Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man


Marshall McLuhan - 1964
    Terms and phrases such as "the global village" and "the medium is the message" are now part of the lexicon, and McLuhan's theories continue to challenge our sensibilities and our assumptions about how and what we communicate.There has been a notable resurgence of interest in McLuhan's work in the last few years, fueled by the recent and continuing conjunctions between the cable companies and the regional phone companies, the appearance of magazines such as WiRed, and the development of new media models and information ecologies, many of which were spawned from MIT's Media Lab. In effect, media now begs to be redefined. In a new introduction to this edition of Understanding Media, Harper's editor Lewis Lapham reevaluates McLuhan's work in the light of the technological as well as the political and social changes that have occurred in the last part of this century.

How Brands Grow: What Marketers Don't Know


Byron Sharp - 2010
    Tackling issues such as how brands grow, how advertising really works, what price promotions really do & how loyalty programs really affect loyalty.

Building a StoryBrand: Clarify Your Message So Customers Will Listen


Donald Miller - 2017
    This revolutionary method for connecting with customers provides readers with the ultimate competitive advantage, revealing the secret for helping their customers understand the compelling benefits of using their products, ideas, or services. Building a StoryBrand does this by teaching readers the seven universal story points all humans respond to; the real reason customers make purchases; how to simplify a brand message so people understand it; and how to create the most effective messaging for websites, brochures, and social media. Whether you are the marketing director of a multibillion dollar company, the owner of a small business, a politician running for office, or the lead singer of a rock band, Building a StoryBrand will forever transform the way you talk about who you are, what you do, and the unique value you bring to your customers.

Words That Work: It's Not What You Say, It's What People Hear


Frank Luntz - 2006
    With chapters like "The Ten Rules of Successful Communication" and "The 21 Words and Phrases for the 21st Century," he examines how choosing the right words is essential. Nobody is in a better position to explain than Frank Luntz: He has used his knowledge of words to help more than two dozen Fortune 500 companies grow. Hell tell us why Rupert Murdoch's six-billion-dollar decision to buy DirectTV was smart because satellite was more cutting edge than "digital cable," and why pharmaceutical companies transitioned their message from "treatment" to "prevention" and "wellness." If you ever wanted to learn how to talk your way out of a traffic ticket or talk your way into a raise, this book's for you.

The Starbucks Story


John Simmons - 2005
    You can get a cup at any caf, sandwich bar or restaurant anywhere. So how did Starbucks manage to reinvent coffee as a whole new experience, and create a hugely successful brand in the process? The Starbucks Story tells the brand's story from its origins in a Seattle fish market to its growing global presence today. This is a story that has unfolded quickly - at least in terms of conventional business development. Starbucks is a phenomenon. Unknown 15 years ago, it now ranks among the 100 most valuable brands in the world. It has become the quintessential brand of the modern age, built around the creation of an experience that can be consistently reproduced across the world. Originally published in 2004 as 'My Sister's A Barista: How they made Starbucks a home away from home', this new 2012 edition has been updated to bring the brand up to date.

Strategic Human Resource Management


Jeffrey A. Mello - 2001
    This text is organized into two sections. The first section, Chapters 1-7, examines the context of strategic HR and develops a framework and conceptual model for the practice of strategic HR. The second section, Chapters 8-14, examines the actual practice and implementation of strategic HR through a discussion of strategic issues that need to be addressed while developing specific programs and policies related to the traditional functional areas of HR (staffing, training, performance management, etc.). The integrative framework that requires linkage between, consistency among these functional HR activities, and the approach toward writing about these traditional functional areas from a strategic perspective distinguish the text from what is currently on the market.

