Faith Ringgold: A View From the Studio

Book Description

This is an important new book published to coincide with a major exhibition of Faith Tinggold's new work and Studio collection. While the book explores Faith's work in her studio and her personal artistic journey, it is also an encounter between one artist and another, between Faith and her collaborator Curlee Holton. The mix provides unique insights into the struggles and triumphs of a woman who is at once an activist and an artist and whose achievements are admired throughout the world.

Customer Reviews:

An ok representation.......2001-08-10

I know that for die-hard Elfquest fans, the turn to other artists is difficult. Shards is a prime example of the shift to more comic book-like writing and art. It will never compare to the original Series 1-8. However, I had prepared myself for this when, after 5 years of not picking up an Elfquest, I decided to start back up with the series. Expecting the unfamiliar style of art, as from Worldpool, I was pleasantly surprised at the art in Shards. The characters were recognizable and often strikingly like Pini's work. Her art was mixed in and it made for an adaquate and enjoyable read. Although we would all love for Wendy to be doing it all, I think this will do. But I really hope the movie is worth all this!!

Do they write their good reviews themselves.......2001-06-18

I can only assume the Pini's are writing the glowing reviews of the EQ graphic novels themselves. These books are so bad, so badly drawn, so awful, with such lousy reproduction and quality control that I can't imagine any EQ fan actually likes them.

The art looks like it came from a fanzine. It is not professional. The reproduction of the art looks like mud.

Buy at your own risk.

No longer among my favorites.......2001-06-18

EQ used to be one of my favorite works, but the series no longer has the quality it once enjoyed. My advice is to avoid later volumes and stick to the earlier books which are among the best comics ever published. The later work is embarassing.

"Why is Elfquest's quality going down?".......2000-07-13

I just want to explain to you all why this doesn't have it's former luster. You see, so many people out there think that Elfquest is dying, because other-people are doing art and stories. But you know what? You haven't seen anything yet-- EQ isn't dying, just pregnant. She's about to give birth to the next level; the Elfquest FILM! It'll most likely come out in 2002; And our beloved Wendy is behind it all the way. THAT'S why everything else is so distracted. But ya know...I give them all 5 stars anyways, because for adaptations, they rock hardcore, and besides, they're keeping us alive till '02! AYOOAH packmates! ;)

A parting - and hope for reunion.......2000-04-10

Beginning in 1990, the Pinis radically expanded the scope of the story of Cutter and his Wolfrider tribe. First, "Kings of the Broken Wheel" (reprinted in Books 7 and 8) advanced the characters 10,000 years in time - causing Cutter to have to cope, first, with the sudden loss of his family and second - after the reunion with his loved ones - with the changed, more dangerous world in which he and his tribe now found themselves: a world with more, and more powerful, humans in it. Book 10, featuring issues 8 to 15 of the "Hidden Years" series, begins the new tale of the elves' adventures in the midst of human civilization - above all, the seeds of their struggle to retake their ancestral home, the Palace of the High Ones, from the human dictator Grohmul Djun.

The first two episodes in Book 10 repeat two sections of the now-withdrawn Book 9 "Rogue's Challenge", so I will not touch on those in this review. The new story begins with the third and fourth chapters, when the elves' longtime enemy Winnowill, trying to hijack the Palace for her own ends, destroys it instead; the seizure of its shards (hence the title of the book) by the Djun and his army not only robs the elves of their safe haven, but gives the five-fingers access to its magic - a power they may turn against the elves. Cutter comes to realize that his people must war with the Djun to regain their rightful home... and that the only way to avoid the extinction of the tribe is to send away some of its members. Indeed, the distinctive element of this story is the deft union of the "smaller" personal stories - the maturation of a chief-to-be, the prospect of a new birth, an elf extending her hand to humans in friendship; a leader contemplating the second separation of his family - with the larger tale of the elves' impending battle for their lives. Though Wendy and Richard Pini did not create the artwork, they did write the script for this tale, which rings as true as any of their earlier works.

