Is Your Brand Ready for the Internet? Get a Clue from the Cluetrain. - Issue: 2001 Qtr 1
A book review by Tom Miller, Partner, Miller Brooks, Inc.
Here's a book that has nothing to do with brands as we think of them, and everything to do with the way successful brands will operate in the not too distant future. The book is called The Cluetrain Manifesto.
Read it. The Cluetrain will definitely get you thinking, and perhaps acting, differently.
From the first of its 95 theses ("Markets are conversations") through thoughtful essays by each of the four authors of the Cluetrain Manifesto,this book challenges how businesses (and brands) interact with markets, with customers and with employees.
The book makes a compelling case for dropping the marketing jargon and hype ("Bombastic boasts do not constitute a position") and speak openly and honestly.
While several of the essays get a little long-winded in making their points, it's easy to skim past the repetition and still get the basic point the authors are making. And because the tone of the book is so opinionated it is easy to find things to disagree with; and that makes reading The Cluetrain Manifesto all the more fun. After all, their intention is to start a conversation.
Before you plunk down hard-earned cash for the book, you may want to check out Cluetrain at their web site: www.cluetrain.com.
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