Retention Point: The Single Biggest Secret to Membership and Subscription Growth for Associations, SAAS, Publishers, Digital Access, Subscription Boxes and all Membership and Subscription Businesses


Robert Skrob - 2018
    I do that by getting more of your members to the Retention Point faster. You know those members who love you, buy everything you offer and tell all their friends about you? Those members have made it to the Retention Point. And, when you do what I show you how to do in the book, you’ll get MORE of your members to the Retention Point so you can keep them longer and your recurring revenue will grow. Membership is a great business model in concept. You get a customer and each time your customer renews you get recurring revenue. But, even though I’d become a membership marketing expert I soon discovered it doesn’t matter how many new members you get if your members quit as fast as new members join. I just got off the phone with a prospective client for the first time. His team is generating more than 10,000 new members a month. That’s awesome, a great effort and commendable result that’s getting his company featured in many subscription industry profiles. What isn’t getting featured is this same company is losing 9500 members each month. This means they spend 95% of all of their marketing efforts replacing members that quit. Twenty-seven days of each month are spent replacing canceled members. Their marketing department has thirty days of monthly expenses but delivers only three days of growth. If you know of anyone that’s in this position, or if you are in this position, I’m revealing more than 25 years of membership growth experience in this new book called Retention Point, The Single Biggest Secret to Membership and Subscription Growth for Associations, SAAS, Publishers, Digital Access, Subscription Boxes and all Membership and Subscription-Based Businesses. When you get your hands on this book you'll discover: • The five fallacies of membership retention that most subscription businesses implement that actually INCREASE member churn rates. • Five case studies of subscription business turnarounds (or successful launches) including a publisher, a subscription box, SAAS, an association and a charity/nonprofit. • The 10 Retention Point Accelerators that transform your new members from Quitters into Lifers. • How to achieve 90% to 98% annual renewal percentages, even if you believe this is completely impossible for your business. • The single biggest misunderstanding subscription companies believe that kills membership growth. Plus a whole lot more, when you get Retention Point.

Viralnomics: How to Get People to Want to Talk About You


Jonathan Goodman - 2016
    A must-read for anyone who wants to win at social.” - Jonah Berger (NYT Bestselling author of Contagious: Why Things Catch On) ***Discover how to get the right type of people to talk about you.*** ARE YOU SHARING GREAT WORK, but it seems nobody is listening? Does it seem like you’re at the mercy of social networks’ mysterious algorithms? Do you feel like it is an insurmountable task to understand and leverage social media? In Viralnomics: How to Get People to Want to Talk About You, Jonathan Goodman shows you how to appeal to people’s desires and get them to share your message as an extension of themselves. In this engaging, entertaining, and educational quick read you will discover: Methods to ethically persuade on social media. (pg 105) How to identify and befriend the real influencers (they aren’t who you think they are). (pg 23) A concept buried deep in psychological research that holds the secret to purposeful social sharing. (pg 53) The two keys to creating true power with Internet marketing. (pg 65) How to craft your messages and build your networks. (pg 115) If you desire to use social media marketing to get your product, service, or small business out to the right audience you don’t need to understand what buttons to push, you need to understand and appeal to the people pushing them. This book will help. Don't delay, scroll up and buy your copy today!

To Sell is Human: The Surprising Truth About Moving Others


Daniel H. Pink - 2012
    Bureau of Labor Statistics, one in nine Americans works in sales. Every day more than fifteen million people earn their keep by persuading someone else to make a purchase.But dig deeper and a startling truth emerges:Yes, one in nine Americans works in sales. But so do the other eight.Whether we’re employees pitching colleagues on a new idea, entrepreneurs enticing funders to invest, or parents and teachers cajoling children to study, we spend our days trying to move others. Like it or not, we’re all in sales now.To Sell Is Human offers a fresh look at the art and science of selling. As he did in Drive and A Whole New Mind, Daniel H. Pink draws on a rich trove of social science for his counterintuitive insights. He reveals the new ABCs of moving others (it's no longer "Always Be Closing"), explains why extraverts don't make the best salespeople, and shows how giving people an "off-ramp" for their actions can matter more than actually changing their minds.Along the way, Pink describes the six successors to the elevator pitch, the three rules for understanding another's perspective, the five frames that can make your message clearer and more persuasive, and much more. The result is a perceptive and practical book--one that will change how you see the world and transform what you do at work, at school, and at home.

