The Power of Unpopular leans toward the popular

I have been given a variety of books from well meaning people on such topics as how to network, the power of positive thinking and how to sell. I have read none of them. Recently, I was given The Power of Unpopular, A Guide to Building your Brand for the Audience Who Will Love You. Because I respected the source, Jackie Dotson and Jerry Kennedy, I figured it was worth my time to read it.

The power of being unpopular, truth and honesty in marketing was the loose topic of consideration on a pod cast for Powder Keg of Awesome blog talk radio post hosted by Jackie and Jerry. After reading The Power of Unpopular by Erika Napoletano, I can see where the motivation of Jackie and Jerry comes from.

Expectations

I have to admit that I really connected with Napoletano’s edginess and “swim-up-stream” marketing approach in the first half of the book. Had she continued with those themes, at least from my perspective, she would have made a complete case for the “unpopular” marketing approach. However, something changed in the second half of the book and I was left feeling that I was reading more MBA primer case studies than a philosophy on marketing.

Who loves you baby

The premise of the book is that every one starting a small or big business keeps to a safe and

popular marketing strategy. Napoletano’s contention is that you compete in a hyper-competitive market by finding the audience that loves you for all your honesty and quirkiness.

“If you build a business in order to be popular, you’re going to fail-and fail the same way every time.”¹ I completely agree because I have failed before: experience.

“Stop focusing on pleasing the people who are never going to like you, your product, your service.”² Does it count when people un-friend you on Facebook and Linked In? If it does I have succeeded.

“Making money from a business is a by-product of doing good business-and every unpopular brand is built to do just that.”³ That’s been my mantra from day 1.

Only entertainers succeed when they fail

Interspersed with her alternative, creative and thought-provoking marketing comments are discussions on sound business fundamentals. Whether you develop a marketing strategy around being a lovable warm fuzzy company or an alternative “take us or leave us” sort of brand, you will only be as successful as your ability to run a profitable business. For prospective entrepreneurs that might lean a little outside the box, Napaletano makes it clear that there are no short cuts to success. It takes even more work for those of unpopular marketing concepts because you really have to define your audience and how to reach them.

Honesty

I particularly liked her honesty when she is posed the question in interviews, “Do you ever lose business on account of your outspoken voice?”⁴ She replies, “The answer is yes-every single day!” She goes on to write what I think is stunningly admirable advice, “You need to accept that and stop being afraid to leave money on the table because someone or some company doesn’t like or agree with something you said.”⁵

Fear and greed

Bad business decision often result out of fear and greed. A company is fearful of losing a prospect or client and greedy to attract more customers or retain existing clients. The fear and greed drivers create plain vanilla products and services, while perfectly acceptable, don’t necessarily garner customer loyalty.

Start-ups

As the book progresses Napaletano discusses the concepts of approachability, sharability, scalability and finally profitability. They are treated very well in an almost text book like manner. If her hook of the “unpopular” was meant to entice a young alternative type entrepreneur to pick up the book and then read about the nuts and bolts or starting a business; I think she succeeded in that mission.

I hate that guy, I can’t stop listening

While her case studies are nice and informative, they lack the “unpopular” feature that most people might expect. There are many brands that have capitalized on the unpopular strategy such as Rush Limbaugh, Fox News, Oakland Raiders, The Simpsons and countless clothing lines. It would have been fun to read her take on these and other businesses that really leveraged being alternative or unpopular in their local or national markets.

Backyard community

Napaletano swings back around at the end of the book to talk about building community amongst unpopular brands. As she writes about the backyard economy, “…-[A]fter we’ve dedicated ourselves to traveling the unpopular path-we need to bring the focus we’ve given our brands to our immediate hyperlocal, local and regional business ecosystems.”⁶

New kids club

That is where Jackie and Jerry come into the picture. They have, as best they can, embraced the

concept of building local backyard networks of unpopular businesses. They are diplomatically and, to a certain degree, traditionally trying to change the nature of connecting, promoting and building local business. Finally, there’s a place for us unpopular kids to hang out under the stairs and make new friends.

Overall, The Power of Unpopular is a good read. There’s lots of good information and mental support for folks that are unique and may have avoided starting a business for fear of no one liking them. From my vantage point, when you start losing prospects because of who you are, you’ve started building your brand.

The Power of Unpopular, Erika Napoletano, Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2012

1. Page 8

2. Page 9

3. Page 14

4. Page 55

5. Page 56

6. Page 182

[schema type=”review” url=”http://www.unpopularbook.com/” name=”The Power of Unpopular” description=”A guide to building your brand for the audience who will love you.” rev_name=”The Power of Unpopular leans toward the popular” author=”Kevin Knauss” pubdate=”2012-09-14″ ]