Scott Ross

Interesting information with limited application

Revisado: 02-26-17

Is there anything you would change about this book?

I would take the information in each chapter and create a clear application for the average business person, artist, or writer that wants to create a "Hit." The information in this book which comes primarily from anecdotes about past "hits," is interesting and even sometimes fascinating. However, the "takeaways" from one chapter often contradict the implications from a previous story, and the author never really tells you how to have a greater chance at producing a "hit" yourself.

What was the most interesting aspect of this story? The least interesting?

The back stories behind successes like the Star Wars franchise and the impressionist painters are all really interesting. The least interesting part was the vague attempt to apply any of this to our work.

Have you listened to any of Derek Thompson’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

No.

Could you see Hit Makers being made into a movie or a TV series? Who should the stars be?

No.

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Some Good Information But Some Laughable Positions

Revisado: 03-08-14

What would have made In Search of the Obvious better?

This book makes some valid points about what the aim of marketing needs to be; namely, selling products. The book begins with some relatively useful tests for whether you are on track with creating messaging that will resonate and result in product sales. It also points out some case studies of brands that got off track. However, not too far into the book Trout begins to make a fool of himself. The entire tone of the book is somewhat "I'm smarter than everyone else," arrogance, and this bites him when he begins to mock certain "en vogue" notions. It's shocking to me that this book was published in 2008, because his lack of comprehension about the transformation of everything in our digital and social media age would make you think he had written it in the 1990's. For instance, he overtly makes fun of predictions that the Yellow Pages and Video Rental stores would become obsolete. He comments that iPhones do "media" well but are terrible phones. And he can't imagine why you'd want to have a device that does everything in one. He mocks the idea of convergence, even going so far as to make fun of the concept of a printer, copier, and fax machine all-in-one.

There is zero discussion of social media as a component of marketing strategy.

Moreover, he criticizes marketing messages that are emotional, stating that marketing messages should be logical. He uses examples of brands that had strong slogans that they replaced with weak slogans to make his point. The one has nothing to do with the other. You can have a strong slogan and an emotionally appealing message. And it's an age-old truism that people buy emotionally and justify logically. Trout seems to not understand that.

This book just seems wildly out of touch in lots of places.

Would you ever listen to anything by Jack Trout again?

Not sure.

What about Sean Pratt’s performance did you like?

The read is good.

You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?

There are some very valid points made about the need for CEO's to be engaged directly in the development of their brand, the insanity of marketing firms forgetting that they are selling versus making short films, etc.

Any additional comments?

I can't recommend this book based on the current state of our social media, digitally dominated, integrated world.

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