[50CNT]

Looking at the Author, Reviews and the Table of Contents is probably a better heuristic.

That said, for things that aren't books, a marketing department that is complete dogshit might point to an opportunity. Berkshire Hathaway doesn't have great marketing. It doesn't need to.

If you go on Alibaba and find a merchant that has a great prospectus and a broad range of products, that's most likely a reseller. That means they take their share of the pie, and if you try to get something manufactured, you'll be working through a proxy. Better to find their manufacturer instead.

[setr]

Non-comsumer facing, retailers, middlemen, manufacturers etc don't follow the same rules of marketing; they still have to do it, but in a different fashion. IE alibaba and amazon are "advertising" based on how cheap they are; it would be a bad show for them to put out extremely nice, expensive ads for their e-shop. Its absurd to see ads for a car parts supplier.

Marketing exists in the context of its market, and must be judged in that light. Sometimes cheap, shitty marketing is the best thing to do.

And to be clear, books to programmers is one of those fields where marketing matters; it just be because I'm more involved here than any other community, but its one of the heaviest trend-following communities I'm aware of, and seems to have been that way since the 80's.

Also toc and reviews is a second level filter; author may be first-level, mostly dependent on whether you actually know who he is; cover is almost always the first point of contact; physical or e-store, you're most likely looking at a list of covers.

It would be absurd not to realize this, and not to try taking advantage of it. And you should be judged for both, if you don't do it well.

And it would be absurd if you, as a consumer, are not aware, and do not take advantage of this situation (by acknowledging, and applying, a filter on covers!)