Marketers Are From Mars, Consumers Are From New Jersey

The media could not be loaded.  Hi I’m Douglas Burdett, host of The Marketing Book Podcast and I’d like to tell you about the book “Marketers Are From Mars, Consumers Are From New Jersey” by Bob Hoffman.What can you say about long-time ad agency icon Bob Hoffman, also known as The Ad Contrarian?Here’s what others have said:The Wall Street Journal calls him “caustic yet truthful.” Time Magazine calls him “fabulously irreverent.” The Financial Times says he's responsible for "savage critiques of digital hype."In "Marketers Are From Mars, Consumers Are From New Jersey" Bob Hoffman shows how marketers and advertisers have lost touch with consumers and are living in a fantasy land of their own invention that is a mass delusion of epic proportions.He covers the advertising and marketing waterfront and takes prisoners. He skewers the exaggerated role of brands, how ad agencies have lost their way, the mistaking of gimmicks for trends, why marketers misguidedly ignore baby boomers, the wishful thinking of social media marketing, and the massive fraud and corruption of digital display advertising.As the Ad Contrarian, Bob Hoffman has built an enormous following by consistently calling BS on the advertising and marketing world.This book is a fun and uproarious read, which starts out strong with the dedication and never lets up.The dedication reads:“This book is dedicated to all the funny, cynical, immature bastards I worked with in the agency business. It is not dedicated to all the venal, duplicitous, scheming bastards I also worked with.”Don’t read this book if you can’t handle the truth. The truth according to The Ad Contrarian, that is.And, to listen to an interview with Bob Hoffman about “Marketers Are From Mars, Consumers Are From New Jersey,” visit MarketingBookPodcast.com

You could say this book is about how mergers and acquisitions have ruined the advertising business. Or it’s about the mass fantasy of the effectiveness of social media marketing, content marketing and online advertising. Or the utter failure of ad agencies and marketers to capitalize on the most lucrative market in the history of the world.For me, it’s really about the demise of critical thinking in our industry (what precious little there was to begin with).Written by a veteran advertising writer and agency owner, this book is a smack upside the head for those who work in the business of marketing. It offers laugh-out-loud moments and refreshing common sense for fellow contrarians who don’t take themselves too seriously.As a group, marketing people have been living in a delusional bubble, and the author is trying his level best to let some of the air out of it. Sadly, he concludes it’s not likely to happen. Because our industry already has too much money, reputation, and infrastructure invested in delusional thinking. But the good news is, this is a great opportunity for those who are perceptive enough to recognize it and brave enough to exploit it.As the author points out, we’ve made great strides in recognizing and channeling the often illogical impulses that drive consumer purchasing. Yet within the communications industry we pretend to be personally immune from the same illogical behavior patterns. Recognizing you have a problem is the first step toward correcting it. So, with equal parts wit, sarcasm and brutal honesty, Bob suggests how we can—as he might put it—pull our heads out of our asses.

For a marketing professional, he sure doesn't seem to like the lot of y'all too much, and for good reason as he lists out in these blog posts/essays. Funny and critical, I kept waiting for him to rightly invite you all to suck a tail-pipe, but that's left to another critic of this industry which is full of purported humans who are only slightly more sociopathic than lawyers. It's a good afternoon read.

Bob Hoffman is pure awesomeness. As a marketer who has less than 10 years of experience, this book and Bob's blog has really opened my eyes to the delusion I've been trapped in.If your failing employer and its marketing department has fallen drunk to the promise of social media and "content", then Marketers are From Mars Consumers are From New Jersey will give you a reality check into what is really going on.This book and Bob's blog helped me purge the BS assumptions made from professional BSers, especially in this era of marketing where "content" reigns supreme.For example, Pop-Marketers will preach about how brands should have meaningful interactions with consumers. Reality is that consumers don't care at all about most brands.The most important thing Bob's book did for me was that it allowed me to truly see where I stood within the four stages of competence for my marketing skills (I was unconsciously incompetent as a marketer in almost every way). Seeing my incompetence, I've gone to re-read Kotler and Porter with a new light - absorbing and understanding more than I've ever had before.

Anyone who works in marketing should read a paragraph or two of Bob's book, or his blog, before starting the day. You'll talk less cr@p and be a better person, or at least a better marketer, advertising person.It may just help to stop pedalling the vacuous, nonsensical bulls*** we all get sucked in to espousing occassionally to clients, customers and colleagues. All those emails, blog posts, online games, videos and advertorials that suddenly became 'Content Marketing' and the Social media hashtags that masquerade as a creative idea are just a couple of the scenarios that ring true for me and my world.Entertaining, challenging (if you're a one of the b*lls***ters) and sweary just in the right measure.

Bob sure knows have to put down the BSers, the pretentious digital dorks and the fashionable followers of fads.. The "KIng is naked" and Bob tells it as it is, ":He's also got a small ..." No holding back. No politeness. Blunt and to the point.

he is the same age, same background and so we think the same...Wisdom is something that takes time to acquire, much to the irritation of Millennials.

Fantastic point of view on modern marketing, with easily digestible articles that inspire you to think differently. Very down to earth and honest, with a smattering of bad language which often makes the point excellently! Worth a read. Arrived on time and in good condition.

This book is a shake-up, a wake-up call. Why not? The industry Bob describes is comatose and smug. It needs a good kicking.