engage Books

Clearcut instructions with photos to teach your dog some cute tricks. The best book that I have seen.A very positive approach to learning.

I AM JUST DISAPPOINTED BECAUSE THIS BOOK HAS A LOT THAT ONLY BIGGER DOGS CAN DO. MY DOG IS A 3LB POODLE AND WOULD NEED A LADDER TO OPEN THE DOOR,IT CANT GET THE TELEPHONE BECAUSE ITS TOO HEAVY, I WOULD NEVER HAVE IT LEARN TO WALK ON A LADDER..THERES JUST A LOT OF BIG DOG TRICKS N NOT THE SMALL DOG TRICKS

This is the best tricks book i have ever seen, and I have looked a lot. the instructions are clear and the pictures help you know what you need to be looking for. I also love the fact that the more complicated tricks tell you what easier tricks you need to learn first. That makes teaching the complicated ones less stressful for you and your dogs. I have 3 dogs, they range from 35-65 lbs, and there is not one trick they have not been able to do with alot of practice.

I recommed this book to any person who enjoys spending time with their pet any pet who loves to learn.

Thanks for best book I have found

My mini dachshund and I have had a blast learning the tricks in this book- they're easy and fun to teach and make dog training so much easier! And my puppy loves learning them too.

While I am a many time author and know it's proven that the "101..." titles sell, I usually shy away from them. But thanks to the reviews on Amazon I bought this book. As reviewers wrote, this book is excellent.
It's the "Dog Tricks" part that suggested it isn't a serious dog training book; but serious it is. Yes, some of these could be called "tricks", but all of the basics that are so necessary to teach one's dog to get along in the human world are there: sit, down, stay, come, etc.
The way the book is laid out with two pages for each exercise and the clear writing and backup information makes it super easy for a complete novice to understand and teach themselves and then their dog these exercises.
Dogs love to please us and doing these positive training exercises truly works. Do him or her a favor and stick to a daily training plan.

I did not have so much high expectation on this book. I only wished if I could had taken away a new idea or two. Even the slight expectation has been met. No substance at all.

As global market competition increases the focus on retaining effective and productive employees is ever more intensive. Consequently, empowering employees with substantive rewards is a powerful and meaningful method of achieving concrete results is the basic premise of this book. Although it was well researched and offered concrete evidence for an often overlooked aspect of work place satisfaction, it was so wordy in parts that it made the book a bit boring and redundant; thus my conservative rating.

These guys tackled the idea of how to handle rewards so pragmatically and connect it to results. Thanks!Sales Blazers: 8 Goal-Shattering Strategies from the World's Top Sales Leaders

Every manager in every organization (business, industry, education, government) should be required to read this book. Those who pass it off as lots of writing about one simple principle are missing the reality in most organizations and showing insensitivity to the massive improvement in engagement and satisfaction that full attention to the Carrot Principle could promote. The authors provide the research and, more important, solid information on "how to do it." - - Ron Fitzgerald

This is another one of the Human Resources(HR) books which takes a single premise, recognition and creates a whole book around the premise. There was too much verbage here, too much 'Sara Jones from Memphis reports that our tactiocs worked great for her'. I felt as though this book was an infomercial.

Very up-to-date book. Right on top of one of the most important Megatrends of 21st century, the empowerment of the people, Shiffman helps marketers to work with all this new media available these days.
It's worth every penny!

I couldn't put it down...I received it as a gift from a friend and fellow consultant. You have nailed the challenge, precisely and relevantly. I have translated the book to apply it to my work, Healthcare (largely hospital) marketing...and while Revolution Health goes a long way towards all you recommend, we providers need to run, not walk, to keep pace. Transparency driven by third parties who take our data and compare it to others, coupled with a more knowledgable and demanding purchaser (aging boomers), followed by a growing number of wired new users (who's having babies and raising young families..)...the tools and ideas you generate are EXACTLY what we need to consider as we try to reach these key audiences.

Thanks for the exercise!!!!

Excellent book on the evolution of marketing in our fast-paced, extremely connected world. It's taken old marketing concepts and shown their evolution along with the emergence of new marketing opportunities and challenges.

This is really the textbook for marketing now.

Thank you author Denise Shiffman for your thorough research and stellar writing in The Age of Engage. I read your book yesterday in one-sitting! I appreciate your work and how you accurately frame our new online digital economy.

Great job!