The bulk of the artwork, from the fifth chapter onwards, was drawn by Brandon McKinney. While obviously not from Wendy's pen (McKinney uses a more angular pencilling style, and draws most faces somewhat wider than Wendy does), McKinney yet shows a natural feel for the distinctive qualities of each character, and the attention to detail is admirable - not only basic figure-work but also inking and coloring are well executed. Having read the original color issues, I must say that this black-and-white reproduction gives only a partial view of the quality of the artwork. That is inevitable, since most of the scenes take place at night, and darker inks and colors are difficult to reproduce well - this being the only relative flaw of this edition.

Very little in the earlier EQ stories could have prepared readers for the new directions this series has taken; but it is just such vision - worthy of Cutter himself - that has kept up, and even enhanced, the Pinis' reputation not only as artists, but as storytellers. The theme of this book, then, is neatly summarized from a quotation from it: "Change is growth; love is never lost."

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Cuppy gets it right

Attention Terry Pratchett fans: you MUST read Will Cuppy!!!

Wombats, Mollusks, and Greek Literature All In Moderation

A funny collection of animal bios

How to Attract the Wombat (Nonpareil Book, 93.)
Will Cuppy
Manufacturer: David R Godine
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Cats, Dogs & Animals | Humor | Entertainment | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 1567921566

Product Description

Will Cuppy is one of the greatest humorists this country has produced and is still (despite eleven printings of his imperishable The Decline and Fall of Practically Everybody) too little known. Here is one of his three classic "How-To's," considering notable birds and animals whose habits (and often existence) seem to have disturbed Cuppy ("Birds Who Can't Even Fly," "Optional Insects," "Octopuses and Those Things"), as well as more mundane creatures like the frog, the gnat, and the moa, who have no visible vices but whose virtues are truly awful. Spanning the breadth of the animal kingdom, Cuppy neatly classes his observations for easy reference: Problem Mammals, Pleasures of Pond Life, Birds Who Can't Sing and Know It.

Included with 50 shorter pieces are longer meditations like 'The Poet and the Nautilus," "Swan-upping, Indeed!" and "How to Swat a Fly," which codifies the essentials of this simple activity in ten hilarious principles. All this, plus over 100 delightful Nofziger drawings!

But the seat of honor is, of course, occupied by the Wombat, the nocturnal star of three essays. Whether asleep in Rossetti's silver epergne or tunneling under the lawn, the wombat never fails to fascinate Cuppy, clearly supplying his alter ego for the animal kingdom.

Customer Reviews:

Cuppy gets it right.......2005-12-24

Mr. Cuppy was a terrific oberserver of humanity. Despite his rather unique living conditions and his curmudgeon like existence, his "take" on "us humans" is spot on.
My only regret is that he didn't pen more books and essays for us to enjoy again and again.
If you enjoy his work, pick up Max Schulman as well. He is another great humorist from the "golden age".
Too bad we don't see more of these types.
We can keep them alive!
Share these tomes with all your friends and enemies!

Attention Terry Pratchett fans: you MUST read Will Cuppy!!!.......2005-08-23

I put Terry Pratchett's name in the title, as well as here in the first paragraph, so that those looking for certain keywords will come across this. I read Will Cuppy before I ever discovered Discworld (in fact, I read Will Cuppy's stuff before most of Discworld was ever written!) but though Cuppy's stuff is over half a century old, and non-fiction, it is nonetheless a natural fit for the sense of humor that appreciates Terry Pratchett.

Will Cuppy was the master of the irrelevant footnote, the tangential digression, and the stern admonition to the reader. What makes it even funnier is that every word is true, or at least as much of the truth as was known in the 1930's and thereabouts. His specialty is zoology, which is what most of this book contains, but he also is very funny about history.

Now, you don't have to read the Discworld novels to appreciate Cuppy, and so if you have no idea what I'm talking about, then never fear. You probably do need a bit of education, however; high school biology and Western history should be floating around in bits in the back of your brain. At the time he wrote these -essays?- Cuppy was writing mainly for The New Yorker magazine, and he assumed that his audience was somewhat elite, college-educated and highly literate. (However, he's not nearly as elitist, or as dead-white-male-centric, as, say, Hans Zinsser, whose "Rats, Lice and History" is also funny, but has some issues of racism and what some feel is anti-Semitism; Zinsser assumed his audience was educated at the sort of university where everyone was white, male, and required to study Greek and Latin and probably also knew French. Although Zinsser would also be a fun read for many, these issues make it a lot harder to recommend than Cuppy. However, if you've read this far in the review, and you want more words to read, more, more, more!, then you could consider "RL&H" as well.)

