I've read many business books that tell me they're going to give me a step-by-step plan of how to do something. I've NEVER read one that actually convinced me to grab pen, paper, and iPhone and sketch out my own plans and ideas while tweeting some of them along the way. Baked In by John Winsor and Alex Boguskywas the first book to successfully trigger that reaction in me, and hopefully from the image above you can see it did that very well.

The book covers many of the topics that you've seen in other recent business titles (as well as the mainstream media) such as branding, crowdsourcing, agency models, technology, etc. But where many books rattle off these topics in a fragmented, almost blog-like fashion, Baked In weaves these popular topics into the overarching story being told. 

The story, as I embraced it, had this core element:

Marketing and Product design are currently disconnected. In order to succeed in today's economy, they must be fused together from start to forever (I don't want to say finish). By doing so, companies will be building products that market themselves.

Cross Platform...Book?

As I mentioned earlier, I was tweeting while reading this book. Normally when reading, my low attention span will often make me tweet every so often (I'll be the first to admit it's a terrible habit) but Baked In actually encouraged it. I've personally never seen something like this done before but it's an incredible way to capitalize on the popularity of microblogging. Baked In is a book full of "recipes." These recipes consist of case studies and examples that help inspire you to think creatively about your own business. The recipes end with a question and a specific hashtag prompting users to post their thoughts to Twitter. This in effect turns the book into a workbook. But rather than filling out blank spaces on a page, you're journaling your thoughts out in public where your peers (including Alex and John) will be able to see them, critique them, and help you improve them. Much more effective method for making sure they stay top of mind isn't it?

Although I don't have a company that could go through the analysis presented in this book, I do have a project that could easily fit the exercises laid out. The3Six5 project is something that is currently in planning mode and is something that I along with Daniel Honigman are building as we go. The questions and advice presented in Baked In were extremely helpful in examining the strengths and weaknesses of this endeavor. To help contribute to the collective Baked In conversation, I submitted my tweets while reading (you can see them here) which trigger them to populate over at the Baked In wiki. Additionally I'm lucky to have John on board as one of the 365 authors who will be contributing to this project. I'm extremely honored by this and I'm excited to see how his project and my own will intertwine.  

Side Note: Alex Bogusky was on Twitter for a bit, then left, then eventually came back and came back STRONG. I certainly wondered while reading this book if Baked In had influenced him to give the social network another shot. It's such an integral part of this book that it would seem quite strange to not have a presence on Twitter. 

Other Positive Factors:

Overall an excellent group of case studies are presented. While all too often we hear about Dell, Zappos, etc, the book did a great job of covering less examined brands such as Patagonia, Threadless, and Flip Video.

To those who don't know Alex Bogusky and John Winsor have a pretty big stake in Crispin Porter + Bogusky. Like many business books, there is a certain level of self promotion that goes along with the rest of the information being presented. I have to say it, these guys did a fantastic job of advertising CP+B without making me cringe from some kind of lack in modesty on the author's part. I learned some fascinating stories about past campaigns that CP+B helped launch. I'm not going to go into details as to avoid any spoilers but the story of And1 completely blew my mind.

Doodles and cartoonish charts fill the pages of this book. Words are great, but the various non-intrusive designs (that I'm guessing Alex added) within the pages of this book truly give it a sense of uniqueness and character.

Some Criticism:

The book violates an extremely difficult rule I've placed on marketers. See my illustration for more details.

In some of the cases and companies mentioned, very positive aspects of a brand were called out as examples of showcasing the points made in this book. That being said, some of the companies in these examples also have major problems outside of the facets being described in Baked In and those issues are hard to forget while hearing about a positive anecdote about the overall company.

Being the smart gentlemen that they are, John and Alex set up this book as a living breathing document. Despite the permanent ink on the pages of this book, this is a project that has "built in" a system of improvement and modification through the use of wiki and microblogging.

The Review:

This book is a winner. If Purple Cow and Ignore Everybody were to have a child, this book would be it. I'm very grateful that John was able to offer me a preview copy of this book, but please know that this factor did not influence me in any way. I truly enjoyed this book and read it all in one night. As my projects progress, I have no doubt in my mind that I will be reading certain sections of it again. These guys are extremely sharp and I believe that individuals interested in advertising, design, and entreprenuership have a tremendous ammount to learn from this book, and themselves (especially after reading Baked In).

Go Get It.