This book was a good read. It did not set my world on fire because over the past year or so I've been reading quite a few marketing books on how to incorporate blogs, comment sites, and social networks into the marketing plan of a business plan. In a way, it's just another of the many books that are flooding the book market regarding Internet marketing.

The book is sweet, though. It's pretty to look at. It's well outlined and well written. And, oh, the pictures of the author I have spotted on her Amazon profile, LinkedIn profile, and her book's own Web site and blog indicate she is a knockout appearance-wise. The best parts of this book in my humble opinion are the real-world examples about how to open meaningful interactions with potential customers.

The book points out well that traditional marketing involved the following approach: static, publish, inform, link, sell, and control. And now the marketing or Internet marketing approach involves live, interact, engage, tag, socialize, and collaborate. The new approach seems to take much more time from the marketer's perspective than the old approach. But the new approach costs so much less than the old approach. And the new approach is proving to be so much more effective.

The target audience for this book supposedly is marketers, communications experts, CEOs, and business owners. I highly recommend each of these people get a copy of this book to either learn something about Internet marketing done the right way, or to reinformce what they already know (or think they know) about Internet marketing. 5 stars!

Tim Stevens brings together a collection of thoughts that make for a very insightful book on how to leverage pop culture to make your church more accessible to those who don't know how to speak the "churchy" language.

Our entire church staff is currently reading it and discussing it chapter by chapter.

Great resource.

Tim Stevens has written a smart, entertaining book on why and how churches should engage popular culture. It is a very enjoyable read, but is not full of fluff. It presents a straight-forward logical case explaining why churches should not run and hide and complain about popular culture. He does not advocate embracing all of pop culture, but explains why careful choices can be both attractive and enlightening to new and old worshipers.

Should the church engage pop culture? This is the question asked and answered by Tim Stevens from Granger Community Church and the author of the LeadingSmart blog.

The answer, by the way, is that the church can not afford not to engage pop culture. But Stevens doesn't leave us with a pat answer and no next steps: he outlines practical plans and processes for every church to begin to view culture through a scriptural lens. And he does this in an entertaining, compelling and motivating manor. Perhaps the most important message to take away from Pop Goes the Church is that outsiders speak a different language than most Christians do. They have the same issues, the same crises in their lives, but they use different words to speak about them. In addition, they look to sources outside the church to help meet their needs. If we continue to use "Christian Speak" and expect them to understand what we are saying, they will simply turn elsewhere for help. It is time to speak in a way their ears can hear.

Pop Goes the Church reminds me that nearly every human story has an element of God's story embedded within it. This is called the four part gospel: the creation, the fall, the redemption and the restoration. Nearly every story written, sung or performed involves one or more of these elements of the gospel story, and this provides a great talking point with our neighbors and community! For instance, I immediately applied this to my new favorite movie, August Rush. In the beginning August's parents meet and create a love story, but through the well-meaning but wrong actions of his maternal grandfather, August is separated from his parents. The use of music as an image of God's voice runs all through the movie. August hears the music, and it leads him to the church, where he is redeemed. He then composes a symphony which leads to the restoration of his family. This one movie touched on all four parts of the gospel!

I know you can take the "gospel in culture" thing a little too far: sometimes a movie is just a movie. But I believe that as Christians we often don't take it far enough. The world is out there searching for spiritual answers. If we don't begin the dialogue, you can bet that Oprah will!

Tim Stevens' book offers a refreshing change of pace: a book for the church written by a guy who obviously loves the ministry of the church and is willing to engage the culture outside of the church. I'm ready to integrate all of life, secular or sacred, with the purpose God has for us. Pop Goes the Church is a good tool to help me in that quest.

(originally posted at www.coffeeshopjournal.com)

Tim Stevens presents a strong case for the importance (and opportunity) of leveraging popular culture for building a bridge between those who see church as irrelevant and anti-culture, and the eternal message of redemption in Christ.

He begins with the problem of the church, so evident to those on the outside but a complete blind spot to many well-intentioned Christians whose focus has turned completely inward. Though not a theologian, Tim gives some strong biblical examples and principles to support engaging our culture, meeting people where they're at and sharing the good news - not in a watered-down diluted message but with the whole truth of the gospel.

The book also describes many examples of how his church and others have intentionally used music, movies and TV shows known to their audience to make a connection, and demonstrate that the questions they're asking are ones addressed by Christ and His church. It falls short of providing explicit help in 'how to' - but the sense is that creative people in the church with an outward focus will come up with their own ideas if just given permission to do so.

