Marketing Magazine Subscriptions

Question: How many subscription vouchers can you find in one single copy of Harvard Business Review?

Answer: 4!

Yes, 4 very different designs of subscription coupons; targeted at different types of readers.

Only, as a reader, I ended up with the four coupons in my hand puzzled about which one to fill! At the end of the day it's the same message phrased differently to appeal to as many people as possible...

Which one would you go for?

• Self development
• Direct marketing
• Invitation letter
• Online incentive

The Paradigm of Marketing

What is marketing? Definitions abound. I will not go into the details of the interpretations and the different schools and references. However, I can tell you what marketing is not; and that is Advertising. Not to say that advertising is not part of marketing but marketing, contrary to popular belief, is not restricted to advertising.

Why am I making this point? Simple.

My knowledge in marketing gave me insights into entrepreneurship. I truly believe that every entrepreneur should take marketing courses before venturing into risks beyond his capability. Again, you may ask, why? Here's the scoop.

Be it a service or a product, marketing teaches us the art of introducing, implementing and raising our offerings, of knowing the market, creating needs and satisfying them. Marketing is all about understanding the customer and the theories revolving around the market. Thus, to me, marketing is entrepreneurship at a micro scale. What applies to a product can definitely apply to a set of products, not collectively, but individually.

Everything else in organizations can be mathematically calculated, but marketing takes intuition, it takes comprehension of the global view. One should not fall into the bulk of information available at his grasp, he should know where to look and what to seek, what lens to create and how to get the customer to see through it.

This is the art of marketing, the way I know it. Whoever thinks that marketing is narrow, fails to see the big picture. At the risk of sounding too general, I dare to state that business is all about marketing, and everything corporate , beyond operational, revolves around it.

Sales, Academics and Literature

...So I am reading 5 books at once.
In fact, I am more inclined to start a new book than finish one these days.
I was told I would get lost, but I thought I could pull it out.
It turned out I can't.

I am writing this down to share my concern for the similarities between the two marketing books "The New Rules of Marketing and PR" by David Meerman Scott and "Guerilla PR 2.0" by Michael Levine. I honestly cannot remember what part i read in which of the two books!! Well, I am further ahead in the reading of Guerilla PR 2.0, but only because I started it first.

Online public relations and digital marketing are incontestably the stars today in the marketing world. It's new, it's trendy, it's cheap, and given the crisis, it's sales material.

It triggers my concern on the trendiness of certain topics. One day there's the elections and all the books are suddenly revolving around it, the next there's a financial crisis, and hey, take a look at the books published. Now, seriously, ever read a good book under those conditions?

It is sad but true. We cannot resist to purchase a book with a trendy topic. Yet, they're never worth it. It just never fails.

A Tribute to Theodore Levitt

I have known his concepts and teachings for years, but it wasn't until recently that I got to know his name. Theodore Levitt is, to me, a man who made of marketing a respected science. Known for his provocative style and practice-oriented thoughts; he transformed a theory-based subject into a business focal point.
From the product life cycle concept to his marketing myopia article, Levitt never ceased to amaze. Although not always accurate, he often created a rave of thoughts and lead others to analyze and look into things they tend to dismiss.
His numerous articles in the Harvard Business Review showcase his talents for, not only ingenuous thinking, but also conveying a message; a real marketer. He has been known to "market" marketing itself, as he strongly believed in its power and relevance in the business world. He has also been attributed the introduction of the term globalization into a futuristic market outlook...
A genius, in one word.

Conditional Marketing: "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you"

Once upon a time, advertising meant the brand is successful, what the consumers translated as “the product is good”. That is in a far away reality, which we now doubt ever existed.

Later on, people looked for confirmation from a second source. While they often relied on a friend’s advice, they also trusted a credited source: what they’d label an expert. Trial and error taught them that experts are not always honest; they often have their own reasons for praising.

Now, with the increase in interactive marketing a new way of doing things has emerged; a "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you” type of marketing. If you have a blog or are member in a community, you’ve probably already witnessed this: “you link to me, I link to you” or “I commented on your text, come check out mine”. However, this activity is not limited to the digital world, and this is what most of us ignore. It is everywhere.

I was recently reading a book called the Black Swan. It’s author, Nassim Nicholas Taleb pointed out how the academic world has become a “you quote me, I quote you” type of place.

If I say I am great, no one will believe me. If you say I am great and I say you are great; then the world is fooled to think we both are indeed – that is – if the same person does not stumble upon both sentences at once. It is even the basis of social interaction.

I recently realized how little value we have for real “merit”. We trust other people’s judgments blindfolded. If I was to buy a book, I would not pay attention to its content, as much as who commented on the back cover or which book got better reviews from the big sources.

Consequently, a business book published in India, for instance, has less chances for success than one published in the US; “country of origin effect”? Not quite so. If an Indian author would publish his business book in the US, he’s as likely to be acclaimed, as is an American author. The trick would be getting reviews from the big CEOs and the renowned business magazines: Businessweek, Financial Times and the likes.

What some people might attribute to luck, is logic but in a non-mathematical sense; and not everyone grasps this. Some people are born in the right place; others just understand how the customer functions, the latter are the marketers... and both find the way to success.