Modern Marketing 101

Two books explore current marketing themes and strategies.

By Susan Greco | 
 

If you're struggling to make sense of current marketing themes such as "a market of one," perhaps it's time to revisit these classics on how the game has changed:

The Great Marketing Turnaround, by Stan Rapp and Tom Collins (Plume, 1990, $12), is the book for entrepreneurs who dream of launching or growing a national brand but don't have millions to spend. The book chronicles the demise of mass marketing and the rise of a "dialogue with the consumer." It offers lots of tips, checklists, and real-world examples to help managers get close to the customer. The book has more of a consumer-goods angle, but many of the ideas explored -- such as measuring customers' lifetime value -- also apply to business-to-business settings.

The Marketing Imagination, by Theodore Levitt (Free Press, 1986, $14.95), presents the thinking behind many of today's "hot" marketing concepts. There's good advice for business-to-business marketers in chapters headed "Differentiation -- of Anything" and "Marketing Intangible Products and Product Intangibles." Although Levitt can be long-winded, his text should offer inspiration to managers working to break out of commodity markets.

* * *
* * *

Read more:

  • Hot or Not? What the Web Thinks About Your Brand
  • Super Bowl XLVI: 3 Winning Ads
  • 5 Ways to Look More Professional

    • Sign-up for our Sales and Marketing Newsletter