The Cluetrain Manifesto: The End of Business as Usual
Author: Christopher Locke, Rick Levine, Doc Searls, David Weinberger
List Price: $14.00
Our Price: Click to see the latest and low price
ISBN: 0738204315
Publisher: Perseus Publishing (09 January, 2001)
Sales Rank: 28,555
Average Customer Rating: 3.82 out of 5
Customer Reviews
Rating: 5 out of 5
Talk with me...or leave
The Cluetrain Manifesto reflects something I believe strongly: the people I sell my services to are not numbers, or demographic pockets, or targeted audiences.There's no magic here, just common sense. The book talks about the meeting of modern marketing and old-fashioned craftsmanship through the medium of the Internet. Instant email, one-click searches for information and global, real-time, affordable communications...news travels fast in this environment
If a marketer can't stand behind what they sell, or the claims they make, the whole world will have access to this fact. If there are skeletons in the closet, they will soon see daylight...
Read the book, and think about it: consumers who get their information from other consumers, directly, and not from the marketing spin of the seller.
To be part of the conversation, the seller had best be willing to answer questions in real time, and discuss issues without that hidden agenda of placing a marketing spin on every phrase. Tell me what you have to sell, but don't try to talk to me like I am your own personal test subject for the latest brainwashing technique.
Listen to what I say, because I've already heard all the pre-scripted fluff, and I will find someone else who is willing to risk being real..
Talk to me honestly, because I will find out if you don't.
And I will tell others.
Thank you, Cluetrain Manifesto. Maybe the business that won't listen to me will listen to you. If not, there's another business one click away...
Rating: 3 out of 5
Inspirational, period.
The Cluetrain Manifesto could have been called The Emperors New Clothes, because of the authors' similarity with the little child of the fable, who blatantly and courageously tells it like it is. Cluetrain is less a book, or even a collection of essays, than a collection of ideas. Often fascinating and insightful in its challenge to unmask "business as usual", its real strength lies in two of its collaborators: Christopher Locke and Rick Levine. Their chapters are by far the strongest, whereas David Weinberger and Doc Searls seem more out of place (you'll do best in skipping David Weinbergers disastrous ramblings "The Hyperlinked Organisation", it cost this book a star in its rating). Messrs Locke and Levine, however, carry every trait of the business world's answer to Tom Waits and Vic Chestnutt: Angry, outsiders, intelligent and provocative. Their chapters savour with a wonderful blend of cynicism and a "we- want -change- now"-attitude. As a source of inspiration, Locke and Levine will provide cannon fodder for many a young, ambitious, corporate up and comers. That is, sadly, where Cluetrain runs into the usual management literature-trap, "the consultancy tongue". Their thoughts, inspirational and insightful as they are, have little if any relevance when it comes to applying them in the real world. Yes, it is important to be honest and open as an organisation (Peter Drucker taught us that in the 1950's), yes corporate-speak is ridiculous (Scott Addams has made a career out of this for the past decade) and yes, everything that the net is used for today is out of sync with its original intent (similar to Einstein's molecular theory not being intended to be used to nuke Hiroshima). Cluetrain is a book for the slightly cynical individual of the modern organisation (i.e. most people from New York to Newcastle), the kind of people who find delight in challenging bourgeois ideals (sit up straight, eat with your mouth closed, talk only when asked to do so). Tom Waits tears apart Prada-jackets on stage; Vic Chestnutt laments in his wheel-chair; Locke, Levine et al. rip apart traditional corporate jargon. Unfortunately, their nostalgic-oozing want for the early days of the Internet becomes far too obvious in the 250 or so- pages. The result is a book that struggles and ultimately fails to get past the "interesting thoughts by angry academics"-category.
Rating: 3 out of 5
The end of business as usual
Hard to recommend such a small publication when the entire thing is now available for download at the website.
Markets are conversations. This is good.
Mass marketing is not a conversation. That is bad.
The authors leave themselves open to some fair criticism - their ideas aren't fully developed nor are their any clear suggestions as to implementation. It reads more as a protestation against existing norms than a viable alternative.
Find a second-hand copy. It's worth a read but not quite worth the price. Similar Products
Smart Mobs: The Next Social Revolution
Futurize Your Enterprise: Business Strategy in the Age of the E-customer
Small Pieces Loosely Joined: A Unified Theory of the Web
Book Index