Does your marketing suck? According to Mark Stevens, the way many businesses approach marketing can be compared to throwing thousand dollar bills out the window.

Having read several formulaic marketing books, I found Your Marketing Sucks refreshing. The author challenges some of the "sacred cows" of the marketing world, advising the reader to put aside the assumption that you must do certain things when marketing. Instead, he recommends that you ask yourself whether a particular activity will drive a sale or not. If it will, Stevens says "do it". If not, forget it.

That being said, the author still uses a lot of traditional approaches. Instead of offering revolutionary new ideas, he offers a systematic process. For example, what Stevens calls extreme marketing is really just traditional marketing explained in very specific steps with examples for the reader to follow. Case studies based on real marketing activities are used to illustrate the concepts discussed in the book. However, Stevens fails to include the results - for example a seven per cent response to a direct mail campaign - that were achieved. Stevens also spends more time than needed patting himself on the back for his marketing successes.

In spite of these minor issues I found the book refreshing. All in all, Your Marketing Sucks is worthwhile reading that re-enforces important marketing lessons while reminding the reader to assess the anticipated results before spending money.