HBR's 10 Must Reads Ultimate Boxed Set (14 Books)

Rethinking Marketing

by Roland T. Rust, Christine Moorman, and Gaurav Bhalla

IMAGINE A BRAND MANAGER sitting in his office developing a marketing strategy for his company’s new sports drink. He identifies which broad market segments to target, sets prices and promotions, and plans mass media communications. The brand’s performance will be measured by aggregate sales and profitability, and his pay and future prospects will hinge on those numbers.

What’s wrong with this picture? This firm—like too many—is still managed as if it were stuck in the 1960s, an era of mass markets, mass media, and impersonal transactions. Yet never before have companies had such powerful technologies for interacting directly with customers, collecting and mining information ...