cover image The Method Method: 7 Obsessions That Helped Our Scrappy Start-Up Turn an Industry Upside Down

The Method Method: 7 Obsessions That Helped Our Scrappy Start-Up Turn an Industry Upside Down

Eric Ryan and Adam Lowry. Portfolio, $26.95 (244p) ISBN 978-1-59184-399-3

Marketer Ryan and chemist Lowry were old school acquaintances who reconnected and collaborated to found the green cleaning company, Method, and brought style to the stodgy, mature market. In the 10 years of Method's existence, the two have won design, sustainability, and product awards, and nurtured the company from door-to-door sales to a ubiquitous product carried in every Target. Whatever Method's success, the method in the book is platitudinous and the tone, grating. Though some of the lessons%E2%80%94use company culture as a competitive advantage, incorporate your cause into your business, create advocates rather than customers, keep your advertising creative, remain nimble and fast%E2%80%94are solid if obvious, the high-octane bragging and exhaustive self-promotion are more likely to aggravate than to inform. (Sept.)