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Attracting Investors
Book

Attracting Investors

A Marketing Approach to Finding Funds for Your Business

Philip Kotler, Hermawan Kartajaya and S. David Young
Wiley, 2004
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Editorial Rating

8

Qualities

  • Innovative
  • Applicable

Recommendation

This book is a little like a football play that looks great on the blackboard in the locker room but doesn’t quite deliver once the players take the field. The concept is excellent: adapting marketing theory and techniques to the business of acquiring investment capital for your firm. Unfortunately, authors Philip Kotler, Hermawan Kartajaya and S. David Young spend a lot of time reviewing basics, such as potential sources of capital, and not enough on the marketing techniques themselves - which they don’t begin discussing until about two-thirds of the way into the book. This shortcoming (and the lack of case histories) is balanced, however, by the authors’ keen, market-oriented analysis of the characteristics that appeal most strongly to the various types of investors. This book outlines a smart, methodical approach to finding investors. getAbstract.com recommends this book despite wanting more information on methodology, believing that even an incomplete marketing approach to financing is better than chaos in the huddle.

Summary

Jumping through Hoops

Consider the hoops entrepreneurs jump through to capitalize their companies: borrowing from friends and family, maxing out credit cards, selling personal assets including real estate and automobiles, and knocking on the door of every "angel investor" they can find.

The few companies that survive beyond the start-up phase continue to need capital. Many turn to venture capital (VC) funding. The next step, going public, opens a new world of institutional investment options, including banks, pension funds, mutual funds and insurance companies.

Given the financial hurdles you face as an entrepreneur, you need to learn to market your company to investors with the same discipline and focus you use to market your company’s products to consumers:

  • Devise a strategy for approaching the capital markets.
  • Analyze how you will position your investment opportunity in the marketplace.
  • Find ways to differentiate your company and make it stand out from the crowd.
  • Prepare to explain how your company will deliver value to its investors.

The New Marketplace

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About the Authors

Philip Kotler has written 35 books, including Marketing Management. He is a professor of international marketing at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management. Hermawan Kartajaya, co-author of Repositioning Asia and Rethinking Marketing, is the founder and president of a strategy consulting firm in Southeast Asia. He is a former president of the World Marketing Association. S. David Young is professor of accounting and control at INSEAD international business school. He is the co-author of Profits You Can Trust.

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