Anyway, there's a double message in this review: if you enjoy Terry Pratchett, then you really need to read Will Cuppy to find where Pratchett got his style from, and if you enjoy Will Cuppy but have never tried Terry Pratchett because you don't read science fiction or fantasy, then give Pratchett a try anyway, because he writes like Will Cuppy. And if none of that made any sense, but you like animals, zoology, and/or Gerald Durrell, then Cuppy may also be your cup of tea. Especially if you like wombats.

Wombats, Mollusks, and Greek Literature All In Moderation.......2003-11-09

Will Cuppy has written a very strange, very funny little volume that covers a lot of territory. Ostensibly, it is mainly devoted to an overview of animal characteristics, and includes a great deal of odd and relatively unknown facts on a myriad of animals (my undergraduate degree is in Biology, and I learned many peculiar things from this book).

The amazing thing about the book for me is the literate weaving of a coherent book which includes not only an explanation of the head-foot and lifestyles of lower mollusks, but a tracing of literary references of mollusks through history, from the ancient Greeks to Wordsworth (really). That kind of surreal juxtaposition runs throughout the book, and is perfectly delightful. The net result is a book that it genuinely educational, and simultaneously hilarious.

Cuppy has a wonderful way with words, indeed he has a rich vocabulary and elegant writing style that is mostly forgotten in contemporary writers. I wish this book was compulsory reading in all high schools (take your pick in English or Biology class) to expose students to the concept that a book, even with a sometimes strange or mundane subject, can be utterly fascinating when told well.

My only minor critique of the book is the relative abundance of footnotes, which is sometimes a bit distracting. If you want a good laugh, or you just love animals this book is a good choice. It turns out that wombats are pretty interesting, believe it or not!

A funny collection of animal bios.......1998-09-29

I thumbed through this book when I was about 15 , mostly because I had never heard of a wombat before. I enjoyed it so much that I read the whole book and I've read it a dozen times since. Will Cuppy had the uncanny ability to mix wit with fact when writing his pieces on various members of the animal kingdom, anthropomorphizing them for humorous absurdity which tendered the desired effect from this reader. The highlight of this book was his article on how to swat a fly, a skill which we could all use pointers on. His vocabulary is impeccable but somewhat dated. Younger people might not be able to decipher or appreciate his wit. I feel that if the educational system studied Cuppy's methods of writing and utilized it in their curriculum, students would be far more enthusiastic about learning than they are now. I would recommend this to anyone who likes animals, comedy, or anyone who wants to know just what the heck a wombat is and how you'd go about attracting one.

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How To Attract the Wombat
Will, Illustrated by Ed Nofziger Cuppy
Manufacturer: London: Dennis Dobson Ltd, 1950
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding
ASIN: B0000CHR1Q

Book Description

The public persona of Dudley Moore was many-sided: the short, anxious member of the comic duo Pete and Dud; the hard-drinking millionaire in the phenomenally successful Arthur; the gifted concert pianist and composer; the working-class kid who won a scholarship to Oxford. His life spanned an era of brilliant British comedy and an extraordinary decade of success—and excess—in Hollywood. After a debilitating illness forced him off the stage into real life, he struggled to survive; paradoxically, he also found inner peace. Looking back on the final 15 years of his life, Rena Fruchter gives us a loving and unflinching portrait of her friend Dudley Moore.

Customer Reviews:

Fans of Moore will welcome an opportunity to get to know him better.......2005-11-08

Dudley Moore was an actor, a comedian, and the husband to a perfectionist wife: he left a promising career in jazz piano to become a comedian, then an actor - and his personal life was fraught with illness and trials. Prior fans of Moore who are familiar with him through a single facet of his acting or comedy career will welcome an opportunity to get to know him better in Dudley Moore: An Intimate Portrait, by an author who was a music columnist, pianist, and performer along with Moore.