One of the most interesting parts of the book was an allegory of how five churches respond to a big pop culture event in their city. Churches may choose to condemn the culture, separate from it, embrace it, ignore it, or they may choose to leverage pop culture while staying focused on the Word of God and providing inspirational services that are relevant to the community as well as the church. The author presents a compelling case to leverage. Sadly, many pastors and churches will condemn and ignore this book, some will embrace it as rationalization for their watered down message. This book is not for them (and its tone may not even allow some to get past the first chapter). But for those who have been wondering why attendance in their church has been dwindling for years, why there are no members under the age of thirty, or those trying to understand how they become more culturally relevant while staying true to the gospel, this book is a must-read. [review first posted on 'Step Up to the Call' blog]

All of the Guys at Granger are awesome. Tony Morgan is now gone and down with Perry Noble at New Spring. Tony is one of the most gifted and awesome individuals around. But Tim Stevens is the Executive Pastor at Granger Community Church. They are one of the most innovative and fastest growing churches in America. They have done it by bringing the message of Jesus Christ to culture and presenting it in a most creative manner without sacrificing the timeless truths of Scripture.

I have just finished reading Tim's new book "Pop Goes The Church." I got to tell you it rocked my world. Never have I read a book that I cant wait to read again, this time with a notebook, highlighter, and a pen. See, being a new church in SW Florida we live in an area with a multi-cultural mindset. We have the seasonal retirees that come down for the winter, we have the fastest growing university in Florida with FGCU. We have a large Hispanic ethics group. We have a lot of service workers. We have alot of families from Gen Xers to late Baby Boomers and that is Life Point Churches target. 78% of the people in this area are de-churched or unchurched.

So LPC really wants to rock this area by spreading the message of Jesus all over SW Florida but particularly being culturally relevant to our specific demographic. Now everybody wants to be culturally relevant. Everybody wants to be the church that reaches all the unchurched. The problem is nobody seems to have a grasp on just how to do that in a manner that can be demographic specific.

Until Tim Stevens came along and wrote this book. Tim has written THE KEY BOOK on relating church to the culture so that culture can relate to the church. The Chapter called "Lets Get Started" is really a playbook. Tim breaks down exactly what you need to do in order to be culturally relevant for YOUR CHURCH. The great thing about this chapter is that a small brand new church plant running 35 people can uses these steps as well as a mega church running 5,000 per weekend. In this chapter alone e brings to light somethings I have taken for granted. One of those things where after you read the information you say: " I KNEW that."

For example, he writes that the starting points are:

1: Start Slowly

2: Provide Exposure

3: Lead From The Middle

4: Become A Pop Culture Expert

5: Don't Condem The Art

6: Dont Worry About Being Original

Tim even gives us the names of current magazines to help us relate to culture as well as several churches that are doing it. The interviews with these pastors about culture is awesome.

I am telling you, I read alot of books and have read virtually everything written about church planting and todays culture and this book is at the top of the list. You need to order this book and dvour it if you are the least bit series about reaching culture and the unchurched and de-church.

I am telling go buy this book!!!

What I love the most about Jeff Wilhelm's reading strategy books is that I always come away with ideas I can use the next day in the classroom. This book has ideas you can use in the classroom on EVERY page. Teachers, myself included, don't have all the time in the world and can't read all the articles and books on new research that we wish we could. But make the time to read this one. It is worth every minute!

This book arrived in excellent condition. It arrived much better than I thought it would. Thank you so much.

I have not found a better book to help students really get into literure and LOVE IT!!!

It is exciting, informative, and has great ideas for teaching literature!

Wilhelm's book, Action Strategies for Deepening Comprehension is one of the most valuable teaching resources I own. I've had phenomenal success with the hotseating and tableaux activities, only two of the terrific resources in this great book. Kids of all ages love hotseating in particular because it's so much fun. In a nutshell: one kid gets in front of the room (I drape a piece of red fabric across the stool) and "becomes" the character. He/She may have a "helper" of their choosing by their side. The rest of the class are "reporters" who ask the character any question they choose. The student in the hotseat may confer with his "helper" in order to answer as the character would...and therein lies the beauty of this. As the questions and answers unfold, everybody is thinking and when an answer doesn't ring true, the majority
will know it and question it.

We've done this with multiple characters as well as the "author." The questions are nearly always completely authentic; as kids, most would feel stupid speculating about motive, etc., and asking questions, but as
"reporters" it feels completely natural. I love to see the light bulbs go in everybody's head when new ideas--synthesis!--occurs.

