Cool Marketing Books

The Brand Gap slideshow

Have you seen the slideshow author Marty Neumeier created? It covers the main points in his bestselling marketing book, The Brand Gap.  Here's a sample slide:

Blue Ocean Strategy summary

Do you need a quick refresher on the key points in Blue Ocean Strategy?  This eight page summary from the authors' website provides a good overview of the book's key messages.

The dynamic duo: Kim & Mauborgne

David Meerman Scott teleconference coming up

The New Rules of Marketing and PR author David Meerman Scott is holding a teleseminar on Tuesday, February 26th, 5 PM ET, 2 PM PT.  The topic of the teleseminar is his new ebook, The New Rules of Viral Marketing, which you can download free right here.

The Teleconference phone number is: 1-218-486-3695.  The conference ID is 8873442# . 

Teleconferencer David M. Scott

Ram Charan offers sales advice

Execution co-author Ram Charan has a new book out:  What the Customer Wants You to Know.  In Execution, Charan and Larry Bossidy tell you how to get things done; in What the Customer Wants You to Know, Charan offers advice on how to get things sold.  From chapter one:

The heart of the new approach to selling is an intense focus on the prosperity of your customers. This is a radical departure from what most salespeople and selling organizations do. The entire psychological orientation is shifted 180 degrees. No longer do you measure your own success first. Instead, you measure success by how well your customers are doing with your help. You’re not focused on selling a specific product or service; you’re focused on how your company can help the customer succeed in all the ways that are important to that customer. By tapping the many resources you have at your disposal to help customers meet their business goals and priorities, you are adding value.

Good advice, yes.  Who can argue with focusing on your customers?  But probably a little simplistic for dedicated readers of cool marketing books.

Ram Charan, management author & sales advisor. 

Seth Godin on the importance of curiosity

In this video author/guru Seth Godin tackles the question, "Why are curious people important?"  Simple and provocative.  Worth a look.

Thus spake Seth.

Brand Autopsy's top marketing book

Mega-popular marketing blog Brand Autopsy has given Made to Stick its award for Top Marketing Book of last year.  Here is what they have to say about Dan and Chip Heath's breakthrough book:

Made to Stick makes actionable the chapter on “Stickiness” from Malcolm Gladwell’s The Tipping Point. The Heath Brothers have dissected the traits for what makes ideas stick and explain it so that we can shape our messages for maximum stickiness. According to the Heath Brothers, Simple Unexpected Concrete Credentialed Emotional Stories stand a better chance of sticking with people than do ideas presented in some willy-nilly, off-the-cuff way. Brilliant book. Get it. Read it. Do it.

Audio interview with author James Surowieki

In this audio interview from IT Conversations, super-smart-author James Surowiecki discusses the collective intelligence of groups.  Building upon the thinking in his excellent book, The Wisdom of Crowds, Surowiecki provides insight into both the benefits and the risks of group decision-making.  Marketers seeking to understand why segments of customers think and act alike will find Surowiecki's work indispensable.

Bestselling marketing books

A  list of the bestselling marketing books on Amazon.com:

1. Zero to One Million, by Ryan Allis.  This brand new book has come out of nowhere to grab the #1 spot.

2. The Tipping Point, by Malcolm Gladwell.  First published in 2002, it continues to sell well.  Don't be the last to read it.

3. Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, by Robert Cialdini.  Has not received the media attention that Tipping Point has, but is probably more influential among marketers.

4. Blue Ocean Strategy, by W. Chan Kim & Renée Mauborgne.  An inspiring look at the possibility of creating new market segments by looking at things with a fresh eye.

5. The New Rules of Marketing and PR, by David Meerman Scott.  He-of-the-three-names has written an excellent primer on how to use social media to reach your audience.

Interview with Blue Ocean Strategy authors

In their bestselling book, Blue Ocean Strategy, authors W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne argue that any company, in any industry, can create a blue ocean of uncontested market space.  This interview on the Management Consulting News website provides insight into Kim and Mauborne's thinking on the advantages of using segmentation as a competitive weapon.

Any customers out there?

Futurists discuss The Long Tail

Hard-thinking futurists Glen Hiemstra and Gerd Leonhard discuss The Long Tail in a video on the new Media Conversations network.

What does The Long Tail mean for entrepreneurs and consumers? Check out what two noted futurists have to say:

Godin interviewed by FastCompany.com

I encourage you to take a moment and read FastCompany.com's insightful interview with the prolific Seth Godin, author of the newly released book, Meatball Sundae.

Here is Godin's insightful reply to a question about the failure of BudTV to take off:

They've spent more than $40 million on it so far, yet if we look at their traffic numbers they do worse than a site on sheet rubber sales. What happened? Budweiser had a top down, we-speak-to-the-public mindset when it comes to commercials. They buy Super Bowl commercials for $2 million or $3 million each because they can. Bud TV was all about "let's send messages straight to consumers." Hold that up next to YouTube, which was built from the ground up around individuals sharing with each other, and Bud TV lost. Wouldn't it have been better if they had just embraced YouTube and used it for what it was good at, rather than trying to build their own channel and invent their own form of new media?

And here's the wacky cover of his new book:

 

Meerman offers free book

David Meerman Scott gained mindshare with serious marketers everywhere when his book, The New Rules of Marketing and PR was published.

And now he is back with more--and you can get it for free on his blog, www.webinknow.com.  The freebie ebook is titled, The New Rules of Viral Marketing.  Click here to download a copy.

Is the Tipping Point Toast?

Is the Tipping Point Toast?  That's the provocative title of Clive Thompson's article in this month's Fast Company.

Marketers have long believed that one way to reach “the masses” is to identify and target the few people who influence lots of others.  These “influencers” are considered thought leaders and are thus the gateway to convincing others which products to consume.

Malcolm Gladwell popularized this thinking in his book, The Tipping Point.  Gladwell argues that in a social network, some people are more important than others because they start major trends.  Marketers love this because it means if you reach the important people, they'll take care of the rest.

But is it true?  In his Fast Company article, Thompson discusses the work of Duncan Watts, a former professor who now works for Yahoo. Watts’s research shows that while it’s true that in word of mouth marketing some people do matter more than others, it’s impossible to predict in advance who they are.  In Watts’s opinion, marketers are better off starting with mass marketing and letting the “accidential influencers” take it from there.

   

New edition of Kotler/Keller Marketing Management

Sources deep within Pearson Education tell me the new edition of Philip Kotler and Kevin Keller's Marketing Management text will be available in early March.  The 12th edition has served graduate business schools well for the past three years; let's hope the 13th will be as good or better.

Here's a peek at the new cover design:

Niche segments: Look who's talking

Segmentation has been around since—well—there were markets to segment.  But usually we talked about big segments.  You know, “baby boomers” and “home buyers” and things like that.  Then along comes Chris Anderson and The Long Tail and suddenly big segments are so yesterday.  But Anderson is not the only one making this point.

Clayton Christensen makes the same point in The Innovator's Dilemma.. And careful readers of Geoffrey Moore are eager to point out Crossing the Chasm is all about the importance of niche segments.

 

Get influenced by The New Influencers

Paul Gillen wrote The New Influencers because he knows a lot about social marketing and wants to share it.  Mission accomplished.  Gillen book is relevant and readable.  And he continues to contribute through his blog, where he tracks things like this template for a creating a social-media-friendly press release.