This book has a lot of fluff. It reads a bit elementary -ish. If you want a basic understanding of integrated marketing communications and advertising, this is a good start.

I have enjoyed this book. In most cases I can skim the sections I know, skipping examples, and do well on the tests so it is very well structured. There are lots of excellent examples flushing out contents for the total newbie. A lot of thought went into the projects and case studies. If you are looking for a good overview of markting concepts and have a solid instructor to lead discussions about them, this is a great textbook.

That's the good.

The bad is that a number of examples are quite dated. For example, the book claims that Nintendo owns something like 82% of the video game market. How many years ago was this written and how would Sony and Mircrosoft respond? Intel's partnership with Gateway is mentioned in co-branding whereas the modern example would be Dell. Intel actually pays for 2/3 of Dell's advertising as part of the Intel Inside promotion.

Furthermore, the book makes no mention of Account Planning, and increasingly important field in advertising. One would think we still lived in 1992 when the Account Executive was asked to handle all strategic decicisions.

The book needs an overhaul in these ways but the essence is still very solid.
[...]
If you need to buy this textbook, buy it early, and make sure you get the CD. If you don't, send it back.

I have enjoyed this book. In most cases I can skim the sections I know, skipping examples, and do well on the tests so it is very well structured. There are lots of excellent examples flushing out contents for the total newbie. A lot of thought went into the projects and case studies. If you are looking for a good overview of markting concepts and have a solid instructor to lead discussions about them, this is a great textbook.

That's the good.

The bad is that a number of examples are quite dated. For example, the book claims that Nintendo owns something like 82% of the video game market. How many years ago was this written and how would Sony and Mircrosoft respond? Intel's partnership with Gateway is mentioned in co-branding whereas the modern example would be Dell. Intel actually pays for 2/3 of Dell's advertising as part of the Intel Inside promotion.

Furthermore, the book makes no mention of Account Planning, and increasingly important field in advertising. One would think we still lived in 1992 when the Account Executive was asked to handle all strategic decicisions.

The book needs an overhaul in these ways but the essence is still very solid.
[...]
If you need to buy this textbook, buy it early, and make sure you get the CD. If you don't, send it back.