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Marketing Stripped Bare
Book

Marketing Stripped Bare

An Insider's Guide to the Secret Rules

Patrick Forsyth
Kogan Page, 2003

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Editorial Rating

5

Qualities

  • For Beginners
  • Insider's Take

Recommendation

The sophisticated permutations of marketing are useful only to those who have already mastered the basics. Start with this primer. Although author Patrick Forsyth sub-titled his manual "an insider's guide to the field," the book seems more directed to newcomers or marketers who are still in the early stages of their careers. For insiders, marketing is a series of difficult choices made by professionals after extensive research. Here's how to begin that thought process and climb that learning curve. Forsyth offers a range of introductory material that you can easily summarize and understand. Even readers who stumble over the somewhat illogical chapter order may well enjoy the author's humor and British references. He also offers some nifty tidbits, like learning about the tachistoscope, which measures how many times shoppers blink, or about "invisible exports," such as seminars. The reports on export selling, the Internet and the future of marketing may leave you, like Oliver Twist, wanting more. getAbstract suggests this book to entry and mid-level marketers, to teachers and to those in other fields who need an overview of marketing.

Summary

Marketing's Function

Marketing is one of the more general terms used in business. It confounds people in other departments who want to know what marketers do. Sometimes it seems too general, but marketing does have a specific function in planning, provoking, meeting and confirming customers' desire for the product, service or brand the marketer is promoting. What's more, despite what many critics contend, marketing works.

Marketing can help develop better products and sales presentations, and it can drive more customers through the front door via advertising. When the public reads a favorable story about a product or chief executive officer, that publicity can pre-sell a new product. Marketing can also help shape a company's entire way of regarding its customers, fostering an approach based on value and customer satisfaction. Marketers are concerned with:

  • Purpose – Marketing should be part of the company's overall philosophy and vision.
  • Profit – Marketing should focus upon maximizing profitability through satisfying the customer. Marketing is a business function with profit-oriented responsibilities as distinct as those of any other...

About the Author

Patrick Forsyth runs Touchstone Training and Consultancy, an independent firm offering services to improve marketing and management. He has more than 20 years experience working with organizations worldwide. He has written numerous books, including How to Motivate People, Marketing on a Tight Budget and Powerful Reports and Proposals.

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