The Fall of Advertising and the Rise of PR

在线阅读本书

Book Description

Reveals a shift in marketing trends from advertising to publicity, citing the successes of such top brands as the Body Shop, Starbucks, and Wal-Mart while sharing strategies on establishing credibility and implementing a slow PR build.

Amazon.com

In The Fall of Advertising and the Rise of PR, longtime marketing strategist Al Ries and his daughter/business partner Laura Ries offer solid arguments championing the latter over the former for modern-day brand building. Such a stance is hardly new for these two, who have jointly, individually, and with others written eight previous books on related topics since Al penned The Positioning Era Cometh for Advertising Age some three decades ago. What's fresh this time is the dissection of contemporary corporate hits--like Starbucks, Botox, eBay, and even Harry Potter--that have eschewed traditional advertising and nevertheless soared to the top through the savvy use of public relations. The authors spend the first part of the book discussing how advertising lost credibility among consumers as it became more of a creative art than a sales tool, and the second part showing how PR subsequently supplanted it in effectiveness. Using the above examples and others, they explain how such practices can work in various situations (building a new brand, rebuilding an old one, dealing with line extensions, etc.), as well as ways advertising can still be usefully employed (primarily to maintain a brand and "keep it on course"). The result is both provocative and practical.

　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　--Howard Rothman

From Publishers Weekly

Marketing strategists Ries and Ries spend all 320 pages of their latest book arguing one point: skillful public relations is what sells, not advertising. Case in point: the failure of Pets.com's sock puppet ads. However, in a chapter devoted to dot-com advertising excesses, the authors never mention that many dot-coms had miserable business plans and neophyte management. (The Rieses may be counting on the sock puppet to sell another commodity, as a deflated sock puppet dominates the book's jacket.) Today, most small companies aren't bloated with venture capital to buy TV ads, yet the book has little practical advice on how these companies' executives should use public relations, particularly PR's most important role: crisis control. Some readers might resent paying $24.95 for what amounts to an advertisement for pricey PR consulting firms like Ries & Ries. The authors frequently poke fun at the most outrageous TV ads of recent years, paralleling Sergio Zyman's The End of Advertising As We Know It (reviewed above), a more thoughtful critique of current advertising trends. The inherent flaw in the Rieses' logic: time and again they cite ad campaigns for new products that are "off message" and then say how much sales declined; this supports the notion that products and services are sold by good advertising. Although their book is occasionally entertaining, the argument is simplistic and self-serving. Illus.

Publisher Comments :

World-renowned marketing strategists and bestselling authors Al and Laura Ries usher in 'The Public Relations Era', dramatising the fall of advertising and subsequent rise of PR.

Publicity first, advertising second: this is the provocative message that marketing gurus Al and Laura Ries deliver with The Fall of Advertising. The bestselling authors of The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding are back, this time revealing a startling and crucial development in marketing, the shift from advertising-oriented marketing to PR-oriented marketing. Today's brands are born with publicity, not advertising. A closer look at the history of many major brands shows this to be true. In fact an astonishing number of brands, including The Body Shop, Starbucks, Wal-Mart, Beanie Babies, Oracle and Yahoo!, have been built with virtually no advertising. With case histories and a step-by-step plan for creating buzz in the PR era, The Fall of Advertising shows readers how to:

* Give up the cherished big-bang approach in favour of a slow build-up;

* Create a category;

* Use PR to communicate a brand's credentials;

* Select the perfect spokesperson;

* Roll out a program;

* Develop a healthy relationship with the media.

Bold and accessible, The Fall of Advertising tells how and why publicity will assume the major role in product launches, with advertising solidifying brands rather than creating them. This will be the essential primer on brand-building in the public relations era.

From Booklist

Marketing guru Ries and his consulting partner set out to convince us of the need for a shift from advertising-oriented marketing to public relations-oriented marketing. While advertising has long been the primary communication tool for reaching the consumer and is the focus of many corporate budgets, the authors recommend that any new marketing program should start with publicity and use advertising only when PR objectives have been achieved. The first three parts of the book trace the fall of advertising, the rise of PR, and the new role for advertising; part four outlines the differences between advertising and PR; and the final section offers advice on both approaches to the marketplace. This is a persuasive presentation by a respected marketing expert. Those who take issue with the Ries' arguments will compete with them in the consulting arena and perhaps write a book offering different views.

　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　Mary Whaley

From Library Journal

The father-and-daughter authors who previously collaborated on The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding here attempt to explain the difference between advertising and public relations, arguing that PR should be used instead of advertising to launch new brands. Once a brand is established, advertising may then be used to maintain the brand in the consumer's mind. The book is arranged in four chapters, with the first chapter describing the "fall of advertising" and offering examples of failed campaigns such as those for New Coke and Pets.com. Subsequent chapters describe the rise of PR and its effective use by brands like Sony PlayStation and Red Bull, tout the new role advertising can play in maintaining brands, and attempt to finally differentiate between advertising and PR. Throughout, the authors' mantra is "advertising failed, PR would have worked," but they never fully explain how and why PR would have been more successful for the companies and the brands used as examples. An optional purchase for corporate and academic libraries.

　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　Stacey Marien, American Univ. Lib., Washington, DC

About Author

Al Ries and his daughter and partner, Laura Ries, are two of the world's best-known marketing consultants. Their Atlanta firm, Ries & Ries, works with many Fortune 500 companies. They are the authors of The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding and, most recently, The Fall of Advertising & the Rise of PR, which was a Wall Street Journal and BusinessWeek bestseller.

Book Dimension:

length: (cm)20.5 　　　 　　　　　　　　 　 width:(cm)13