Dudley Moore and this book rate a "10".......2005-08-24

This is a book you will really look forward to reading, especially if you have had the chance to see one or more of Dudley Moore's movies ---from the everyman dreams of "10" to the wacky conductor of "Foul Play." Also to see him on stage or hear his talented piano playing.
I wanted to laugh again, and again at Dudley, the comic.
But the author, fellow musician Rena Fruchter, carefully weaves in the pain and suffering in this short man's too-short life:
"The tragedy is that Dudley Moore had so much left to do, to give, when his life was taken from him at the age of 66," she writes.
And an extra dimension for an author and even for a friend--Dudley spent the last five years of his life with Fruchter and her family. She held his hands when he died in March, 2002, with some of his own music playing in the background.
But Fruchter is able to give us a balanced portrait of this complex man, his four wives and ups and downs along the way.
I kept wanting more of the sheer joy of Dudley, which fellow comic Eric Idle touches on in the Foreward --where he thanks Dudley, or "Dud" as he calls him, "for just being you."
It is often written that one has to suffer a lot to be truly funny. Dudley followed that path. We thank him for all the laughter and music, and are glad to read in this excellent work that toward the end Dudley learned to accept himself and found strength and awareness...and also peace.
We miss you Dudley and thank you Rena for preserving so much of the man and his life in this book.

A Pleasingly Intimate Portrait.......2005-07-21

Intimate Portrait offers a personal account of Dudley Moore's struggle with illness. The author's first hand account provides a touching portrait of a person who simultaneously experienced fear and hope, courage and defeat, yet never gave up. It was moving and clearly a close friends final tribute to her best friend. I would highly recommend it.

Average customer rating:

Dudley Moore: An Intimate Portrait

Manufacturer: Ebury Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000HZ2NCQ

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Dudley Moore: an Intimate Portrait
Rena Fruchter
Manufacturer: Ebury Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OGZORY

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Dudley Moore: An Intimate Portrait
Rena Fruchter
Manufacturer: Ebury Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OGZ5VO

Book Description

All 14 songs from the hit album including such classics as Tangled Up In Blue, Forever Young, and Knockin' On Heaven's Door, plus the previously unreleased Dignity.

Book Description

Through this unique tarot journey the Great God/dess and Her animal companions provide guidance for introspective discovery.

Customer Reviews:

Lovely Deck!.......2006-08-30

I realize that much of tarot reading is based on what you can get from the pictures, but I think that the quality of the pictures should be ignored, for the most part. (I didn't think the mishappen faces were a "photoshopping mistake" as one reviewer suggested, but that they were stretched/contorted that way for a reason.)

It took me a while to get connected with these cards, but when I did, I couldn't have been more pleased with the results. When I read for others, they said I was spot-on about their situations (if not a little backwards...but that part was my fault, I think!)

After having this deck for several years, I sold it a couple of months ago because the cards were "being cranky" (I don't know if I wasn't purifying them enough or what, but anyway). Now I wonder if that wasn't a mistake -- I have since bought a traditional Rider deck and it doesn't read like this deck. In fact, I'm seriously considering buying another of these decks!

Meticulously Graceful!!!.......2006-05-16

I happened upon this deck by chance and personally adore it! After the mixed reviews on this site, I avoided the deck. I prefer traditional and more "earthly" oriented styles. This deck is deck is a little of both and something beyond this. "New Age- Feminism" could be a good way to describe it. Yet it even goes beyond this. Multiculturalism, mysticism and aesthetic depth are presented for readers of all ages and backgrounds.

The art is an odd mixure of paintings and photography that work! I thought it must be one or the other to be to my taste. I judge tarot decks by the insight they provide in readings. This one does so very skillfully! Almost eerily accurate. The symbolism is very profound, and not without humor. The cards are done in soothing blues, lavender and purple. Nice on the eyes. Many authors have said to not read the cards before bed. This deck is perfect for adding cards to dreams and great for meditation!

I dont like to scare clients during a reading. This one removes most of the fear and superstition from some cards while retaining essential symbols required for a good interpretation. For example card #XIII is called Transition, contains skulls, has this profound feeling of grief, yet it doesnt instill fear into the uninitiated. Bravo Ms. Gendron! Nudity is used minimally and tastefully here as well.

The deck works on many levels including the beginner. Many days should be spent practicing with the cards before trying them on another. Most of all, they are a powerful magical tool. Divination and wisdom are easily provide with this deck that is presented by a master in my opinion. I feel sorry for the reviewers who were not impressed. Perhaps a second chance should be given.

