Probably one of the truly best, and important, business books I've read

An Insightful book | Then We Set His Hair on Fire: Insights and Accidents from a Hall of Fame Career in Advertising | Phil Dusenberry

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	• Then We Set His Hair on Fire: Insights and Accidents from a Hall of Fame Career in Advertising Phil Dusenberry Portfolio Hardcover, 2005 - 320 pages average customer review:based on 8 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Great Insights

I was asked to read the book for an advanced advertising class at the Ross School of Business (Michigan). I was skeptical because I couldn't find it nearly anywhere. However, after reading it it has changed the way I look at advertising. If you are looking for a book that lays out all of the rules in a simple formula, this isn't that book. However, it is the type of book that infuses you with the knowledge needed through short stories and small nuggets of information. By the end your frame of reference has shifted, and you are better off for it. It is a short read and has some funny parts as well (including where the title came from).

The specific vendor was good. It came quickly and was it great condition.

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Probably one of the truly best, and important, business books I've read

And I've read A LOT. This one, however, goes behind the scenes on how a product lets the consumer know it's here by a "memorable" campaign, not the the 24/7 onslaught of pop-ups or product placement or posters-in-public-bathrooms that we have been experiencing of late. It's enough to make a person wistful for the good ol' days of advertising. I'm NOT in the business, but I can still remember each and every ad Dusenberry mentioned. (And I can still recite: Two all-beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions, on a sesame seed bun! :-) ) At the same time, I can't remember a single ad that aired last night during "Desperate Housewives." Newcomers may blow off the meanderings of a mere high-school graduate who "did good" in advertising, but from this consumer's viewpoint, Dusenberry GOT it, and that's an insight I'll cherish.

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An Insightful book

What an amazing book. I loved it! I'm in the advertising industry so I expected the book to be relevant to my career - but the book offers so much more to anyone from a small business owner to a CEO of a large corporation. Everyone would appreciate reading this book. The focus is on insight rather than clever ideas. The pages are full of witty stories of tried and true (and not so successful) experiences of a legendary ad man. I highly recommend this book.

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An exceptional money-making book

While I can't add much more to what other reviewers have said, I wanted to add a few thoughts. This is a well written, witty and wonderful book. The author is highly respected in the advertising world.

This is a book about getting ideas, being creative. Yes, it's about advertising. And if you're in the advertising business, you may appreciate it more than other people. While Phil says it's not about advertising, it is.

But I got a ton of ideas from this book. I'm always chasing ideas and ways to get creative. It's my whole world. So I found this book one that I will keep in my office and refer to often.

Highly recommended.

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Ogilvy would've been proud

I was sent this book for free but I must admit that initially I didn't really feel too excited about either the author or the topic owing to my aversion to the Madison Ave advertising industry in general. When I did open it I was expecting to read about how great the advertising industry was and how Dusenberry was the cheerleader for it. Not so.

Dusenberry actually steps back a level and talks about life managing the creative and marketing strategy behind some of the world's best-known brands such as Pepsi and Dupont. This book isn't so much about advertising and marketing as it is about the "ah hah!" moment that leads to insight into a product or service that then forms the platform upon which a successful campaign is built. In other words, years of marketing effort can be driven by a fleeting moment in time and Dusenberry talks about how these fleeting moments come to be.

Dusenberry doesn't talk about Madison Avenue really nor does he pretend to be anything other than the creative filter for BBDO through which the good ideas get through. He tries to instill a sense of wonder and engagement in the reader to bring out the best and wildest ideas that might help to launch a new product or service. Although he didn't say as much, I suspect his ideas and insights are as valid for a 1-person startup company as for a 10,000-person conglomerate.

If you're a marketer or advertiser, internet or not, you'll really enjoy this book. I would also recommend it to budding entrepreneurs who are looking for some enlightenment and guidance on trusting their instincts about launching their product or service.

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According to advertising legend Phil Dusenberry, business ideas may or may not be valuable, but true insights are much rarer than ideas and much more precious. A good idea can inspire one commercial. But a good insight can fuel a thousand ideas, a thousand commercials. An insight gives you an entirely new way of thinking about your business.

Consider just a few of the breakthrough insights that Dusenberry?s agency, BBDO, has offered their clients over the years: That General Electric?s unifying tagline should be ?We bring good things to life.? That Pepsi should be targeting the ?Pepsi Generation.? That Ronald Reagan?s 1984 reelection theme should be ?Morning in America.? That Visa should compare itself with American Express, not MasterCard. Talk about moving the needle!

Dusenberry argues that these brainstorms don?t come out of thin air, even at a world class organization like BBDO. They are actually the result of a rigorous and disciplined process of insight generation, one that any manager in any type of business can adopt. Dusenberry explains this process?Research, Analysis, Insight, Strategy, and Execution (RAISE)?in plain English. And he offers examples of some of the greatest business insights of our time, from the birth of Federal Express to the positioning of HBO.

Moving the Needle will help businesspeople get to the heart of their toughest problems.

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