Review of "Free Range Brands," by Nicole Ertas

Review of

Free Range Brands, by Nicole Ertas ISBN 9780997459722

Four out of five stars

 In the age of social media where the new and shiny objects fly fast and bright for a short time, effective marketing tactics must be quick and agile. New products and services arise where there is a great deal of interaction with consumers, allowing for unusual and unexpected experimentation, exploring and adapting. This is what Ertas is referring to when using the phrase “free range brands.”

 This book is a collection of rallying cries and cheering points along with some sound advice as to how the owner of a new brand can make it a famous brand. There are some case demonstrations of how to do it as well as what fails. Some really foolish comments and ad campaigns are used as demonstrations of what not to do.

 The reason for the four stars is over the style of the presentation, there are many blank pages as well as other whitespace. Slogans, some far better than others, are interspersed within the content. In true marketing fashion, there are many accurate simplifications as presentation points. For example, there is the separation of consumers into the four categories:

“Lords share the story; hackers illustrate the story; hawks validate the story; lovers see themselves in the story.”

This is very much a marketing book for the modern quick to rise company or organization that needs to turn their brand into an asset quickly if they are to survive. It contains some very good advice, no question about that. Yet, the style of presentation reads very much like a marketing flyer created by someone a little too sold on their own marketing hype.