The Marketer's Handbook

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.