guard is dead. The age of community is here.

  Plan Now!

  Start with great content. Quality is most important. You need to have a quality product and you need to promote it with quality content. That means no hype in your blogs. Rather, content, content, content. . . . Real conversations with your community.

  Be Yourself

  Tell your story. Keep it real. Invest in yourself. Communicate from your heart . . . but do it in your special passionate, maybe irrational, or funny way. He says, “Authenticity is what will make it possible for you to put in the kind of hustle necessary to CRUSH IT!”

  I really loved this book. A lot of the other books I have read recently, although I enjoyed them, weren’t written as familiarly as Gary’s book. He gives away a lot of secrets, in fact in the appendix he gives you some business ideas he’s not going to have time to make a fortune off of. I’m starting to CRUSH Wisdomgame. Now, we just added Wisdomgame.tv to our group of websites. Look for my reviews on video soon.

  Buy this book.

  Thanks, Stephen Philip Means . . . . . Wisdomgame.tv
  http://wisdomgame.org

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  — Feb 4, 2010 | Add your feedback

• 

  • Trade-Off (7)
  • Why Some Things Catch On, and Others Don't
  • By Kevin Maney
  • Finished on Jan 31, 2010
    
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  Trade-Off

  1 person find this helpful

  

  Why Do Some Things Catch On and Others Don’t?

  According to Kevin Maney in his new book, “Trade Off”, the answer to this question is that products and services get stuck in an apathy zone. This is a place which exists between the most pleasing experience regardless of price and the easiest exper ... (continue)

  Why Do Some Things Catch On and Others Don’t?

  According to Kevin Maney in his new book, “Trade Off”, the answer to this question is that products and services get stuck in an apathy zone. This is a place which exists between the most pleasing experience regardless of price and the easiest experience which is also the cheapest. Products and services that are tepid, neither super great nor very cheap and easy to obtain . . . these products languor and die. No one buys them.

  Two Extremes Succeed.

  The first extreme he calls the “High Fidelity” product or service which is the total experience. It is luxury. People naturally search for ways to identify their socio-economic position in the world. The super-rich do it with luxury.

  The second extreme he calls "Convenience" which is defined as how easy it is to get something . . . with the caveat of a low cost. Cost is a factor for the simple reason that if something costs less it is easy for people to buy.

  The Trade Off

  Between the two extremes of High Fidelity and Convenience there are all sorts of variations and degrees. Maney agues with experiential examples, anecdotes, and quotes from business power-houses that a successful company can’t do both. It can’t provide it’s customers with the luxury High Fidelity and the cost savings of Convenience.

  Mass Luxury?Impossible!

  In fact, he goes further and says the fidelity/convenience tradeoff shows “mass luxury” is a fallacy.” The mass of people are concerned with ease and cost; luxury is about the total experience regardless of the cost. They can’t co-exist, yet . . .

  There Is Always A Trade Off.

  Customers continually exchange fidelity for convenience and vise versa. Decisions, choices, and an uncertain future –that is -- life . . . means the customer is always either moving up or down the scale toward more luxury or more convenience. This is a constant trade off that is not static and is never fixed.

  Technology is the Kicker.

  Technology constantly improves both the luxury experience (fidelity) and also the ease and cost (convenience). If a product or service is high fidelity then tech will change it to higher fidelity. If it is convenient then tech will change it to be more convenient.

  Indigestion?

  The place between fidelity (luxury) and convenience (ease + cost) he calls the “Fidelity Belly.” This is a no-man’s land between the total experience and the cheap quick fix. No one gets excited about a product that has no fidelity and is only somewhat convenient. If you run a company, don’t get caught there. Don’t be tepid.

  The Winners

  Extreme high fidelity (luxury) and extreme convenience (ease + cost) define the winners. All successful products and services fall at the ends of the scale between these two extremes, not in the middle. Don’t be tepid.

  I found this book fascinating. The idea of a constant trade off between luxury and convenience, and the metaphor of a “fidelity belly,” made this book a great read. Behind this idea the author expresses his sentiment about our open transparent new society when he says

  “Our connection with others and our individual identity matter more to us than just about anything else.” He adds, “All other quality/convenience factors being equal adding a social dimension can change the prospect of a product or service.”

  Now, by reading this review you’ve gotten the convenient experience of his book at a low price, in fact for free!

