al ries, WAWAM!'s Brain Food author - coming to manila!

two of al ries' books are Brain Food in WAWAM!. actually many more books of al ries are on the "active" book shelf, with a tag "read again" on each one. and he is coming to manila!

i would send my whole brand management and account management team to this seminar. that is, if your company has been making very healthy revenues and profits in the past months. the price tag is very stiff.

if my company doesn't have enough training funds to send the whole brand management and account management team to this talk, i would be selective.

what i would use as criteria, would be to send those people who have heard AND read at least one book of al ries. i would call a staff meeting of the department and ask two questions --- (a) who has read any of al ries' book? then (b) for those who read any of his books, i would ask the 2nd question -- what do you remember did al ries say in his book? correct answers to both would mean that person will be sent to the seminar courtesy of the company.

i think people who have read at least one of his books would be the ones who would benefit the most from the talk. it's a 1 day gig and based on the course outline, it seems ries will only talk in the first hour or so of the seminar.

given that very short time, i would think 1 hour at the most, that ries will be talking, it will be more productive if you already know some of his writings.

but if i am going to spend my own money, i am not going to this one. i don't think it's worth it. ries is only 1 of 5 speakers. it's not really a ries seminar, he is just a keynote speaker. in other markets, even in asia, he conducts 2 to 3 day seminars, all the days having rise as the speaker and facilitator. given the number of speakers, ries will probably talk only for 1 hour at the most.

rather than spend the money on the seminar fee, i would spend it in buying other books ries (or jack trout) will publish in the future.

actually, i got turned off by the description that is on the print ad - "Al Ries is the architect behind the groundbreaking marketing tool known as positioning - the concept of replacing a product and its function with a brand name." what the hell is that?

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positioning is a marketing tool that has been around for decades, even before al ries wrote about it. brand managers all over the world have been using that tool since marketing was invented. al ries DID NOT invent "positioning", he just wrote about it and his writings on it were very well done. others before him have written about positioning, but they just did not become as popular and not as well written as al ries' book.

just for this advertising BS in the print ad, i will not spend my own money to attend the seminar. it's a matter of principle for me.

and the last part - the definition of what "positioning" is, hahaha! that is too stupid and ridiculous to even write about it here. the organizers of this seminar need to take the seminar themselves for them to be able to properly define what positioning is. or at least buy the al ries book on "positioning".

i don't think i should spend my money on an al ries seminar whose organizers have not read any of al ries books. they don't even show they understand what "positioning" is all about. what a shame and what a WAWAM!

sorry al, love your books but hate your organizers!

other posts on al ries in WAWAM!, read here : http://the-wawam-file.blogspot.com/search/label/al%20ries