From Barnes & Noble
We tend to talk about the marketplace as if it were uniform and monolithic, but, as the always iconoclastic Christopher Locke points out in this thoughtful book, companies actually need to connect with the many diverse micromarkets that are emerging through the Internet. Locke proposes new models for marketing and advertising that speak to the more fractured, complex, and technology-dependent realities of our times.
Charles Leadbeater
Pink Floyd meets business: over-the-top, infuriating, provocative, entertaining and always stimulating.
John Hagel III
Chris Locke maps out better than anyone else the profound changes requiring us to shift to a very different marketing model. The grand irony is that marketing has disconnected businesses from their markets. Gonzo Marketing seeks to reconnect them back through conversations, stories, and people. Locke's passion and insight make this book a delight to read. It is essential reading for anyone in business who wants to thrive in markets where customers increasingly call the shots.
Michael Wolff
Chris Locke is the Internet real thing. He may be the only Internet real thing. If we had paid attention to Chris Locke in the beginning of the Internet age, maybe the Internet age wouldn't be in the bad shape it's in today. But it's not too late to listen to him!
Don Tapscott
Get ready to be provoked, infuriated and stimulated. You'll be the wiser for it.
Smart Business
Spicy food for thought.
Library Journal
Irreverent, penetrating, profoundly simple, and on the money . . . good reading for anyone interested in 21st century business.
Harvard Business Review
Delivered with humor and passion.
USA Today
Thought-provoking...The concept of worst practices has shock value, but there is also a point behind it: Best practices, or what are conventionally thought of as best practices in marketing, don't cut it in cyberspace.
Business 2.0
Who knew that attitudes toward the Internet—not to mention the strength of the economy—would change so quickly? Kudos to...Locke for stretching the marketing discussion.
Business Reader Review
Locke returns with another radical take on business in the Internet Era—this time it's focused on corporate marketing. The key element here is Internet-based micromarkets that are underwritten by corporations, but run independently of them. The result is an open, honest venue for communication between company and consumer.
Publishers Weekly
This latest offering from the coauthor of last year's The Cluetrain Manifesto puts a new spin on the age-old approach to marketing, which says businesses need to establish common ground with potential customers before they begin to try to sell anything. "At its heart, gonzo is animated by an attitude of deeply principled anti-professionalism in the best sense," says Locke, who purports to offer a new business template and a futuristic view of the marketplace. Although this work suffers from frequent dead-end tangents, hopeless self-indulgence and endless references to Locke's last book and his former coauthors, it does have a few shining moments. His theories are intriguing; in Locke's world, for example, employees of Ford Motor Co. who like organic gardening would be given space on the Ford Web site to communicate with other organic gardeners, thus reaching people who eventually could become Ford's customers, thanks to their online relationship with the gardening Ford employee. To his credit, Locke's nine maxims ("best practices usually aren't"; "storytelling is the path" to marketing success, etc.) do make sense, and his avoidance of Internet advertising and embrace of community involvement are refreshing. (Nov.) Forecast: Perseus will have to do a little gonzo marketing of its own to help this title break out of the saturated new business category. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.
Library Journal
Providing a lively reading experience through anecdotes and humor, Locke (coauthor, The Cluetrain Manifesto) here introduces Gonzo marketing, which he describes in terms of effective marketing strategies utilized by companies doing business on the web. According to the author, Gonzo marketing "provides a model whereby companies can stop manipulating people as if they were abstract demographic data, and instead create genuine relationships with emergent online communities of interest: powerful new web micromarkets." For instance, Amazon.com was innovative in creating "a marketplace where customers, not advertisers and marketers, could assess the value of products." In addition to describing Gonzo marketing, Locke provides specific examples and presents guidelines for its implementation. Bibliographical references to books, articles, and web sites are included. Libraries purchasing this book should make sure to have The Cluetrain Manifesto on hand, since it is frequently referenced here. This highly innovative work should inspire discussion in the business world and classroom alike. Recommended for marketing collections in both public and academic libraries. Lucy Heckman, St. John's Univ. Lib., Jamaica, NY Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.
Booknews
Bringing the aesthetics of Hunter S. Thompson to Madison Avenue, Locke (a consultant) argues that online advertising and "permission marketing" don't and can't work. As an alternative, he urges businesses to use their employee's personal interests and individual talents as means for connecting with customers and exploiting emerging Web micromarkets. The social implications of the Internet, marketing, and commerce, are emphasized. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
