May 24, 2005
Taiwanese Edition
Forgot to mention that, in addition to the Korean edition that recently came out, the book is also out in Chinese in the Taiwan market. It is published by Sunbright.
It is also available from online booksellers Eslite books and Books.com.
The Chinese version for mainland China release will be coming out in July. More on that later.
Posted by johnza at 09:04 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
May 22, 2005
Korean Edition
We were extemely gratified to learn that the Korean version of our book just got published last week.
The publisher is the Sejong Institute Press who also published Kotler on Marketing the bestselling Korean business title in 2000, 2001.
For our Korean speaking friends, you can find the Korean version online at:
It is really cool to see in another language. And what an incredible market Korea is. Hearty "kam sa ham ni da"
to the kind people at Sejong Institute Press, to Penguin for continuing to push, and of course to our friend Ike Lee for all he has done to help us out in Korea.
Posted by johnza at 08:19 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
January 13, 2005
Nice interview
Really fun chat with Mark Ramsey of Mercury Radio. What a great area. Thanks for the time Mark!
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December 26, 2004
10 weeks at top 25
Sorry to brag a bit but just checking and it is nice to see that we have just entered ten straight weeks in Amazon's top 25 bestselling marketing books category. In some really great company too - with Malcolm Gladwell, Seth Godin and Phil Kotler at or near the top through most of these weeks. Below is the weekly breakdown (for further detail see previous entry):
| Week | Marketing Rank |
| 1 | 1 |
| 2 | 15 |
| 3 | 5 |
| 4 | 2 |
| 5 | 18 |
| 6 | 26 |
| 7 | 11 |
| 8 | 24 |
| 9 | 24 |
| 10 | 18 |
This is of course not to mention all the screaming sales happening at my mom's favorite bookstore in my hometown (it's amazing how valuable retired ladies seem to be finding marketing and strategy advice).
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November 25, 2004
Amazon List
Well, the book is slipping back as things normally do post launch, but the history is still pretty amazing given how much we've not pushed. These are roughly the Saturday morning of every week. Since Amazon updates hourly, there is going to be fluctuation:
| Week | Marketing Rank | Business Rank | All Books |
| 1 | 1 | 24 | 199 |
| 2 | 15 | 78 | 2,049 |
| 3 | 5 | 62 | 1,045 |
| 4 | 2 | 49 | #511 |
| 5 | 18 | 100+ | 3,302 |
| 6 | 26 | 100+ | 11,278 |
So we had a peak at Week 4 and are slipping back now in volume. I can't tell if this is because of the holiday season so other books are coming up or is this natural. In any case interesting to ask how the Christmas season will do.
Actually, it turns out I've been calculating the marketing category incorrectly, if you go to Marketing general, we are right now #17 on that list, not #26, there is some junk like Biztalk Server Management thrown into marketing for some reason.
And in case you're interesting the hit list for that category looks like:
- The Tipping Point
- Purple Cow
- How to Become a Rainmaker (actually this is a sales book)
- The Discipline of Market Leaders
- Marketing Management
- Trading Up
- Selling the Invisible
- Guerrilla Marketing for Consultants
- Born to Buy
- Crossing the Chasm
- Designing Brand Identity
- The SPIN Selling Fieldbook (ugh, a sales book for sure)
- Guerrilla Marketing
- How Customers Think
- Free Prize Inside
- Influence: Science and Practice
- The Marketing Playbook
- The Strategy and Tactics of Pricing
- Hey Whipple Squeeze This
- The Product Managers Handbook
Posted by rich at 11:12 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 06, 2004
Amazon Rank
I remain very surprised by the position of the book. This is one strange title. It seems to be growing not shrinking in rank
Week 1. No 1 in marketing (#24 in business, #199 overall for against all 250K or so books)
Week 2. No 15 in marketing (#2,049 overall)
Week 3. No 5 in marketing (#1,045 overall)
Week 4. No 2 in marketing (#3 in marketing and sales, #49 in business, #511 overall)
As I said last week, our experience in selling popularity is that you have a spike and then a long tail and then hopefully you start getting word of mouth.
Now the most interesting data is actually sell-through of the book. Amazon doesn't tell you how many books they've sold of your book in a given month. We do have some proxy in that we get statistics for our site. One thing we hadn't quite anticipated was the effect of the $25 free shipping on Amazon. It looks like 50% of our sales include another book. I'm guessing most people (like me) are being upsold to a $25 average order.
And the person who order the Grateful Dead in addition, I just love whoever that is.
_Final note, is anyone having trouble on this site entering comments. I hear Typekey is busted. Let me know if that's a problem via email to Rich AT marketingplaybook.com
Posted by rich at 04:30 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
October 30, 2004
Our Book as a sales study
OK, this is not boastful or anything, but like anyone else, we are always curious about sellthrough and competition. Its interesting to see how this works with Amazon since they are so transparent. I wish all markets were so easy to analyze
Net, net, Amazon tracks best selling marketing books. We've been in the top 10 since we released (actually hit no.1 when we shipped).
