Punk Marketing
Get Off Your Ass And Join the Revolution
Authors: Richard Laermer &
Mark Simmons
Published: March 1, 2007
ISBN: 9780061151101
Hardcover: 272pp
Publisher: Harper Collins
Punk marketing rejects the status quo and recognizes the shift in marketing and branding power from the corporation to the consumer, according to co-authors Richard Laermer and Mark Simmons, in their challenging and provocative book Punk Marketing: Get Off Your Ass And Join the Revolution. Complete with a paradigm jarring Punk Marketing Manifesto, the book's punk rock ethos demands grassroots based marketing that engages the few with an honest and creative message.
Breaking down the barricades of tradition, and handing freedom from conformity to the people, is the power of the punk legacy. Co-authors Richard Laermer and Mark Simmons apply this principle to marketing and branding, while rapping a few knuckles along the way. Instead of accepting the bland and watered down messages and tired out ideas, the punk marketing revolution takes a bottom up, consumer led approach to sharing the message. In a world of infinite choices of marketing mediums, the punk marketer lets the consumer take control. While traditional marketers cringe, the punk marketer takes risks, and relishes the resulting chaos.
Richard Laermer (sketch left)
Anarchy and chaos are essential in an era when mass marketing is a failed dinosaur. Fragmented media and wide ranging consumer choices in products and services demand targeted messages. Not only must those messages be more sharply focussed in their markets, they are also demanded to me more honest. Transparency rules.
In a world where a simple click of a mouse or TV remote control can remove an intrusive ad, a connection must be developed with the consumer, on a deeper level. In other words, a relationship based on trust and honesty between equals is essential. Talking down to consumers will get a message deleted in the blink of an eye. Consumers demand control of the message, and punk marketers are prepared to let consumers take the ball and run with it; wherever it may lead.
Mark Simmons (sketch left)
For me, the power of the book is its revolutionary approach to marketing. Instead of spreading the usual cliches as disposable confections, the authors recommend a world altering shift in viewpoint. In a book where the writers themselves suggest destruction of their very own words and pages, the message of abandoning traditional marketing is clear.
Engage the consumer, and hand over the marketing and branding power, or face the loss of their business. The book is about taking a stand for quality and honesty, and for trust in the consumer's right to choose. Marketers who understand they are no longer in control of the message will thrive. Those who fail to answer the call to the revolution's barricades will perish, and be forgotten.
I strongly recommend Punk Marketing: Get Off Your Ass And Join the Revolution by Richard Laermer and Mark Simmons for anyone who is serious about engaging their customers and clients. The lessons learned from the punk revolution, about being true to yourself and to your core beliefs and values, are vital in the modern world of marketing.
Read Punk Marketing: Get Off Your Ass And Join the Revolution by Richard Laermer and Mark Simmons and become part of the revolution. Long Live Punk!