One of my best hot-seating moments was after reading "The Gift of the Magi," a difficult work for my 8th graders. We'd hotseated the two main characters as well as O. Henry, and it was the question to O. Henry that did it. A girl who had a real problem with making inferences asked him why he'd written the lines about Della being afraid that her new short hair made her look like a Coney Island chorus girl. My student, Tony, clearly had paid no attention whatsoever to that description--in fact I was surprised that anyone had-- and he really had to think. Finally, he answered, saying, "I wanted Della to be a little bit afraid that maybe she didn't look like a (and he stressed thsi)nice girl."

The book also offers a number of other "action" activities that you can use. For my money, these are terrific
for any age! I encourage you to check this out. I also had the pleasure of hearing Dr. Wilhelm present his research and findings on his new book, Going with the Flow, and I was wowed to hear him in person as well.

I took a workshop with Wilhelm this summer. He demonstrated these techniques and I quickly bought the book.
This book has revolutionized my teaching and I am going back to school this year incredibly excited about using it in my classroom. I teach kids that struggle and this is going to be great for them.

Wilhelm is a dynamic speaker. If you can, snag him for your school's professional development or run to any workshop he is giving.

Enjoy!

This book has great, unique ideas as well as appropriate annotated booklists for various topics that fit well with curriculum AND service. I definitely recommend this book for anyone who wants to step up service learning in the classroom!!

I am an elementary school guidance counselor who wanted to create a service learning program in my school, but wasn't sure how to get it off the ground. This book not only offers service learning project ideas, but also how to tie them to curriculum. It also suggests different fiction and non-fiction literature on the subject by grade level!!!

I have been reading your "The Complete Guide to Service Learning" the last few days. I am teaching teachers tomorrow about the 40 Developmental Assets and integrating Service Learning into their curriculum. Your book is great. It is thorough. It is user friendly and it has great information that is easy to digest. I especially like the "Across the Curriculum" sheets.

This book is a very inspiring guide to implementing service learning projects in each classroom. It offers countless practical, specific, easy ways for teachers to teach their students new skills and the value of contributing to their community. I would definitely say that this book is a must-read for any teacher or parent!

In his newest book, Join the Conversation, Jaffe hits the nail on the head. Marketers need to come to terms with social media and understand that we now have the tools for building connections with consumers via the Internet. Conversational marketing give us the opportunity to go beyond engagement to experience, giving us the opportunity to form the bonds of community. Web 2.0 enables a new form of echo branding - where consumers develop an identification with a brand's values, this time through online conversations.

The only negative thing I have to say about Jaffe's text is that his style is chatty and casual at times. However, this may actually make it more readable for some. At times it was a little much for me.

In general, Jaffe's premise is right on. This is a great book for marketers and non-marketers alike. C-suite executives who haven't figured out the relevance of social media should read this book - and then make sure their companies join the conversation.

Watch Video Here: http://www.amazon.com/review/R3RQ9PLSCXGRPR Join the Conversation: How to Engage Marketing-Weary Consumers with the Power of Community, Dialogue, and Partnership

The biggest compliment I can give to Joseph Jaffe's new book, Join The Conversation (currently #37 on Amazon's business books list), is that I took so long to finish it despite receiving it in late February as part of the UNM2PNM initiative. I whiz through fiction fairly quickly, but when it comes to non-fiction, specifically marketing, communication or social media specific, I need to read the book with an open notebook and pen next to me so I can take notes and review them later. Obviously, this means more time because doing that on a bus can be a hassle, so many hours of camping at Starbucks and Borders later, I've finally finished the book and what can I say, it it any surprise I love it?

The first thing I need to tell you, is that if you're already well immersed in this social media fishbowl, then as Joseph has said many times on the Jaffe Juice podcast, this book isn't really meant for you. It's less of a "how to" book and more of a "why you should" book, which you should probably pass on to your manager or CEO to read, and get more buy in for your social media experiments.

What I really enjoyed were all the case studies. I'm almost embarrassed to mention that I didn't recognise most of them. I've realised more and more that case studies are important when trying to sell your social media idea. Showing the best examples of initiatives that worked, and the worst examples of ignoring the consumer (the latest comes from Joseph Jaffe himself with Delta Airlines), can work wonders in getting execs stuck in their prehistoric ways to wake up.

If you're currently struggling with implementing a social media experiment, or even thinking about it, give the book a read. Learn from some successes and failures and do better! If you don't have the time to read it, try tuning in to Jaffe Juice (the podcast). I'd recommend starting with #105 which is a nice roundtable discussion with executives from different companies talking about their initiatives and the results.

