Book Review: Waiting for Your Cat to Bark? Persuading Customers When They Ignore Marketing
Approaching online marketing is a bit like entering a wilderness without a map, compass, shelter, or food. Let me explain. The typical Web site fails to anchor its message in the needs of real world customers, provides no means of discovering whether the message is persuasive, and relies on intuition and experimentation for improvement. Companies with little room for experimentation in their budget can easily become discouraged or exhaust their resources in fruitless experimentation. Bryan and Jeffrey Eisenberg have provided a model in Waiting for Your Cat to Bark? that addresses the lack of landmarks in online marketing.
This book maps out the difficult wilderness terrain of customer communication and persuasion as an intentional process that includes measurable and achievable goals. The Eisenbergs approach an extremely complex process with finesse that rarely oversimplifies and yet provides a conceptual framework that helps us approach it rationally.
It is very difficult to summarize Waiting for Your Cat to Bark? because it is a comprehensive system of thought and a marketing methodology. Little about the specifics of marketing are redefined here, but Persuasion Architecture places each component of marketing into a framework with specific goals and metrics. When read cover to cover with an open mind, this book has the potential to demystify much of the marketing process.
Like any book that paints a big picture, the chief challenge to the reader is to apply the principles of Persuasion Architecture to their own marketing efforts. Though the first few chapters are mostly abstract, the last nine chapters anchor the conceptual framework in real world scenarios that will help you get started.
The model of Persuasion Architecture meshes well with the culture of the Internet where participation is voluntary and transient. According to the authors, “The frameworks available in Persuasion Architecture create a persuasive model of voluntary momentum rather than a coercive model … it isn’t about control, it’s about choice.”
What’s my advice? If you are involved in marketing, but especially marketing with an Internet component, choose to read this book!
Product Details
- Authors: Bryan Eisenberg, Jeffrey Eisenberg, Lisa T. Davis
- Hardcover: 240 pages
- Publisher: Nelson Business; Book & CD edition (June 13, 2006)
- ISBN: 0785218971
- List Price: $19.99
- Buy on Amazon.com
- Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 0.9 inches
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4 comments June 27th, 2006
