No B.S. Guide to Brand-Building by Direct Response: The Ultimate No Holds Barred Plan to Creating and Profiting from a Powerful Brand Without Buying It

by Dan S. Kennedy, Forrest Walden, Jim Cavale

Millionaire maker Dan S. Kennedy, joined by successful franchisor Forrest Walden and brand strategist Jim Cavale, debunk the branding lies and myths shared by small business owners and entrepreneurs and deliver a heavy dose of reality—YOUR BRAND SHOULD BE A HAPPY, FREE BY-PRODUCT OF DIRECT MARKETING—NOT PURCHASED OUTRIGHT.

Kennedy and his co-authors don’t offer a strategy for creating a company logo, writing a slogan or issuing a press release. You won’t learn how to follow in the footsteps of big brand advertisers (and thus, brand-build your business into bankruptcy). This book isn’t about buying brand power. It’s about getting a highly valuable brand—FREE. Led by Kennedy and contributors, learn the principles behind power-house brands that didn’t pour oceans of money into the branding of their business. Then, master these truths for yourself, put them into practice, and gain your own brand tribe— customers who believe in, promote and buy your brand.

Genres: Business, Entrepreneurship, Writing, Nonfiction

262 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2014

About the author

Dan S. Kennedy is the provocative, truth-telling author of seven popular No B.S. books, thirteen business books total; a serial, successful, multi-millionaire entrepreneur; trusted marketing advisor, consultant and coach to hundreds of private entrepreneurial clients running businesses from $1-million to $1-billion in size; and he influences well over 1-million independent business owners annually through his newsletters, tele-coaching programs, local Chapters and Kennedy Study Groups meeting in over 100 cities, and a network of top niched consultants in nearly 150 different business and industry categories and professions.

As a speaker Dan has repeatedly appeared with four former U.S. Presidents; business celebrities like Donald Trump and Gene Simmons (KISS, Family Jewels on A&E); legendary entrepreneurs including Jim McCann (1-800-Flowers), Debbi Fields (Mrs. Fields Cookies), and Nido Qubein (Great Harvest Bread Co.); famous business speakers including Zig Ziglar, Brian Tracy, Jim Rohn, Tom Hopkins, and Tony Robbins and countless sports and Hollywood celebrities.

Dan has addressed audiences as large as 35,000....for more than ten consecutive years, he averaged speaking to more than 250,000 people per year. Corporate engagements have included American Honda, Floor Coverings International, IBM, Pitney-Bowes, Sun Securities. Today, Dan rarely accepts speaking engagements outside of Glazer-Kennedy Insider's Circle ™ events.

As a direct-response marketing consultant and copywriter, Dan is the 'hidden genius' behind full-page magazine ads you read, TV infomercials you see, online marketing and direct-mail you receive. He is routinely paid upwards from $50,000.00 to, on average, $100,000.00 to $200,000.00 plus royalties to craft direct-response ads, sales letters, direct-mail campaigns and integrated offline/online marketing systems for his private clients.... over 85% of which repeat. His advertisements created for clients have appeared in over 200 magazines from industry trade journals, airline magazines and The Wall Street Journal to USA Today and Readers Digest to Cosmopolitan.

He has created winning campaigns for health, diet and beauty products and companies, B2B and industry products including software, and investments including Canadian land sold to Asian investors — but his #1 specialty, where he does most of his work, is with clients in the information-marketing industry including book, home study course, online course and newsletter publishers; seminar, conference and event promoters; coaching organizations; and associations. Most new client relationships begin with an initial consulting day at his base fee of $16,800.00, conducted in one of his two home cities. There is usually a waiting list, and new client candidates are asked to communicate initially via a one to two page memo describing their business, needs and interests.

Reviews

[Yodamom · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wish I would have had this book years ago, oh the mistakes I made. A no nonsense, put your ego aside and build your brand from the customer up program. Mr. Kennedy teaches that you should focus on the 'right now' customers not the somedays ones. Get the foundation let it speak for itself, that is the rock solid way to build a brand that lasts. We all want to see our pretty logo posted all over, to have people recognize us by our brand, but that needs to be earned not bought to last. Referrals will keep you moving forward. There are simple workable steps included.

[Fountain Of Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

While I didn't bookmark throughout this one like I do for most non-fiction books, that wasn't for lack of useful content. This book has a large number of co-authors not listed in the Goodreads entry who have written chapters about subtopics they have experience in, with some editorial comments from Dan Kennedy and Dave D. This works fine, as they are all sourced from within the Dan Kennedy "system", and they can provide a different perspective that the head honcho would have on his own. This will take another read-through to internalize further, but I'm happy with my take-aways from the first pass.

[Michaell Cavllaro · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another Great Book by Dan S. Kennedy!

I really enjoy reading Mr. Kennedy's books. They are like a breath of fresh in a world of business books written by people who really don't know anything about running businesses.

[Jared · Rating 5 out of 5]

FIRE!! Dan Kennedy is gold on so many levels with this book

[Jesse Stoddard · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another great book by Dan and his partners and affiliates. I learned more about brand-building from this one book than all manner of traditional marketing and corporate branding books.

[Matt Quirk · Rating 5 out of 5]

This whole series is fantastic and you will benefit by implementing the tactics and strategies.

[Nick Wildeboer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Minimaal over brand building, interresante kijk op hoe je een echt brand opbouwt maar ben bang dat kennedy niet de juiste persoon hierin is.

[Seemy · Rating 4 out of 5]

An important book about building your business, brand and message the right way - especially for the “little” guy who doesn't have any money to waste advertising for ‘advertising sake’ - with no real plan to actually get results or sales, but rather get exposure for their “brand” - which is fine for big guns and companies like Coca Cola - but not us ‘mere mortals’ lol - but on a serious note this was really good to help you say true to yourself and message - and not buy into the conventional “BS” that advertising or “branding” agency's will sell you or have you believe (designed to make them more money than you) about how to grow and get exposure for your business/brand. This book will give you a solid blueprint with relevant inspiring business case studies on how to grow your businesses brand as well as income at the same time (thus by getting the best of both worlds - income and brand growth/exposure) with results that will have long lasting positive benefits vs one hit wonders or no returns.

To Our Continued Success!
Seemy
Waseem.tv/Blog

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[Jair Reategui · Rating 3 out of 5]

Little too much of a pitch for his method but good clear cases.