Steal These Ideas

By Steve Cone
Reviewed by Kellie Fowler

When it comes to branding, marketing, public relations and promotions, almost anything goes. For today’s increasing competitive marketplace makes playing it safe a real danger, which explains why standing out in a sea of look-alikes has become a real must.

And that’s where “Steal These Ideas,” by Steve Cone comes in. By providing proven winning strategies for achieving marketing and promotion success, “Steal These Ideas” cuts through the clutter that blurs public relations and paints a clear picture of what works and what does not.

For instance, the book opens with perhaps what is some of the best marketing industry insider information, which is that a successful campaign MUST have three ingredients. These include:

1) Excitement
2) News
3) A compelling call to action

Basic, common sense information, yet this is often overlooked, causing businesses to waste time, resources and money and even to lose interested, would-be clients.

Cone also dives head-first into the deep advertising pool, detailing the importance of doing it and how to get the most bang for your advertising buck (think big ideas).

He supports his already strong cases with real business examples, drawing on marketing trials and tribulations of Rolling Stone Magazine, Pan Am, American Express Travelers Checks, Mean Joe Greene (for Coca-Cola) and other well-known businesses, looking at direct mail, television advertising, customer reward plans and more. The bottom line with each example cited is this: Create excitement (through uniqueness, the unexpected, uncommon tactics, etc.) and lead the consumer to action.

Cove also takes a long hard look at branding and provides insightful information, including the fact that the very best branding can be summed up in a few words (i.e. IBM: technology giant; Apple: innovative personal computers: NIKE: sports equipment; etc.) and is successfully marketed through unique selling promotions. The good news for readers of this book is that Cove then walks them step-by-step through creating their own unique selling proposition.

I like his common sense approach of “you have to be able to see it to read it,” when it comes to advertising. Of course, he expertly discusses some of the technical points of print advertising (for instance, using a particular type to help reader’s eyes connect to the words on the page), which most marketing gurus erroneously assume everyone knows.

In fact, what sets this book apart from other like books is Cone’s attention to detail and his successful weaving of the industry’s most elementary tidbits with some of its most guarded secrets, creating a rich tapestry of information that can be applied to any business, be it within the Fortune 500 arena where he has made his name, or beyond. For “Steal These Ideas” is as much for the Rolex of companies as it is for the successful entrepreneur who is looking to get a leg up on the competition and separate their business from that growing sea of look-alikes.

“Steal These Ideas’ even demystifies advertising on the Web and, what’s more, tells how to get the most from marketing dollars, including information on print media, TV and radio placement, global media planning and placement and more.

Two chapters I am particularly fond of include Chapter 8, entitled “Think Globally, Act Locally…to a Point” and Chapter 13, entitled “The Art of Building Effective Loyalty Programs.”

In truth, there isn’t a chapter in this book I don’t like and after reading it twice and passing in on to a fellow colleague who also boasts a strong marketing background, I am more confident than ever that this book is sure to soon be considered the go-to source for marketing, advertising, public relations and promotions. And, rest assured that it is packed with ideas you are going to want to steal!

Steve Cone is managing director and head of advertising and brand management at Citigroup Global Wealth Management. Along with five other executives, he coordinates worldwide brand management for all of Citigroup’s businesses in more than 100 countries, encompassing more than 200 million customers. “Steal These Ideas” is available at www.amazon.com.