Customer Reviews
Easy to read and some thought provoking ideas - By: Andre Hoffmann (vinexa@telkomsa.net), 28 Jan 2002 
I am not sure if I totallly agree with everything Al & Laura are saying, some of the argument seem somewhat loosely based on circumstantial evidence, yet on the other hand much of what they have to say makes a lot of sense. I am not so sure that alll the 11 laws promulgated are indeed "immutable". The law of vanity (chapter 9), for example, I would like to know what the Ries's think of the Virgin brand & how it has transcended from being a record label to a airline carrier, health club operator, cell-phone service provided among others, is this just & exception or is mutation possible? The book enlightened me into some key insights about the Internet that I had not considered relevant before, like the issue of interactivity & the consequential impact on Internet advertising. I was also particularly irritated at first by their chapter on "divergence" & their strong feelings on the myth of "convergence", but then I gave it some thought, I consider that maybe we are being misled by the media hype in respect of convergence in respect of gadgets, but where I think the Ries's are missing the point is in the convergence at the service level - here I think there is a strong case for convergence of content with medium & billing etc. I think the merger of Time Warner with AOL will prove to be model for future survival. For example if the cable company delivering the pay-per-view TV can also give me my telephone & Internet connection - great. Overalll this book definitely provides some useful & sound advice for the entrepreneur considering an e-commerce presence, & which one can avoid this today?
How wrong can you be? - By: Christopher, 13 Feb 2001 
A book that was written in a rush to catch the internet wave, & that now reads like receding surf. To be honest, I gave up about half way through, bored by the endless lists that 'prove' the laws. This point roughly co-incided with the realisation that "immutable" means (in the case of this book) "speculative". I guess a fair number of bankrupt dotcom's followed them to the letter.
This book provides a coarse, unacademic, view of e-branding - By: , 19 Dec 2000 
Okey I'm going to keep it simple: + It's a short book + Clear statements are made by the authors + It is fun to read - Too simplifying -Too shalllow - Feels like it was written in a hurry
I belive there still are better books on e-branding to be written, but in the meantime this book can do it.
Essential for the bookcase of the serious e marketer. - By: , 08 Jul 2000 
You may never fully comprehend Internet marketing without this book. The authors' vast experience of success & failure in branded products is reviewed in this book. Even the contentious issues contribute to the way you think about e marketing. Great value for money!
Absolutely excellent - I thought this was a very good intro - By: , 26 Jun 2000 A great commonsense introduction to the business of branding on the net. Some of their ideas seemed obvious - like don't choose too long a name for your site. But then not everyone follows this advice. I'm not sure that I totallly agree with everything they said about choosing category names for sites - presumably if your site caters to a niche market (how many sites will ever sell lawnmowers for example?) then choosing a category name would actuallly be sensible. The book certainly got me thinking more clearly about how I could alter my approach to the web though.
