How would you classify a book that begins with the salutation “People of
Earth…”? While the captains of industry may dismiss it as mere science
fiction, The Cluetrain Manifesto is definitely of this day and age. Aiming
squarely at the solar plexus of corporate America, authors Christopher
Locke, Rick Levine, Doc Searls, and David Weinberger show how the Internet
is turning business upside down. They proclaim that, thanks to conversations
taking place on Web sites and message boards, and in e-mail and chat rooms,
employees and customers alike have found voices that undermine the
traditional command-and-control hierarchy that organizes most corporate
marketing groups.
“Markets are conversations,” the authors write, and those conversations are
“getting smarter faster than most companies.” In their view, the lowly
customer service rep wields far more power and influence in today’s
marketplace than the well-oiled front office PR machine.
The Cluetrain Manifesto began as a Web site (www.cluetrain.com) in 1999 when
the authors, who have worked variously at IBM, Sun Microsystems, the Linux
Journal, and NPR, posted 95 theses that pronounced what they felt was the
new reality of the networked marketplace. For example, thesis no. 2:
“Markets consist of human beings, not demographic sectors”; thesis no. 20:
“Companies need to realize their markets are often laughing. At them”;
thesis no. 62: “Markets do not want to talk to flacks and hucksters. They
want to participate in the conversations going on behind the corporate
firewall”; thesis no. 74: “We are immune to advertising. Just forget it.”
The book enlarges on these themes through seven essays filled with dozens of
stories and observations about how business gets done in America and how the
Internet will change it all. While Cluetrain will strike many as loud and
over the top, the message itself remains quite relevant and unique. This
book is for anyone interested in the Internet and e-commerce, and is
especially important for those businesses struggling to navigate the
topography of the wired marketplace. All aboard! – Harry C. Edwards
Thomas Petzinger, Jr., The Wall Street Journal
“The Manifesto is the pretentious, strident, and absolutely brilliant
creation of four marketing gurus who have renounced marketing as usual.”
Wired
“…Locke & Co. produced The Cluetrain Manifesto, a screed urging
businesses to make their corporate communication more honest, open, and
engaging…
The Cluetrain Manifesto : The End of Business As Usual
by Christopher Locke, Rick Levine, Doc Searls, David Weinberger
Hardcover – 190 pages 1 edition (February 2000)
Perseus Books; ISBN: 0738202444
Dimensions (in inches): 0.75 x 9.48 x 6.28
Amazon.com Sales Rank: 113
List Price: $23.00
Amazon’s Price: $16.10
