Book Review: Flip The Funnel By Joseph Jaffe

             Flip the Funnel is an interesting book written by Joseph Jaffe that goes over the way he thinks and how he believes businesses can be successful. He begins his book with a section called "Getting Priorities Straight" and then references old marketing principles of price, product, placement, and promotion. Jaffe tells the reader to throw all that away because due to technology everything is changing and also that stereotypical demographics can no longer succeed when appealing to an audience. Instead he tells the audience to learn the six Cs which are content, commerce, community, context, customization, and conversation. He describes how prospects become customers and the way business are currently measuring success is not truly a good marker and that the process needs to be changed. The way Jaffe thinks is different, but also very logical his arguments are very strong and he provides evidence for his opinions.
              The next section is called "A New Way Forward" and it describes how the customers are a company's biggest asset when it comes to marketing. Instead of marketing towards a large group and eventually getting a core group of loyal customers, business must start the other way. Companies need to get a solid customer base and use them to reinforce the public that their product is worth using in order to gain more customers. It is a very interesting concept that I believe is a great idea. Word of mouth and buzz marketing is one of the best ways for a product to become popular and if you have loyal customers willing to do that for you it will save you time and money. Jaffe also makes it clear that companies need to listen to their consumers so that they can improve on their products. The goal of a business is to make money by making their customers happy and if they can consistently improve upon their product in a way customers enjoy they will build a great reputation.
              The final section of the book is titled "Making it All Happen" and it goes over ideas and examples of how to do your own funnel flipping. It also explains how funnel flipping and building positive customer relationships is not only a good idea, but vital for any business to succeed. Jaffe goes over the specific monetary benefits that a business can receive by having a loyal customer base and positive referrals.
               Throughout the course of the book Jaffe gives a lot of examples and well researched data including tables, graphs, and charts to back up his opinions. The book is very interesting and it actually helped me develop the marketing plan for my current project. Jaffe stresses the importance of good customer relationships and how investing a decent amount of effort into one customer is better then putting in very little effort to satisfy multiple customers. Everything that Jaffe writes seems like common sense, but his evidence shows that businesses are not properly taking care of their customers. Joseph Jaffe is a well educated author and Flip the Funnel is a great book that would be beneficial for CEOs, marketers, sales people, and customer service employees.