The Story

In the never ending quest for enlightenment and new ideas, we’re always on the lookout for great books. Well, I’ve got one that I think everyone should read…Maxx Barry’s Jennifer Government, by far one of my favorite books from one of my favorite authors (and a former marketing executive, to boot).

In this funny – yet scary – fictional story set in the not too distant future, Max Barry creates a world where marketing has been taken to a new level; as the publisher explains, “the world is run by giant American corporations (except for a few deluded holdouts like the French); taxes are illegal; employees take the last names of the companies they work for; The Police and The NRA are publicly-traded security firms; the U.S. government may only investigate crimes if they can bill a citizen directly. It’s a free market paradise!”

The book begins with an extreme case of experiential marketing…now, I don’t want to give away the farm here by telling you the whole story, but suffice it to say it involves a new product launch, designed to capture attention in a bold, unique, and, well, illegal (and deadly!) way.

This hilarious look at experiential marketing gone horribly wrong can definitely teach us all something – if nothing else, we get a reminder that the envelope can only be pushed so far. Unfortunately, most bank marketing and credit union marketing folks aren’t even close, so there’s not much to worry about in that category.

Pick it up for a fun read – it makes a good segue between the serious marketing books you’ve got on your reading list.

This entry was posted on Monday, March 26th, 2007 at 10:08 am and is filed under Bank Branding, Credit Union Branding, Bank Marketing, Experiential Marketing, Credit Union Marketing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.