Authoritative and strategically sound counsel for brand marketers.
A business book offers advice for brand marketers about search engine optimization.
While SEO is a common marketing topic, Schmidt says some in the field miss its most obvious benefit: “The entire point of SEO is to rank higher in search engines.” Instead of focusing on the technical aspects of SEO, the author sets his sights on its strategic use. The book begins with a helpful, basic overview of SEO, including a brief glossary of key terms. Then Schmidt, an SEO expert, quickly moves to the idea that anchors the work—a concept he calls “Brand Primacy,” which means “brands have an advantage over other websites in internet searches.” The author largely concentrates on Google, since it is by far the dominant search engine. He offers background on Google’s development (intriguing yet not mandatory to know), but more important, Schmidt makes a compelling case for how “Google favors brand websites.” In fact, he even suggests “Google ‘owns’ part of your brand in a way, which can be tough to accept.” The author displays his considerable expertise in covering such areas as “topic authority,” “long-tail keywords,” and “content clusters.” Some readers may find these terms intimidating, but Schmidt explains them clearly and directly relates them to brand primacy. Perhaps one of the more broadly useful chapters is about brand awareness. Here, the author details ways to improve online brand awareness, including public relations, guest blogging, and the creation of excellent content. A key point he makes is that brand awareness can be significantly boosted with the use of videos, especially if posted on YouTube (a Google property). Marketers will also undoubtedly find the chapter on “outranking the competition” of particular interest since it addresses specific tactics for rising above competitors in Google rankings. Thankfully, Schmidt is knowledgeable enough to predict at least the probable direction of searches in the future. He envisions, for example, that brands will evolve from information publishers into “news organizations.” There is more to the author’s predictions, but suffice it to say Schmidt has an informed eye on the future. That’s one reason marketers would do well to pay attention.
Authoritative and strategically sound counsel for brand marketers.Pub Date: Aug. 9, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-5445-3239-4
Page Count: 174
Publisher: Houndstooth Press
Review Posted Online: Nov. 14, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
These are not hard and fast rules, but Meyer delivers important reading for those engaged in international business.
A helpful guide to working effectively with people from other cultures.
“The sad truth is that the vast majority of managers who conduct business internationally have little understanding about how culture is impacting their work,” writes Meyer, a professor at INSEAD, an international business school. Yet they face a wider array of work styles than ever before in dealing with clients, suppliers and colleagues from around the world. When is it best to speak or stay quiet? What is the role of the leader in the room? When working with foreign business people, failing to take cultural differences into account can lead to frustration, misunderstanding or worse. Based on research and her experiences teaching cross-cultural behaviors to executive students, the author examines a handful of key areas. Among others, they include communicating (Anglo-Saxons are explicit; Asians communicate implicitly, requiring listeners to read between the lines), developing a sense of trust (Brazilians do it over long lunches), and decision-making (Germans rely on consensus, Americans on one decider). In each area, the author provides a “culture map scale” that positions behaviors in more than 20 countries along a continuum, allowing readers to anticipate the preferences of individuals from a particular country: Do they like direct or indirect negative feedback? Are they rigid or flexible regarding deadlines? Do they favor verbal or written commitments? And so on. Meyer discusses managers who have faced perplexing situations, such as knowledgeable team members who fail to speak up in meetings or Indians who offer a puzzling half-shake, half-nod of the head. Cultural differences—not personality quirks—are the motivating factors behind many behavioral styles. Depending on our cultures, we understand the world in a particular way, find certain arguments persuasive or lacking merit, and consider some ways of making decisions or measuring time natural and others quite strange.
These are not hard and fast rules, but Meyer delivers important reading for those engaged in international business.Pub Date: May 27, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-61039-250-1
Page Count: 288
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Review Posted Online: April 15, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2014
Occasionally wonky but overall a good case for how the dismal science can make the world less—well, dismal.
“Quality of life means more than just consumption”: Two MIT economists urge that a smarter, more politically aware economics be brought to bear on social issues.
It’s no secret, write Banerjee and Duflo (co-authors: Poor Economics: A Radical Rethinking of the Way To Fight Global Poverty, 2011), that “we seem to have fallen on hard times.” Immigration, trade, inequality, and taxation problems present themselves daily, and they seem to be intractable. Economics can be put to use in figuring out these big-issue questions. Data can be adduced, for example, to answer the question of whether immigration tends to suppress wages. The answer: “There is no evidence low-skilled migration to rich countries drives wage and employment down for the natives.” In fact, it opens up opportunities for those natives by freeing them to look for better work. The problem becomes thornier when it comes to the matter of free trade; as the authors observe, “left-behind people live in left-behind places,” which explains why regional poverty descended on Appalachia when so many manufacturing jobs left for China in the age of globalism, leaving behind not just left-behind people but also people ripe for exploitation by nationalist politicians. The authors add, interestingly, that the same thing occurred in parts of Germany, Spain, and Norway that fell victim to the “China shock.” In what they call a “slightly technical aside,” they build a case for addressing trade issues not with trade wars but with consumption taxes: “It makes no sense to ask agricultural workers to lose their jobs just so steelworkers can keep theirs, which is what tariffs accomplish.” Policymakers might want to consider such counsel, especially when it is coupled with the observation that free trade benefits workers in poor countries but punishes workers in rich ones.
Occasionally wonky but overall a good case for how the dismal science can make the world less—well, dismal.Pub Date: Nov. 12, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-61039-950-0
Page Count: 432
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Review Posted Online: Aug. 28, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2019
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