  If you want the fidelity experience, by the book. It will open your eyes and you’ll see your product and service in a new light.

  An excellent book! Five stars.

  Stephen Philip Means http://wisdomgame.org

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  — Feb 1, 2010 | Add your feedback

• 

  • Passion Brands (1)
  • Why Some Brands Are Just Gotta Have, Drive All Night For, and Tell All Your Friends About
  • By Kate Newlin
  • Finished on Jan 27, 2010
    
    Review
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  Passion Brands

  

  Fantastic! I just had to have this book . . . because I’m working on my brand, Wisdomgame®.

  YOU HAVE TO HAVE IT!

  And you’ll drive all night and spread the word and be heard because you have PASSION about what you want. You gotta have it. , , and so do your friends. ... (continue)

  Fantastic! I just had to have this book . . . because I’m working on my brand, Wisdomgame®.

  YOU HAVE TO HAVE IT!

  And you’ll drive all night and spread the word and be heard because you have PASSION about what you want. You gotta have it. , , and so do your friends. Boy do I need a Starbucks! Gotta have it.

  YOU LOVE IT!

  You actually do love the stuff you buy, don’t you. I know I do. I just bought a new high def. video camera to upload videos. It’s a Kodak Zi8, very miniture. I love it. Kiss kiss.

  VIRAL FORCE

  Newlin says there really is a viral force to the passion brands. We can really have a relationship with them because they seem to be alive. Sometimes we get smarter (Google) or by using them we connect with our community. (Starbucks.) I gotta have one!

  ACCELERATE YOUR BRAND

  • Create a brand people love.
  • Work the world . . . not age, gender, or race.
  • Differentiate your design.
  • Hire passionate people.
  • Know your customers need you.
  • Give it to them “Their Way.”
  • Respect your brand’s heritage.

  Newlin says she believes passionate brands make a profound emotional connection. Their symbols and their significance is that they genuinely engage with us and we find through them a way of expressing our individuality.

  This book’s a real good read for anyone interested in developing their brand as a distinct reality in this overwhelming information age.

  I liked it! Five stars.

  Stephen Philip Means> http://wisdomgame.org >

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  — Jan 28, 2010 | Add your feedback

• 

  • Twitterville (16)
  • How Businesses Can Thrive in the New Global Neighborhoods
  • By Shel Israel
  • Finished on Jan 22, 2010
    
    Review
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  Twitterville

  

  Wow! Synchronicity. Fate. Coincidence? The day after I join Twitter I discover a book by Shel Israel, “Twitterville,” with explicit instructions telling me how to approach my personal brand.
  Israel questions, do you want a personal presence or do you want a commercial one? Either way, it’s ... (continue)

  Wow! Synchronicity. Fate. Coincidence? The day after I join Twitter I discover a book by Shel Israel, “Twitterville,” with explicit instructions telling me how to approach my personal brand.
  Israel questions, do you want a personal presence or do you want a commercial one? Either way, it’s your brand. People will ‘follow’ you one way or the other, but what is important is open transparency. He says, “Twitterville is less about what you are doing and more about what you are paying attention to and willing to share.”

  140 Characters

  What I am writing in this sentence is the amount you are allowed to input at one time equals 140 characters.

  This is Me!

  If you’re like me, and haven’t used Twitter, you input up to 140 characters at once . . . like you’re having a short talk with a friend. It’s a conversation, not a speech. It’s personal. In Twitter, what the rest of everyone in Twitter thinks about you is usually more important in most cases than brand identity. It’s about conversation, sharing, connections.
  Twitter . . . that is Twitterville . . . is a marketplace of ideas, things, and prejudices. It’s where people declare themselves.

  Twitter This

  Twitter is comprised of millions and millions of people who are building personal brands.

  Points to Remember
  • Show Yourself.
  • Read first. Talk later.
  • Post your own, follow later.
  • Follow friends over stars.

  Now you’re going to have to buy this book to find out more. It is a wealth of information about the internet, how to benefit from Twitter, and it also explains with examples how some large and small companies are using it to maximize exposures. Very much useful information, websites, plus plus. There is a protocol and an ethics you must know before Twitting. Remember to start slowly, talk about what you like, and be yourself.

  This book was very helpful to me. I give it five stars.

  Steve steve@ httpA://wisdomgame.org

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  — Jan 23, 2010 | Add your feedback

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