I'm with Jeanette Åstrand on this..........2005-08-07

I agree with the reviewer, Jeanette Åstrand of Sweden (see below). Her's is one of the fairest reviews I've read for this deck. I guess it's one of those you have to see to believe.

A Most Beautiful and Inspirational Deck!!.......2003-09-20

As a long time practitioner of Tarot and collector of decks, I am used to switching favorites from time to time. This deck has been my favorite longer than any other, and so I must praise the artist for creating a thoroughly pleasing and sensually/spiritually/emotionally evocative deck. The artist uses a combination of powerful, beautiful, flowing artwork and photo-imagery with gorgeous models showing expressions that perfectly convey the feeling of each card. The work is eclectic and never boring or repetitive, and I feel that her thorough understanding of Tarot is shown through an imaginative and flawless artistic interpretation. Melanie has truly been inspired, and I congratulate her on this most amazing and enjoyable Tarot Deck!

Great Deck.......2003-04-22

I found my Gendron Deck while shopping for a new deck of cards. I checked out several other decks before I decided on the Gendron, but I knew the moment I saw them, they were my cards. I truly feel more in sync with my perceptions when using this deck more so than with any other. I find the artwork enchanting and discover new things with them nearly every time I use the cards. I felt the accompanying guide book paled in comparison to the magnificence of the deck. I have become accustomed to using a different guide with the deck, and having successful readings this way. I was let down upon reading some of the harsh reviews of the other customers and suspect that perhaps they did not find such a strong connection with the deck, and therefore the deck is not meant for their use. I personally feel I should handle a deck and check the artwork out before I know if it will be of use to me. I probably would not consider a purchase of tarot cards any other way after my success with this deck.

The Gendron Tarot Deck & Book Set With Cards

Average customer rating:

The Gendron Tarot Deck & Book Set With Cards
Melanie Gendron
Manufacturer: U.S. Games Systems
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000N7A3ZC

Amazon.com

The beauty of marketing is that it happens when we're looking but not noticing. Before you know it, we're using Yahoo! as a search engine, even though serious researchers will tell you that Alta Vista and Dogpile are better. We're buying products that cost more and perform worse, simply because the marketing and branding of those products tells us there's a value there, even if objective analysis tells us otherwise. In The Invisible Touch, Harry Beckwith tells us the obvious--what was right in front of our faces. But because of the blinders we wear, because of the way we've been educated, socialized, or just plain bamboozled, we can't see it as clearly as he can. Thus, in each of his "four keys to modern marketing"--price, branding, packaging, relationships--he offers counterintuitive information that could make or break a business plan. For example, he explains in great detail why a higher price is better than a lower one; why every business, from Apple Computer to the U.S. Army, is a brand-name to be cherished and nurtured; why the orangest orange sells better than the least orange orange, even if both pieces of fruit taste exactly the same; and why the best service providers always remember your name and what you like to drink. This is a business book, but one that everyone who works for a living should read. Pick any page, and you'll find insights that could make you a better teacher, a better salesperson, a better employee in any trade. Beckwith drives home the idea that we're all in the business of marketing ourselves, and we're in that business every waking hour. --Lou Schuler

Book Description

The Invisible Touch is Harry Beckwiths concise sequel to his wildly popular Selling the Invisible, a field guide to how markets work and how prospective clients think. Now, moving beyond those basic principles, he delivers essential business wisdom aimed at keeping clients by utilizing the four keys to modern marketing: Price, Brand, Packaging, and Relationships. These major keys, coupled with Beckwiths surprising insights and unforgettable examples, should help readers enhance their profits by marketing their services in a more humanistic way. Selling the Invisible, the authors first marketing book, has been to press 20 times. It spent one month on the New York Times business book bestseller list, six weeks on the BusinessWeek bestseller list, and was an Alternate Selection of Book-of-the-Month Club.