The Science of Marketing: When to Tweet, What to Post, How to Blog, and Other Proven Strategies


Dan Zarrella - 2012
    It uses a combination of marketing, statistical, and psychological research to explain why and, more importantly, how, companies should adapt marketing strategies such as blogging, social media, email marketing, and webinars to achieve maximium results.The book contradicts what the author calls the "unicorns and rainbows" strategy that simply encourages companies to love their customers and hug their followers. Instead, the book offers more substantial, proven tactics and tips gathered through scientific research and techniques.Lists what time of day and what day of the week the most retweets occur Explains why weekends are best for Facebook sharing, which blog posts lead to comments, why early mornings are best for emails, and how to blog to acquire links Describes how to avoid crowding your content The Science of Marketing provides the research and tools to help you make a stronger impact in the digital marketing space.

TOP 101 Growth Hacks: The best growth hacking ideas that you can put into practice right away


Aladdin Happy - 2015
     First growth hacks I was compressing into a short form and keeping in a private document. And then the crazy idea hit my head —  establish an e-mail subscription service, that sends every day one short growth hack. This is how growthhackingidea.com was born. After 3 weeks there were 1700 subscribers ($0 marketing cost). I was reading, choosing tasty growth hacks, I eager to test and implement. After 3 months there were 17 000 subscribers ($0 marketing cost). People from companies like Microsoft, Salesforce, TechStars, Hubspot, Coca-Cola, Indiegogo, Disney, 500 startups, LinkedIn, Adobe became our subscribers. After reaching this milestone I decided to put the best collected growth hacks into a book + add a portion of exclusive growth hacks, never released on GrowthHackingIdea.com. This book consists of two parts: 1. Introduction, how GrowthHackingIdea.com started (+ bonus growth hacks) 2. A list of TOP 101 growth hacks. Divided into AARRR+ sections: Before Product-Market Fit, Hustling, Copywriting, Acquisition, Activation, Retention, Revenue, Referral: Before product/market fit #1. Hack your mindset with CEO of Pinterest #2. How to get your first customers #3. Are you sure about your product/market fit? Hustling #4. Leveraging dead competitors #5. Get emails of followers of your competitors #6. Tinder`s early days growth hack #7. Become an alternative to your competitors #8. The TechCrunch journalists` emails #9. Find journalists for your startup instantly #10. Pre-heat the journalists #11. Hack the Press #12. Hack Product Hunt #13. How a $2B company gained its initial users Copyrighting #14. A copy that converts #15. 9 cold emailing rules #16. 7 engaging storytelling formulas #17. 7 perfect headline formulas #18. The magic of headlines #19. Hack persuasive copywriting #20. Copywriting tip to quadruple conversions #21. Replace one word to get 90% more clicks Acquisition #22. Parasite SEO (white hat) #23. A real keyword strategy #24. Hidden early stage growth hack of Airbnb #25. Turn LinkedIn contacts into a list of emails #26. I hardly forced myself to share this hack #27. 200K users a month from long tail phrases #28. Boost conversions of your Tweets #29. How to collect emails on Twitter #30. Hack Twitter #31. Creating Pinterest pins that drive results #32. Best growth hack by Laxman Papineni #33. Which ads perform best for your competitors? #34. Piggybacking tweak to earn a ROI #35. Hack ideas for the 2nd largest search engine #36. Hack Facebook ads #37. 5 SEO hacks for the 2nd largest search engine #38. Disrupt the cost of YouTube video marketing Activation #39. Easy to understand tutorials via email #40. Boost your email opt-in rate by 22% #41. Little trick increased conversions by 26% #42. Evernote’s onboarding framework #43. Increase email opt-ins by 70% in 5 minutes #44. Quiz your audience #45. Drawbacks & competition increase conversions #46. Negative social proof for persuasion #47. 10-second trick #48. How I doubled my app downloads #49. How typography affects conversions #50. Save your bounced visitors #51. Turn invisibles into leads #52.

