(FORTUNE Magazine) – Leave it to Sergio Zyman, the enfant terrible of marketing, to jostle us with a title like The End of Marketing As We Know It (HarperBusiness, $26). The name of his new book is like the author--arrogant, rebellious, hyperbolic. As you may recall, Zyman is the most renowned and notorious marketing boss in Coca-Cola's history--the so-called Aya-Cola. He fathered New Coke in 1985, then slunk away. Returning in 1993, he led the company into its fizziest era of marketing ever.

Since Zyman left again, a year ago, he's spent a good deal of time holed up at his house in Vail, Colo., where he wrote this book. The product is pure Zyman: whimsical, sometimes aimless, but scattered with punchy, provocative, and, yes, useful stuff. Zyman's premise is that great marketers (such as himself) are like scientists: "I collect data. I look at it, and then I change my activities to reflect what I learned." One of his rules: "Neutralize the competition." When PepsiCo came out with Crystal Pepsi, Coke launched Tab Clear, intending it to fail. Why? Zyman says Coke wanted to confuse consumers and kill the category so that clear colas wouldn't siphon sales from the company's existing brands.

As Zyman self-promotes, he teaches plenty. He has no regrets about introducing New Coke, he writes, because that debacle made management realize that it's the brand, not the bubbly water, that matters. New Coke's failure turned the focus back to Coke's image--an icon of consistency.

At the end of his book, Zyman lists his "Principles of New Marketing," and here he does exactly what he's told us not to do: He loses control of the dialogue. These principles, flat and trite, are blather. ("Once you have your destination, develop a strategy for getting there.... Reward excellence and punish mediocrity.") I suspect his editor told him something like: "Sergio, you need to sum up your conclusions." Either he capitulated--or maybe Zyman, being Zyman, devilishly decided to shovel us drivel just to stick it to those lazy readers who try to pick off lessons from Sergio by jumping to the back of his book.

--Patricia Sellers