Ben McConnell and Jackie Huba Get customers who worship the ground you advertise on. "A customer evangelist not only purchases from you regularly, she feels compelled to tell others." They demonstrate how to create customer evangelists in today's market of endless choices. Ben and Jackie use triumphs from the business world to deliver sound advice on how to maximize your marketing output and quality. A must-read for any consumer-heavy business.

Early Reader Quotes:
"This is the first document I have ever seen that recognizes the fact that people who provide unsolicited negative feedback are advocates for a company. Most managers view these suggestions as intrusive and insulting indications that management doesn't know what they're doing, or that the customer or employee is hypercritical or "difficult". But in fact, taking the time to give this kind of feedback means that person really cares about the company and wants it to shine." -- Isabel Walcott

"I think marketing people often feel like they have or want "control". "Build the Buzz" and "Create the Community"... I totally agree with the bite size pieces bit and sharing knowledge, but a lot of buzz and community is grass roots and emergent. It's about letting the buzz and the community happen and then feeding it.

One way that we can help feed the community better is to make information and content more "fluid". As you know, I am a board member of Creative Commons, which is making available copyright licenses that encourage people to share content in ways that the author permits. I think that motion picture companies should make photos and trailers available and freely shareable, not just available to their partners as is the current norm. In fact, they should encourage people to edit, play with and distribute trailers and information about the films and set up fan sites. In fact, they are doing the opposite and shutting down unauthorized fan sites. This gets back to my point above about control. The buzz is happening but many marketers are trying to do this with control and it isn't natural.

And most importantly, your product has to be excellent and the best way to make your product excellent is to listen to your customers. It would be great if all of the ad money went towards product development instead of stupid ads in the mass media." -- Joi Ito

Excerpt from the manifesto:
"Technology has leveled the playing field to make quality less of a competitive advantage. Product and service saturation is rampant. We’re drowning in a sea of media. In a world with so much choice, how do people even make decisions anymore? By relying on trusted friends, colleagues or family members."

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'The Art of the Start' by Guy Kawasaki