Download Description

Service businesses sell something that cannot be seen or heard. They offer an experience--and to make that experience truly exceptional they must first understand people and how to satisfy them. In this indispensable volume, Harry Beckwith provides a treasury of quick, practical, and entertaining strategies. Applying the study of human nature to the real world of business, 'The Invisible Touch' will open your eyes to this crucial branch of marketing with four key concepts: *Price: Its seductive power--from Uma Thurman's Five-Dollar Milk Shake to the Mansion at Turtle Creek *Brand: The triumph of Red Pepper, Opium, Yahoo!, and the inscrutable A-AI AC Delco Jani Express Cleaning Service 500 *Packaging: Looking at the pretty mousetraps of Disneyland, the ugly Butterfly Effect, and a tale of oranges and heels
*Relationships: A consideration of Jim Marinelli's magic one word, Laura Nyro's folly, the madness of Tom Peters, and further ripples of the Lake Wobegon Effect. Based on the author's extensive business experience, this book delivers its wisdom with unforgettable and often surprising examples--from the regrowth of a bitten Apple to Camden Yards' grand-slam face-lift, to the three eternal lessons of a twenty-year-old coffee commercial. Thorough, informative, and easily implemented, 'The Invisible Touch' shows you how to market a service and, most important, how to keep happy, loyal clients with you forever.

Customer Reviews:

The Invisible Touch "Can't Touch This" Selling The Invisible.......2006-02-19

It's going to take a lot of SELLING to cause The Invisible Touch to touch Selling The Invisible. It appears that Harry Beckwith follow-up book is good but not as GREAT as Selling The Invisible. Perception Is Reality and I do believe there are some very interesting concepts to salvage from this book. It still has the down to earth approach where he offers putting listening over researching. This book just seems so fundamental in the basics and therefore would be a great book for someone who needs a beginners approach. But if you're looking for new insight study The Wizard of Marketing or go back to Selling The Invisible.

Your Servant, Deremiah, *CPE

First, see what may have been "invisible" previously...........2005-07-20

Having read this book when it was first published several years ago (2000), I recently re-read it, this time finding it even more thought-provoking than before. Harry Beckwith is an exceptionally clear, innovative business thinker. He fully understands the nature and extent of what is widely referred to as "the invisibility of the obvious." His thoughts about four "key" marketing concepts (i.e. price, brand, packaging, and relationships) are not head-snapping revelations. Rather, they are valuable reminders of what many readers already know but tend to forget or ignore.

According to Beckwith, research does not expose the truth; it blinds us to it. Research supports mediocre ideas and kills great ones. Therefore, "ignore hard evidence. Soft evidence is much more valuable." Here are some other ideas which put some white caps on my gray matter:

On best practices: Ignore others'; create your own.

On leadership: People don't lead. Purposes do.

On mediocrity: There are no ordinary jobs. There are only people who insist on performing them in ordinary ways.

On pricing: The more a product or service costs, the better it seems. Push prices higher. Higher prices don't just talk; they tempt. If people come for your price, they will leave for someone else's.

On branding: Your business is your brand. Look for a brand that people can see, smell, taste, touch, feel, or hear -- or better yet, experience all five. Look for a name that makes the prospect, not you, sound important. Brands trump quality.

On packaging: Look as great as you are. ("Where do service businesses err? They spend timid -- and end up looking timid.") Create the environment that will create in your clients the crucial feeling: their feeling of importance. Your package is your service.

On building relationships: Inorder to make and keep a sale, make and keep a powerful connection. Create an "oasis" for your customers. Refuse bad business -- and get rid of it fast. Choose the clients who are most like you. Avoid "blind dates." To gain loyal clients, find loyal people. Seek clients you would want as friends. Go slowly. Relationships take time. To build trust, build consistency -- in everything you do. Sacrifice is the cement of human relationships. Nothing bonds someone to you more.

Granted, as suggested earlier, these are not head-snapping revelations but they do challenge a reader to re-evaluate her or his own core concepts and basic assumptions about marketing. Years ago, Peter Drucker asserted that "The purpose of every business is to create and then keep customers." In this volume, Beckwith shares his own ideas about HOW to accomplish those two objectives. I agree with him that "We cannot wait for the Absolute Truths, of which there are so few. We must settle for some Apparently Useful Premises: assumptions that usually produce good results."

Those who share my high regard for this book are urged to check out all of Beckwith's other books as well as Theodore Levitt's The Marketing Imagination, Jason Jennings Think Big, Act Small, Gary Harpst's Six Disciplines for Excellence, and Seth Godin's All Marketers Are Liars.

