Its value lies in the interviews with the likes of Intel's Andy Grove, Mike Bloomberg, Yahoo's Jerry Yang, guru Paul Saffo, novelist Paul Erdman and financier Ann Winblad. It's a message many bodies online would be wise to heed, although we warn against the experience of some sites whose designers assume you visit to swoon at the digital scenery rather engaging in a transaction. Many of the approaches explored by Godin appear in Personalization. Com , a 'personalisation' marketing site. Jakob Nielsen's October 2000 paper on 'Request Marketing' is more perceptive.
Laws examines consumer survey methodologies, marketing strategy evaluation, pricing and advertising.
The book draws heavily on empirical studies and is 'statistics-rich', so be prepared to blow the cobwebs from your stats textbooks before you immerse yourself in his provocative and fascinating analysis. However, it is clear that undifferentiated advertising such as banner ads is generally not effective. That is reflected in their disappearance from many sites. And it is a realisation unsurprising to anyone who recognises that the web is not substantially different from traditional print or electronic media. Unlike the pundits we're convinced that good old fashioned retailing will be alive and well next century because consumers like good old fashioned service and they like fun, something that few websites provide.