Swimming Downstream
How To Stop Struggling & Start Winning
With Marketing That Actually Works
Introducing the new book from Judd Labarthe, founder of Planner At Large.
Here’s what early readers are saying:
“A bold critique of modern marketing, offering some sharp insights.”
“Demystifies marketing for business owners, offering clear and practical strategies to stand out in a crowded market.”
“Broke down complex marketing concepts into easy to understand language.”
“I enjoyed the author’s commitment to challenging popular but misguided marketing practices. It’s clear he’s not afraid to ruffle some feathers, which is something this industry needs more of.”
“Forward-thinking and action-inspiring.”
“More of a practical guide than just another book full of theories.”
“This juxtaposition of cutting- edge research and time-tested methods is something I have never seen before.”
“Really useful for marketers looking to break away from conventional tactics and focus on strategies that are backed by evidence. Cutting through the jargon to focus on what actually drives growth is especially valuable.”
“Incredibly practical - I’m already thinking about how to apply these insights to my own business.”
Marketing is much more than logos, social posts and clever campaigns: fundamentally, marketing is about how, and how well, a business competes.
So the better you understand marketing, the more able you are to recognize and align with the forces that really drive growth, and to put your business in a stronger position to succeed.
You’re also better prepared to call BS when you see and hear it - and whether you’re a business owner, a marketer yourself, or just a student of the discipline, that’ll happen a lot. Sadly.
But there’s good news: successful marketing is more attainable than most businesspeople realize.
Marketing as practiced today leads most companies to swim against the current, wasting resources doing stuff that doesn’t actually help them compete. They chase trends, deliver “deliverables”, optimize furiously, and call it all strategy. They simply follow the herd, because “everybody knows what works in marketing.”
Yet the evidence shows that what really drives growth is surprising, even counterintuitive. It’s unconventional wisdom, and it can help any brand get moving faster.
If you know how to apply it.
In Swimming Downstream, I synthesize the sharpest points from marketing science. Illustrate them with real-life cases drawn from the marketplace and my own practice. And organize them into a pragmatic, actionable growth framework you can read about today and start implementing tomorrow.
Brand and business owners will learn to recognize and harness marketing’s real success drivers, and to avoid making the very intuitive, very common, and often very costly mistakes that limit competitiveness and growth.
Marketing professionals will develop a management-convincing arsenal of arguments for doing more of what will help their brand and business grow, and against doing what won’t (but is often sold as “best practice”).
Students of marketing and others new to the field will gain a valuable and holistic set of evidence- and experience-based alternatives to the conventional wisdom, including what’s commonly taught in school.
(And as a bonus for any reader considering working with Planner At Large for the first time, the book will also give you a great preview of what that’s like.)
Who am I to be talking about all this?
I've been helping brands and businesses compete and grow since the mid-90s, in regional and global strategy leadership roles on major brands at renowned brand and communications agencies, and, later, with Planner At Large. So I’ve seen up close what successful marketing can look like. I’ve also seen a lot of smart businesspeople with good intentions fall short. I’ve studied what works (and why) and what doesn’t (and why not). And I’ve packed what I’ve learned, warts and all, into a book like the one I wish someone had handed me when I was first starting out.