Focus on Customer Satisification and not Price Discounting.......2005-02-19

Market Research has limits. The end result of any market research project can be engineered to give a predictable outcome. For example, in a sampling of 18 people - questions were ask about a specific product likes and dislikes and a conclusion drawn about the product. Next, the pool size was increased to 500 people with the similar characteristics found in the first 18 person sample and surprising the same marketing research results were achieved. So, marketing decisions driven by market research can be hazardous, if absolute faith in the conclusions of the Research are followed. Also, too further break down reliance on market research, Beckwith states that people exhibit the Heisenburg principle meaning people change their behavior when they are being studied. Beckwith concludes, soft research is better than hard research and the bottom line is to listen to the customer.

The Marketing has fallacies. Best practices make an invitation to ordinariness. Instead of following Best practices, innovate and create best practices.

Focus on satisification and equate quality too price believing that customer who have perspection of receiving quality will pay a higher price. Price discounting works in special cases. Price discounting is designed too acquire new customers and destroy competitor profit margins causing them to collaspe. For most companies discounting only attracts the wrong type of customer.

Focus on achieving customer satisification rather than cutting price. Customers, who are bargin hunters will flee to businesses that offer lower price. These type of customers are always looking for cheaper product and customer loyalty is a function of price. For every one large discount store, it destorys 100 smaller businesses while attract high volume of customers at low prices and profit margins. These companies expect people to buy more product because of the lower price and profit off the higher volume of sales. So, the lower profit margin per product is offset by higher volume of products sold. The only way to combat the discount business model is to offer better service, more specialized products, and a stronger focus on meeting customer expectations. Rather than seeking larger numbers of people, emphasis a business model with a selective group of customers with more disposable money, and selective tastes for products and services; stay on the upper pyramid of product and service differentiation. For example, Boston Market thought, if they offer discount coupons, they would increase foot traffic into their stores and the clientele would love their food. So they offer coupons and increased traffic, slowed down service time per customer, fustrated the clientele that should have become their loyal customers and attracted the wrong type of customer. Boston Market stock valued at $41 share price plummetted to 33 cents, as the company cut its coupons and the clientele seeking discount priced food fled. The prime customer was also fed up with delayed service and the company entered Chapter 11.

Build Brand as a mental expection that the customer believes he will get. Branding has become the most effective when customers nolonger are willing to do comparative pricing and analysis and instead select a product because of its brand. Brand is the symbol that people associate with a specific expectation which is often better than reality. Brand can create an expectation so strong that the customer ignores diminished quality and value in the product or service. Brand represents the symbol companies seeks to position in the minds of the customer.

Packaging adds beauty to the product and reinforces the brand.

Focus on the customer relationship. Seek customers like yourself. This does two things: 1) Increases understanding of the customer and predictablity of his responses 2) Reduces complaints and nonsolvable conflicts with unsatisified customers.

Common Sense and Great Examples: Overall, a Great Book!.......2003-08-15

As a small business owner, one of the most important factor in receiving (and keeping) business is marketing. Beckwith provides a lot of common-sense tools (that are frequently ignored by Fortune 500) companies that can be enormously benefectial--such as refering to a person's first name, and showing passion for one's work, true passion. Yet many of us forget how important common sense is when we are involved in our business. Beckwith's main advice is to remember the human touch--that you are dealing with humans. That means a certain style, a welcoming style, has to be imbedded in all that you do in your business. A very good book!

Michael

Exposes Assumptions.......2003-07-05

He's off completely though when he gushes over his European hiking pal. What if this hiking pal was a Subway sandwich guy, instead of a 2nd year law student...? Placebo effect in full force again. It depends on "who" is saying your name. How many Moms wish they could change their names?

What's the deal with the Carter-Reagan comparison? That wasn't even intelligent?!?!?!

The greatest insight, I thought, was the discovery that people first make decisions and then seek to justify them. I can see how understanding that concept can be useful. Find out what they've decided first, and then support it or try to change it... Absolutely Brilliant!!!!! I'm soooo guilty of that one.

Thanks Harry for another great treasure of insights. Didn't care for the repeat stuff from "What Clients Love", but you knocked a few out of the park. I'll pay to see that any time!

Average customer rating:
The Invisible Touch : The Four Keys to Modern Marketing
Harry Beckwith
Manufacturer: Recorded Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Audio Cassette

General | Marketing | Marketing & Sales | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0788755021

Product Description

4 cassettes.

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