Last week on my way down to WOMMA-University
I threw Joseph Jaffe's latest tome - Join the Conversation in my bag. Once the doors to the plane closed and I could no longer frantically update Twitter, I opened it up and started reading. (We sat on the ground a LONG TIME so by the time I made Miami; I was through the whole thing.)

Now a couple of weeks ago in my review I said that Groundswell is the how-to book for marketers wishing to play in a post-cluetrain world - and I now see that Join the Conversation bridges the intellectual divide between The Cluetrain Manifesto and Groundswell. The first half of the book is a bit scholarly - and while I was a bit put off by this at first, I really appreciate it having finished the book.

When Jaffe reaches back to George Orwell's on media and connects it to Web 2.0 a single word pops into my mind. Subversive. That's what this whole social computing movement is. It's subversive because it's a revolution that takes power out of the hands of giant corporations and gives it back to people. With the Internet as plumbing we can find our tribe and talk to them - regardless of time and distance. Jaffe makes the point that Orwell would have loved the subversive nature of this revolution - the new age of conversation. Power to the people!

Jaffe makes a passionate argument that markets are conversations - so of course marketers must be involved. Before reading the book I considered myself a bit of a Purist (on the Purist => Corporatist Scale) and I still do. What comes clear is how this apparent gulf between people and corporations can be bridged. It is simple really; corporations need to act human if they want to participate in the conversation. And that means giving up control, not always being right, respecting people building relationships instead of running campaigns, listening and acting like caring human beings.

Along with lots of great examples of how companies are doing things right in conversational marketing, he has some great counter examples - and he's not afraid to call them out! (TIP: If you find yourself asking the lawyers to contact one of your best customers who is doing something odd with your brand or product, you are about to nominate yourself for the "Join the Conversation Hall of Shame". )

My favorite thing about this book? Jaffe is very passionate about this subject and he doesn't pull punches. He is happy to get in an argument - and even offend if he thinks you don't get it. I also like the scholarly approach of the first half, because with this Join the Conversation provides the intellectual grounding in how corporations can get on board the Cluetrain.

[...]
TO'B

This book has a wealth of good information. I want to begin by giving it credit there. Jaffe is a radical thinker and many of his more extreme ideas strike me as rather deluded and I wanted to bring them up before others potentially accept them as fact.

Jaffe contends that "shout" marketing will disappear. He is a huge advocate of 1 to 1 marketing. The conversation trend is certainly growing. In fact, this review is part of a conversation that helps consumers. But I am talking to you as another consumer, not a brand. If the brand were to join this conversation, it would be unwelcome.

What I don't think Jaffe understands is that the consumer does not want to have conversations with most brands. Look around you - at the products in your home. You can probably think of a "shout" (traditional) campaign for most of these brands. How many of them would you want to take the TIME to have conversations with? Not possible.

Jaffe accuses marketers of not knowing the individual (on page 14) and poses the question, "Do you know her name? Do you know what keeps her up at night?" as if (a) the consumer actually wants to talk individually with every (or even many) of the brands they buy, (2) the consumer wants you to know these kind of intimate details (what's next, asking when I first had sex?), and (3) the overhead of 1 to 1 marketing is not realistic for most companies.

The book has many examples like the one I cited above that make me think, "wow, this guy is blindly in love with the 'conversation' to the point that he WANTS to attack other forms of media." These attacks feel like political attacks - without merit, just to score a few points, and don't contribute in clarifying the real equilibrium of the different mediums.

I agree with another reviewer that his tone can be self-congratulatory and sophomoric. It becomes a bit offensive when you think he is completely wrong on a point and carrying on with his juvenile insults, as though he is so much smarter than everyone. Please.

But I bet he's a fun guy to have a pint with.

These are more of the same practices that you could probably think of yourself. Honestly, there is nothing original here. Treat yourself to lunch instead.

If you teach English in middle school or high school, you need this book! If you're tired of the "same old way" of teaching and find you often have discipline problems because your students are bored, GET THIS BOOK!

This book is ok. I think it offers some good suggestions when you feel "stuck" while writing lesson plans. Its good to remember to mix things up and keep kids interested. However, I think "Classroom Strategies for Interactive Learning" by Doug Buehl is a better buy with more options and versatility. This strategy book is a little more basic.