The Asshole Survival Guide: How to Deal with People Who Treat You Like Dirt


Robert I. Sutton - 2017
      Equally useful and entertaining, The Asshole Survival Guide delivers a cogent and methodical game plan when you find yourself working with a jerk—whether in the office, on the field, in the classroom, or just in life.     Sutton starts with diagnosis—what kind of asshole problem, exactly, are you dealing with? From there, he provides field-tested, evidence-based, and sometimes surprising strategies for dealing with the rude, impolite, irritating, unpleasant, or just plain incompetent—avoiding them, outwitting them, disarming them, sending them packing, and developing protective psychological armor. Sutton even teaches readers how to look inward to stifle their own inner jackass. 
  
   Ultimately, this survival guide is about developing an outlook and personal plan that will help you preserve the sanity in your life, and will prevent all those perfectly good days from being ruined by some jerk.

Mastering Book Hooks for Authors: How to Capture Reader Attention and Book Sales in 30 Words or Less


Rob Eagar - 2017
     That's the power of a hook. And, it just worked on you. A book hook is a statement or question designed to generate immediate curiosity and entice readers to want more. Why is a hook important? Language is the power of the book sale. As an author, you don’t sell books to machines. You sell books to human beings. A book hook uses powerful language that naturally piques a person’s interest. Book marketing expert, Rob Eagar, has coached over 450 authors and worked with several New York Times bestsellers. In this concise guide, he skillfully explains: • How to create a book hook • The difference between fiction and non-fiction hooks • Where to use a book hook to maximize sales Mastering Book Hooks for Authors will teach you how to create attention-grabbing language for your book, regardless of the genre. Capture more reader interest for free by using the power of a hook. Also includes free access to “The Ultimate Book Marketing Plan Template for Authors” by Rob Eagar that takes the guesswork out of launching your new book.

Agile Excellence for Product Managers: A Guide to Creating Winning Products with Agile Development Teams


Greg Cohen - 2010
    For this reason, more and more software companies are rapidly turning to Agile development to cope with fast changing markets, unknown or changing product requirements, borderless competition, and to solve complex problems. Yet little has been written to guide product managers through the transition in working with Agile teams and the numerous benefits that it affords. "'Agile Excellence for Product Managers'" is a plain speaking guide on how to work with Agile development teams to achieve phenomenal product success. It covers the why and how of agile development (including Scrum, XP, and Lean, ) the role of product management, release planning, release management, road mapping, creating and prioritizing a product backlog, documentation, product launches, organizational implications and more. It is a must read for product managers making the switch to Agile development as well as product owners and project managers looking for better ways to organize and lead in their companies.

The Science of Influence: How to Get Anyone to Say "Yes" in 8 Minutes or Less!


Kevin Hogan - 2004
    Synthesizing the latest research in the field of influence with real-world tested experiences, it presents simple secrets that help readers turn a "no" into a "yes." Every secret in this book has been rigorously tested, validated, and found reliable academically and in the real world. Readers learn dozens of all-new techniques and strategies for influencing others including how to reduce resistance to rubble; send unconscious nonverbal messages that are consciously undetectable; make people feel instantly comfortable in your presence; decode body language; build credibility; and be persistent without being a pain. The Science of Influence turns the enigmatic art of influence and persuasion into a science anyone can master. Kevin Hogan, PsyD (Eagan, MN), is a dynamic motivational speaker and expert on unconscious influence and body language for the BBC, the New York Post, and such popular magazines as Cosmopolitan and Playboy. He teaches Persuasion and Influence at the University of St. Thomas Management Center. He is the author of 12 books including bestsellers such as Irresistible Attraction: Secrets of Personal Magnetism and The Psychology of Persuasion.