Thursday, June 02, 2011

Book review: Enchantment by Guy Kawasaki




In this work Guy Kawasaki manages to take basic truths about business, sprinkle in a little bit of useful information about the latest social media technologies, stretches it all into book length and emerges with a book that will underwhelm anyone who has read other business books related to marketing, branding and/or customer satisfaction.

That is not to say the book does not have an audience.

If you are a young entrepreneur or new to business management then this is a good book that will teach you the basic generalities of how to create useful products that people want and appreciate. You'll gain a better understanding of why it is important to be truthful in your marketing, why it is important to create realistic expectations for customers and why delivering on promises (and making the right promises) will help you build your brand. You'll gain a better idea, conceptually, of how to create products that stand out and are different in a crowded marketplace.

For those who have read other books on business management or basic marketing the triteness of this work will envelop you in a familiar fog of vague, basic truths about how to deal with people in the manner or style of Dale Carnegie, Napoleon Hill and Zig Ziglar. If you are looking for meatier nuggets than "be likeable, "be trustworthy" and "be prepared" then you'll want to pass on this work unless you are seeking a breezy refresher or looking to renew your commitment to The Boy Scout Law.

The later chapters that provide some useful and actionable information on how to most effectively produce online marketing videos and how to leverage push/pull technologies earn it three stars from me, but I was hoping for much deeper insights, more current case studies and more actionable information.

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