| Brand Babble by
Don and Heidi Schultz Thomson 2004 Don Schultz is Mr integrated communications. You can read an interview with him in the Marketing Masters book below. Almost anything you read by Don Schultz on IM is worth reading. Unfortunately this is Schultz offpiste. I understand where he's coming from. Throughout his professional career he has had to play second fiddle to brand consultants who were higher up the foodchain and could murmur all sorts of foolishness into the ears of the CEO and head of marketing. But this doesn't excuse the diatribe against branding, ad agencies, the devil and all his works. At its heart says Schultz branding is about measurable relationships between customers and brands. If only it were so simple. It really isn't. Brands can create desire and despite the smoke and mirrors salesmen clients know this. Yes its annoying but Don you're going to have to learn to live with the power of brands. |
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| Marketing Masters by
Louella Miles Laura Mazur Wiley Jan 2007 They decided it was high time to go an talk to the marketing legends. Who you ought to have read. And if you haven't well here's a series of interviews where they talk about what they believe they've achieved. Unique and riveting. Off you go to In
their own words to enjoy the interview and the review |
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| Let
them eat cake by
Pamela Danziger Dearborn 2005 I've been reading a series of books about luxury
branding - and this was the first. Its American - and perhaps for this reason
is overly dependent on a couple of quant surveys about how different segments
spent their money. So would I if I had spent my money on it. There's a
catch though. One survey was run in high summer and the next late in the autumn
- curiously enough spending on gardening had plummeted. Sampling disasters this
basic do not inspire confidence. Which is a shame because Pamela Danziger is
clearly an expert and knows her stuff. Qualitatively there's a lot of insight
in why people buy luxuries and what they mean. And there is a strong argument
in favour of luxury experience - which is of course where so much of the growth
has been going. Why? Because a luxury experience unlike a product is personal
- and not so much a badge. Worth a look but treat the quant and the segmentation
that goes with it with a large dollop of scepticism. |
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The
service profit chain Heskett
Sasser Schlessinger 1997 Free Press
Despite
a rather pedestrian start its worth the read if you're working in the area. I've
been immersed for the last month in the issues of hotels. Which was why I needed
some stimulus about how to orchestrate marketing services. The book brings together
several marketing authorities on the topic who have already published on the
topic. So this is something of a compendium which brings it all together in one
cover. My favourite bit is the section on buidling service maps about who in
the organisation does what to deliver a particular service and whether each part
is visible to the customer or not. Because if it isn't then it may not be valued
by the customer. If the organisation can't be caught by the customer complaining
then they may not execute this very well either and the whole thing starts to
fall apart. There's another very useful chapter on managing multi company networks
where you have holding brands and franchisees, the one on measurement is very
good as is the one on determining lifetime value which gives you several differenet
methods depending on what you're trying to bring about. This is a dry read and
it does draw together several different marketing theories - balanced scorecard
for example pops up, without really explaining whether they do naturally fit
together. But I forgive them because this is written for pragmatists who are
dying to just pull it out of the packaging, stick it together and see how it
works. If you work on service business it is well worth a look
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How
to drive your competition crazy,
Guy Kawasaki 1995 Hyperion
As you can see this has been out a while - but I already have reviewed a Guy
Kawasaki book How to write rules for revolutionaries - and this has been on my
shelves. What I like about this guy is that he has the stamp of Apple all over
him so he writes and thinks fast and loose - which makes them a lot more interesting
and inspirational books to read about marketing than yer average text book. There
are lots of examples as well so good for case studies despite the age of the
book. He even borrows an entire children's book and uses it as a chapter to make
a point about how to harness the competition. You may struggle to get hold of
it new but Amazon is good at getting you second hand stock these days.
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Welcome
to the Creative Age - Bananas, Business and the death of marketing Mark
Earls June 2002 John Wiley
review to be found with the Creative
Age Mrak Earls interview in the In their
own words section
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The
Beermat Entrepreneur Mike
Southon Chris West 2002 Prentice Hall
Written by Entrepreneur Mike Southon this is a very accessible introduction to how to build a company round a business idea. Some agency heads could do worse than read this for its insights in how to build teams and motivate people. Check out their websites as well http://www.business-minds.com and www.yourmomentum.com
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Funky
Business Jonas
Ridderstrale Kjell Nordstrom 2000 Prentice Hall
Hmm this was a fun read. Written by a couple of mad Swedish academics with a
penchant for baldness and funny round glasses. It's about reinventing your business.
The knowledge and creativity of your people is all that you have to differentiate
your company from the competition so here's how to do it. There's nothing here
you wouldn't find it one of the many reinvention manuals that flooded the market
at the height of dot com mania. But these gentlemen don't take themselves too
seriously and provide lots of quotable material. The first book in ages I wondered
if I should be annotating with a magic marker. Favourite quote - "All modern
companies compete on knoweldge but knowledge is perisheable. We must treat it
like milk - we have to date it." So how long in the tooth is most of the branding
theory that is touted on a daily basis? Highly recommended.Check out their website
as well http://www.funkybusiness.com
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Relentless
The Japanese way of marketing J.
Johanssen Ikujiro Nonaka 1996 Butterworth
Did you know the Japanese brands hunt in packs? Did you know that in Japan the
customer is a god. Which is why Japanese never promise to satisfy their customers.
It would be sheer impertinence. A great read if you can get hold of it. This
is the best introduction to category led marketing I know - don't differentiate
- mob up.
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Rules
for Revolutionariees Guy
Kawasaki 1998 Harper Business
Formerly of Apple so clearly quirky, creative etc etc. How to break the rules and challenge convention. A good fun read but a tendency for the substance to slip through one's fingers.
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The
end of marketing as we know it Sergio
Zyman 2000 Harper Collins
The Guru of Coca Cola Marketing tells us how it should be done. Fast and furious, this book packs in the opinionising of a lifetime. He's very clever and very good and is clearly a terror to his agencies. I particularly enjoyed the section on multi dimensionalising the target audience, piling up proposition on proposition to unlock different subsegments. And his definition of marketing is the best I've come across for ages. Never mind the Ps. Marketing is about making people want stuff. Exactly.
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Marketing
at a point of Change Howell
Henry paper 1994 HHCL
I'm embarrassed to say I've only got my hands on this in 1999. It's the seminal
paper on 3D marketing that explains what lies behind HHCL's work. It anticipates
much of the thinking I had been independently doing ever since: brands as spaces,
brands as communities and so on. Damm! And now you can get your hands on it in the Scrapbook area. For nothing nada nowt.
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