The Marketer's Handbook: Reassessing Marketing Techniques for Modern Business
Author(s): Laurie Young (Author)
Publisher: Wiley
Publication Date: 20 April 2011
Edition: 1st
Language: English
Print length: 520 pages
ISBN-10: 0470746874
ISBN-13: 9780470746875
Book Description
This book, written by a senior marketer with over thirty years experience of using marketing techniques and concepts, sets out to describe, contextualize and rate them. Its prime emphasis is on understanding their status so that they can be used to direct the use of shareholder funds effectively. Its conclusion is that seasoned professionals must use their judgement about when and how to use them, but they also need to understand them in depth if they are going to make well-rounded, effective investment decisions. Above all it asks: “how useful and relevant is this concept? Will it improve decision making? Does the damn thing have any credibility and does it work?”
“This book combines a rigorous review of a wide range of marketing concepts with many practical examples and case studies. It can be read or dipped into both by seasoned professionals and by those just embarking on their marketing career.” Sir Paul Judge, President, Chartered Institute of Marketing
“Laurie Young casts an experienced and skeptical eye on many cherished marketing concepts and techniques. He provides an antidote to the tendency to adopt them without understanding their limitations and possibilities.” Professor George Day, The Wharton School, Chairman of the American Marketing Association
“Laurie Young has produced nothing less than the A-Z of marketing. He has journeyed far and wide mapping out hundreds of business, marketing and communications models to produce an extremely useful industry atlas. Certainly it will find a well-thumbed home on my bookshelf.”
Hamish Pringle, Director General, Institute of Practitioners in Advertising
“This book is much needed by marketing. Its value is in challenging concepts, some of which have been the accepted norm for a long time. But as this book shows, some of these may no longer be relevant and appropriate for marketers in today’s consumer environment.”
Mike Johnston, CEO, Dairy Council of Northern Ireland and former Chairman of the Chartered Institute of Marketing
“Senior marketers, like those who make up the membership of the Marketing Society, hone the methods and techniques they favour as their career develops. Laurie Young clearly did that and an experienced voice shines through this critique. It is heartening to find that so many concepts have a long history of producing real value for businesses but alarming to find so many of the theorists’ favourites to be so groundless.”
Hugh Burkitt, CEO, The Marketing Society
Editorial Reviews
Review
“An encyclopedia of marketing theory… a comprehensive handbook covering all elements of marketing, and how they work in practice.” (Admap, March 2012)
“An astonishingly thoughtful and intelligent overview.” (Professional Marketing, Sept 2011)
“Arranged into easy-to-follow, alphabetical chapters, it’s a handbook in the purest sense; perfect for dipping in and out of.” (PRMedia Blog.com, April 2011)
“… reassesses many of the tools and concepts by which business executives try to attract revenue and grow their companies.” (Oxfordcollegeofmarketing.com, April 2011)
From the Inside Flap
This book, written by a senior marketer with over thirty years experience of using marketing techniques and concepts, sets out to describe, contextualize and rate them. Its prime emphasis is on understanding their status so that they can be used to direct the use of shareholder funds effectively. Its conclusion is that seasoned professionals must use their judgement about when and how to use them, but they also need to understand them in depth if they are going to make well-rounded, effective investment decisions. Above all it asks: “how useful and relevant is this concept? Will it improve decision making? Does the damn thing have any credibility and does it work?”
From the Back Cover
Walk into any reputable book shop and you would think that marketing people are really stupid. There are books on the “principles of marketing”, “introduction to marketing”, “marketing for dummies”, “new rules” on various bits of marketing and, most irritating of all, a plethora of opinionated nonsense on the latest whizzo ideas. Admittedly, most marketing people find that, after university, their early jobs contain activities which are nothing at all to do with the concepts they learnt. They might be absorbed in creating email blasts, researching latest trends on the web, preparing PowerPoint presentations for senior people or putting out the chairs for events. Some rarely see a marketing plan or a portfolio analysis until they progress in their career.
Yet there comes a time when they might need to express an idea or a new strategy to their boss, their colleagues or, more worrying, to a customer. Many reach for models and concepts taught when they were at college. Contrary to popular belief, there are thousands upon thousands of people all over the world who try to use ideas, tools, techniques and concepts to express the thinking behind marketing initiatives.
Unfortunately many of these ideas do not stand up to the rigour of debate amongst experienced senior people. For instance:
Ansoff’s matrix has much more depth; and
Messages that are the complete opposite of the way it is routinely taught.
AIDA, still used by many world-wide organisations to measure the success of campaigns, was invented by an advertising consultant in 1899 & debunked by a behavioural psychologist in 1925.
Boston matrices are nothing much to do with product life cycles.
Brands are more than just a packing afterthought, but the ability to create valuable propositions that last several hundred years.
Some powerful techniques, like thought leadership, business-to-business marketing, network marketing & viral marketing, have been neglected in the canon of marketing knowledge.
About the Author
Laurie (Laurence) Young is a business man who likes to write. During his line career he held senior positions at BT, Unisys and PricewaterhouseCoopers. He also founded, built and sold a company. Yet, as his education includes a postgraduate business diploma and an MBA, his writing combines practical experience with sound business thinking. He has extensive experience of the marketing having, in addition to his line jobs, advised companies like: Ericsson, Motorola, British Gas, Energis, Hitachi Data systems, Datex Engstrom, Phillips and Nokia. One editor has described Laurie’s writing as “evidential” and another as “beautifully expressed”. His readers say that they like his ability to make complex subjects clear and to tell a business case study like a story. This is his seventh book.
Wow! eBook
