Book review: Meaningful Marketing

Over the weekend I finished the book, "Meaningful Marketing: 100 Data-Proven Truths and 402 Practical Ideas for Selling MORE with LESS Effort" by Doug Hall. This book should be on every marketer's bookshelf.

Packed with solid information on how to sell more product and services, Doug Hall backs up his assertions with research-backed studies and data to assure the reader that these truths fall out from hard data. Experienced marketers might not learn anything new, but they probably will. At the very least the book will have you revisiting sacred cows and "common knowledge" about what you think you know about marketing and sales tactics that elicit customer response.

While probably not meant to be read from start to finish as a typical marketing work, this book belongs in your library as a handy reference. Packed with common (and not-so-common) consumer insights, the book is arranged with each left-hand page being a "truth" and the accompanying right-hand page listing several practical ideas to support those truths. Everything is well-indexed and easily findable.

Perhaps the most valuable gem of the whole book is the author's complete list of all references that support each truth so that you can track down the primary research or journal articles that the author researched. This list alone is worth the price of the book if you are looking for jumping off points to dig deeper into any of the topics.

On my "Professional Marketer Investment Scale":
($-Poor investment, $$$$$-Great investment)

Rating: $$$$ 1/2