Rough history has been as of each Saturday the book has been out.
Week 1. No 1 for marketing (#199 overall for against all 250K or so books)
Week 2. No 15 for marketing (#2,049 overall)
Week 3. No 5 for marketing (#1,045 overall)
The most interesting trend so far has been the bounce back in week 3. This is a little bit unusual, but it could be that the original splash were influentials, then there is a digestion period and then the word of mouth spreads. Right now, we have 33 reviews on Amazon for instance and that number seems to be growing well.
Any authors out there have similar sellthrough curves. We didn't talk about it in the book, but knowing the sales by time can tell you a lot if you have a history.
Some products have a slow burn and then exponential growth, others pop and then fizzle. One topic we missed in the playbook because there was limited space.
Posted by rich at 08:46 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
October 22, 2004
Top 25 Business Book
Amazon.com: Top Sellers. As John points out, right now we are 419 top seller overall and 57 on the business book list.
At the peak we were 199 in the overall list and in the top 25 on the business book list I'd estimate.
Cool.
Posted by rich at 08:10 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack
Amazon Ranking jump to top 99.9% of all books sold
Well, we hit a high of 199 on Amazon. That the #199 bestselling book for the whole site. That's amazing. Naturally, we won't hold that, not like it was written by Donald Trump or an Apprentice. Right now its sitting at #439 which is still amazing given that this is over the course of a business day.
Thanks to everyone!
Posted by rich at 05:18 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack
October 21, 2004
Book Launch Aftermath
Wow, what a fun party! Was terrific to see so many old and new friends. Pictures will come up tomorrow, but some notes:
- Scobelizer. It was great fun to meet Robert and his wife. Look forward to an interview with him. He told me that some folks don't believe that blogs can be a way to market. We told him, its the only way to do it. Just like direct mail was the technology of the 1980s, internet advertising was the 1990s, so are blogs and forums the technology of the 21st century.
- The Home Theater Spot. Speaking of which, also hung with Paul Carrolton of the Spot. He's still doing an amazing job with a speciality web site that is essentially run out of his house. Way more valuable. Robert and Paul, I sure hope you both have lunch soon, so Paul, you can learn about blogs and Robert, you can learn what cool things Paul is doing with community. And Paul, love to be a super Spottie for you.
- Lockdown. Had a great chance to catch up with Brett who runs Lockdown. Doing amazing things with making network devices safer. He's building a great team there as well.
- Digital Nervous System. While folks may not remember much of this, it was great to hang out with Carol, Midori, and the gang. What a cool time it was where things really got done in 1999. It was a time when it wasn't clear if Microsoft was relevant in the .com age and folks were still rocking and rolling. The best moment was realizing that many others besides us treasured the time and kept momentos from those days.
- Amazon Reviews. Hey, its fun to see 28 reviews up there. Thanks to the many folks who have read early drafts of the book and have seen the marketing play in action. Also, we hit 301 in sales rank. Probably the highest we'll ever get, but in the top 99.9% of all books Amazon has.
- Finally, it was great to see Emmy, Liz, Marc and Joe and talk about the bad ol'days of Office. We lived through quite a lot
Maybe the best moment was at the end of a long evening, when John Zagula's old high school friend said, "hey I can see why the book is so energetic and upbeat," look at all the folks you know. Everyone is excited about what
Posted by rich at 11:31 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack
Book Launch Party
Come on in. Tons of friends and collegues are joining us to celebrate the completion of this project and the arrival of our book. Lots of food, drink and fun.
Even if you couldn't make it, we would love it if you would sign the party guest book by making a comment below on our blog. Thanks a lot.
Cheers!
Posted by johnza at 06:06 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack
The Book is Here!
Well, its finally here. It's in stores and Amazon.com officially starts selling the book.
We are having a virtual launch party 7-9PM Pacific with over 100 folks coming in the real world to have some fun and celebrate. You'll also see various notes from that event up here. Feel free to comment.
Also, you'll see we've updated the site with some new entries on the right and below. Most notably:
- Praise. These are the latest accolades and comments about the Playbook.
- Excerpts. You'll see that we have a few chapters that you can sample on the site now
Enjoy and let us know what you think as always with a comment or two here.
Posted by rich at 01:21 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
April 30, 2004
Welcome to the Marketing Playbook
Welcome to the Marketing Playbook. The place to find out how to take all that complex marketing that you have to do and turn it into something that is simple effective and explainable.
John and Rich have been working for years with some of the smartest folks around to refine how to market.
We think we've found something that is battle-tested and proven. Works in small companies and large businesses. Yet is simple and easy to understand. And, yes, it's all in an actual book too. Click here to find out more.
Posted by rich at 09:02 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
