28. Fools Rush In: Steve Case, Jerry Levin, and the Unmaking of AOL Time Warner - Munk, Nina. Fairly entertaining read. One wonders whether "confidence" in one's company, as attested by G. Levin and T. Turner's not offloading AOL/TW shares while they could at a killing, makes sense. Mergers are not easy things, lesser still mergers of unequals. This is the kicker though: can a leader of an organization, once clearly and publicly committed to a disastrous decision, gracefully back out of it? Can an effective leader walk away from a sweet deal and risk the fallout? Or rather stick with the sweet deal and discover it is not so, and risk the fallout?
29. Positioning - How to be Seen and Heard in an Overcrowded Marketplace - Ries, Al & Jack Trout. Reiterating (although written earlier than Rise of PR and Fall of Advertising) the main concepts reviewed and updated by Ries & Ries, the most important aspect of this book is this: unless you are bringing a revolutionary product or service to market, as a consumer I already know something about you or your product and you aren't exactly about to change my mind. Correct. Moreover, as a consumer, just like that pretty girl who suddenly pops out the deathstick and proceeds to light it, as though so doing is a statement of either fashion or existence, I am not about to adjust my prior nuances of your product because your optimism misleads you into thinking I will overlook the salient features of what I know or have come to expect of you or your product. That too, is correct. Spot-on is this: I am not a rhino, so I won't presume to stamp out a grassland fire with my sturdy feet, no. I can acquire water and some extinguishers to do the job. Even better, perhaps I can examine if my grassland needs to get burnt to begin with. Or, convince myself that the fire is something I can use to my advantage. Do I expect that I, a self-respecting rhino, will be this insightful or as unforgivingly introspective as is required to empathise with my consumers? No. That, as I see it, is the challenge facing internal marketing departments. Why trust an outside PR/positioner/creative team, when we have our own, capable, best & brightest team? Can we expect people to overcome inertia? It is easy to say what it would take to be heard or even noticed in the marketplace, and possible to execute such a strategy perfectly for small organizations and startups. For behemoths, that is another matter altogether. Ok then, how to reposition or POSITION Kenya? East Africa? This should be a nice, challenging project.
