The 10-Minute Marketers Secret Formula: A Shortcut to Extradordinary Profits Using Neighborhood Marketing
Tom Feltenstein
Entrepreneur Press
2445 McCabe Way, Suite 400, Irvine, CA 9264-6244
www.entrepreneurpress.com
ISBN: 1932531084, $19.95 US, 269 pages

When such a marketing behemoth as McDonalds cuts their mass marketing budget by 1/3, then it is clear that mass marketing is one its way out. This example is one of many Feltenstein gives in his book to demonstrate that the age of mass marketing is over. What is in, is very targeted marketing to those nearest to your actual businessin short, your immediate neighborhood.

Feltenstein is a marketing consultant who has worked for many top companies, and he brings his extensive wisdom and teaching to this book. The book is very easy to read, and from page one delivers concise, usable information. No honest reader can read this book even for ten minutes and not come away with some useful tidbits to apply immediately.

There are twenty-five chapters and two appendices in this book. Each chapter is about some aspect of neighborhood marketing, and the first appendix contains twenty-seven forms that correspond to the marketing lessons from the book. In this way, the book functions almost as a workbook, providing theory (albeit very practical theory) in the main section and praxis in the appendix.

The thrust of Feltensteins message is that local businesses must think locally. This includes not just the immediate geographic neighborhood, but also their database and their actual, physical store. More damage can be done, Feltenstein cautions, by dirty floors and uninspired workers than by the absence of a mass marketing message. Businesses should make a plan that includes in-store merchandising and personnel training, local promotion (direct response mailings and cross-promotions with other local establishments), and data management (crunching numbers to see what works and what doesnt).

I highly recommend this book for anyone in business, especially in small or home business. This book packs a punch on every page, and a marketer or business person could study this book for an entire year without exhausting its resources. My advice: Get a copy, read it once through, and then commit to reading a chapter each week. Take notes on your reading and convert those notes into goals and action steps. Follow through with your action steps, achieve your goals, and follow Feltensteins wisdom all the way to a more successful business.