>
What It Is
While most of this book is standard advertising advice, 33 Ruthless Rules does an excellent job in two of the three most critical components of local advertising.
1. Choosing the best medium with which to place your advertising, based on your objectives.
– Rule 23 examines newspaper, commercial television, cable television, billboards, radio, direct mail, yellow pages and the internet. It gives you the strengths, weaknesses and best uses of each medium.
2. Placing and scheduling your advertising.
– Rules 24 & 25 teach you some of the basic media jargon and then gives good advice on how and when to schedule your advertising.
I’ve really not seen a book describe this process more concisely or plainly than does 33 Ruthless Rules. If you want to learn more about how to choose a local advertising outlet and then how to place advertising with that medium, the advice is very sound and valuable.
What it’s Not
It’s a little light on a third critical component, the message (or copy), but it does contain some helpful hints.
Keep in mind that the book has 33 Rules plus a ‘ruleless‘ section titled Common Sense Marketing, but the money section is the 3 rules listed above.
The title of the book is somewhat misleading so know what you are getting into before buying it. This is not a book about ruthless advertising. The authors explain it this way:
“The local advertising rules in this book are ‘ruthless’ because if you break them… you can lose your business”
While not a ground-breaking, earth-shattering advertising book, the advice it contains on managing the media is well worth the $7 for which you can buy this book used on Amazon. You can also find a listing of the 33 Rules on the authors’ website.
For more small business advertising, see my website: /