I have been in early childhood education for 12 years. Within those 12 years, drastic changes have taken place. Year after year students come to my class with less knowledge. Everyday I try to find a new or better way to teach objectives. I have found that students need hands-on activities that help build the missing pieces of their educational foundation.
"Worksheets Don't Grow Dendrites" by Dr. Marcia Tate has been extremely helpful to me. I know you can't totally do away with all worksheets, but today's students need more than that. They need movement, music, manipulatives, and visuals in order to retain what they are expected to learn.
Thanks to Dr. Tate's book, I have another resource to use instead of the regular old "paper-pencil" method.

For those great teachers out there, they will find they naturally use many of the strategies in this book. This books puts them all in one place and give you more ideas as well as the research to back them up. I do feel sorry for the rater that is having this approached forced on him or her. I am afraid to say that learner centered education is far from "trendy" nor is a constructivists approach to learning. Just throwing the books at the teachers not modeling the approach for even in teacher education, the adults should also construct meaning in their learning. I do agree with the reader that some teaching methods take more time upfront and there is a lot of pressure on teachers to hit all the standards but if retention is key, spend a little more time on the front end and they will retain it after a test rather than just for the test. This book is great if you want 20 specific ideas for injecting new way to learn in your classroom. It is not an all to nothing approach, just try one new thing while maintaining you own teaching style. Those teachers who are stuck in there own methods and fearful of sharing control of the learning with their students will have a hard time with this book.

First and foremost, I am sorry that two readers have not had a positive experience from this book; however, they sound like they are 90 year old teachers who have forgotten why they entered the profession of teaching in the first place. Fill out the retirement papers and go home!

In order to teach a child, we must look at the changes that have occured in the way children learn. With many more students dealing with disorders such as A.D.D. and Opositional Defiance Disorder, our classrooms have drastically changed, and students are dealing with issues today that did not exist five years ago when I was in high school. Therefore, this supports the idea that many of us did not learn the same way as our mothers; I learned in a more technologically up-to-date classroom with access to more media, etc...

The Student Point of View:

I have been a student in a classroom that uses many of the same strategies that Marcia Tate offers in her book Worksheets Don't Grow Dendrites, and I absolutely loved the hands on approach that my teachers would provide after reading one of her books or attending a workshop. (Constructivism works!) My classmates were always much more involved with the activities. I can remember some of the cool experiements that my chemistry teacher did with us that if she had not followed with Tate's ideas I doubt I could have even recalled my lab partner's name.

Teacher Point of View:

Furthermore, I have just finished teaching my very first class. I can't say that I am an expert teacher (hopefully, I will be!). However, I can say that based on my evaluations and state test scores, I exceded first year teacher expectations. Also, I had fewer discipline problems than my counterparts, and many of my students went running to the principal telling him how much they had learned from my class. I am not good enough yet to have students bragging on me like that or at teaching the skills necessary to score high on those state/federal tests. But, I used several of Tate's suggestions in my classroom, and I could tell a drastic difference in my abilities. Whatever I was teaching was actually getting across to my students. Moreover, the class that I am referring to was a class of 20 students who had failed this class at least once and at most three times. I am not an experienced enough teacher to get the types of results I got from those students. These failures each became successes. I would recommend any beginning teacher or experienced teacher to read her books or take a workshop with Tate. Afterall, education is a changing process.

I wish I had this years ago. My kids love it and soaking up everything we do. This half of the year is going great!! I've never had a class so interested in anything!

This is one of the premier books on brand development. The authors are spot on in advocating that brands are most effective when built from the inside out. If we do not engage our employees in the procees and get their buy-in we do not have a brand. Too often brand development is a communications and marketing effort. We need to make sure that we include HR as our brand partners, or brand leaders. There is a reason why Southwest Airlines is traditionally one of the first companies that comes to mind when we think of a case study in branding, and why it is consistently profitable. If I am not mistaken, it is the only US airline to be profitable each year since 9/11. I have seen Libby present before and she is one of the real pros in branding.

This predictable book on branding has a slight twist: aim your branding efforts at your employees as well as at your customers. Simple enough. Authors Libby Sartain and Mark Schumann have boiled employer branding down to eight essentials. Generally, they focus on their core concept with a positive orientation toward employees, although their lists, checklists and lists within lists do get repetitive. Maybe all those lists are intended to help the staff in human resources, where they place much of the responsibility for internal branding. We recommend this book to branding and internal marketing newcomers who want a rundown of the basics, and to human resource professionals who may need to learn about marketing to harness the impact of internal branding.