You Must Read …


I love Mark Stevens’ Your Marketing Sucks. (I admit it, I start by loving the title.) Clear language. Strong point of view. Actionable as the dickens. And … extreme. (My favorite word.) “Extreme Marketing” is the author’s mantra. Book came at the perfect time for me. I’m having a knock-down, drag-out tiff with the CEO of a mid-size company over whether or not he needs a fulltime CMO/Chief Marketing Officer. I say yes … unequivocally. He says “others” (unspecified) can “pick up pieces of your precious marketing thing.” I say he’s full of crap. I am a champion of inspired, intense, radical marketing—for the one-person accountancy, or mega-corp. I have at least one surprisingly new convert-ally: GE CEO Jeff Immelt just hired that firm’s first “CMO.” Hooray. (And … ’bout time.)