Kick-Ass Business & Marketing Secrets: How to Blitz Your Competition

Book description

A complete course on the rules of marketing for today's climate

In this fast-paced, cluttered, and global marketplace, new influences are constantly affecting your business. Today's sophisticated consumers are searching for products that meet an emotional need, have added value, and come with no purchase risk. They want environmentally friendly products, and it's important that they buy from businesses that share their core beliefs. Despite these demands, effective marketing still comes down to knowledge, empathy, and communication. Kick Ass Business and Marketing Secrets offers a complete course on business and marketing, with simple, easily implemented rules for marketing success.

The author, "Mr. Marketer" Bob Pritchard, offers expert guidance to help you thoroughly research and understand your product, market place, and competitors.

  • Delivers step-by-step advice on how to add value to every purchase

  • Details various communication vehicles and advises on how to choose the most appropriate vehicle for your campaign

  • Develops critical thinking skills to push you beyond your comfort level

With so many new sources of market pressure, there's no room for poor marketing strategies. Get the new rules for marketing, and stand out from the rest.

Table of contents

  1. Cover
  2. Title Page
  3. Copyright
  4. Preface
    1. So If These Are the Reasons, What Are the Causes of This Malaise?
    2. Selecting the Correct Media Mix Is Complex
  5. Chapter 1: The Need for a New Approach
    1. Has the Internet Lived Up to Its Potential?
    2. Why Do So Many Companies Fail So Badly at Marketing?
    3. The Focus on Price, Product, Brand Awareness, and Satisfied Customers Is Bullshit
    4. Whose Fault Is This?
    5. The Five Drivers of All Business
    6. Marketing Is Logical, Not Rocket Science
    7. The New Fundamentals of Marketing
    8. E-Commerce Marketing Budgets Escalate
    9. Retail Faces a New Set of Challenges
    10. Most Businesses Are Inept at Cutting through the Clutter
    11. The Internet Is Just the Tip of the New Technology Iceberg
    12. Axe Leverages Viral Marketing at Its Best
    13. It Is Extremely Difficult to Succeed
    14. The Fifteen Commandments
  6. Chapter 2: Keep Learning, Predict, and Embrace Change
    1. Business Has Become Focused and Global
    2. Knowledge and Ideas Rule
    3. Anticipate the Future
    4. Most Societal Changes Are Predictable
    5. Predict and Segment by Lifestyle and Attitude, Not by Demographics
    6. How the IT Generation Revolutionized Established Businesses
    7. Retailing Becomes Edutainment
    8. In the Future, Made to Order Will Be the Norm
    9. Continue to Update Your Knowledge
    10. The Best Communicators Will Enjoy the Most Success
    11. No Time? Successful People Make Time
    12. Study Your Competition
  7. Chapter 3: Moment of Truth
    1. The Business and Marketing Audit
    2. Supply and Demand versus Demand and Supply
    3. The Marketing Audit: Vision, Market Analysis, SWOT
    4. Business and Marketing Audits Are Critical for Start-Ups
    5. Five Basic Tips for Potential Investors
    6. Be Thorough; Do Your Basic Due Diligence
    7. Conclusion
  8. Chapter 4: Formulate a Clear Business Vision
    1. The Parallels between Business and Life
    2. A Strong Corporate Culture Results in a Strong Brand
  9. Chapter 5: Research Is the Foundation of Success
    1. The Common-Sense Approach
    2. There Is a Good Reason We Have Two Ears and One Mouth
    3. The Customer Frequently Identifies Critical Points the Company Misses
    4. Listen to the Marketers, Not to the Accountants
    5. A Small Investment in Research Can Return Millions
    6. Listen to Your Customers
    7. It Is Extraordinary How Often Little Things Mean a Lot
    8. It Is Vital to Research Not Only Potential Customers, but Competitors as Well
    9. Always Analyze Data Thoroughly; the Obvious Often Is Not
    10. Research Is the Key to Retaining Customers, Motivating a Switch, or Securing First-Time Use
    11. Research Shows You How to Differentiate Your Products
  10. Chapter 6: Know What Business You Are In
    1. The World's Biggest Sports Revolution Worked for One Reason
    2. Sometimes You Need to Dig a Little Deeper
    3. What Business Are You In?
  11. Chapter 7: Your Name and Image Are Critical Success Tools
    1. What's in a Name?
    2. You Must Get into Customers’ Subconscious Minds and Trigger First Recall
    3. A Change of Name Can Reposition Your Product
    4. It Is Not Just the Name but the Overall Image
    5. Just the Image Alone Can Create the Picture for the Consumer
  12. Chapter 8: Customer Purchasing Benefit
    1. Differentiating Your Product Is the Key to Brand Equity and Sales
    2. The Emphasis Has Moved from the Seller to the Buyer
    3. The Power of a CPB
    4. A Great CPB Works for Any Category of Business
    5. The CPB Can Be the Difference between Full and Empty Stadiums
    6. Creating a CPB Takes Substantial Research
    7. How to Determine Your CPB
    8. A CPB Is Both Persuasive and Pervasive
    9. The Most Effective CPBs Are Emotional and Appeal to the Senses
    10. Your CPB Offer Must Be Important, Deliverable, and Unique
  13. Chapter 9: Success Is About the Customer, Not the Product?
    1. If Customers Are Not Buying the Product, Then What Are They Buying?
    2. E-Commerce Is No Different
    3. Customer Share Is More Important than Market Share
    4. How Do You Determine What Your Customer Wants?
    5. Building Loyalty
  14. Chapter 10: Sell Emotional Benefits, Not Features
    1. To Cut Through the Clutter, You Must Get into the Preconscious Mind
    2. Behind Every Pragmatic Benefit Is an Emotional Trigger
    3. Look at What the Successful Advertisers Are Doing
    4. How Do You Determine the Difference between a Feature and a Benefit?
    5. Use Emotional Benefits in All Applications
  15. Chapter 11: Positively Outrageous Service Is Great Business
    1. Why Good Service Is Good Business
    2. How Good Is Your Customer Service?
    3. An Excellent Customer Relationship Management Program Is the Answer
    4. The Standard CRM Line
    5. Is There a Gulf between Finance and Marketing Departments?
    6. CRM Is Not Technology
    7. There Are Rifts within Organizations
    8. Implementing CRM Is Not Easy
    9. Why CRM Must Be Customer Centric
    10. Online Business Generally Fails the Awesome-Customer-Service Test
    11. What Do Customers Want?
    12. Why Is It So Vital to Keep Existing Customers?
    13. Excellent Service Is Critical for Online Businesses
    14. Web Sites and Customer Service
    15. How Much Is Your Customer Really Worth?
    16. How to Develop Great Customer Service
    17. A Great Service Culture Must Permeate Your Entire Organization
    18. The Quality of Service Is a Reflection of the Workplace Environment
    19. A Customer-Centric Company Culture Begins with Leadership
    20. Regularly Audit Your Customer Service Performance
    21. Keep Research Totally Independent
    22. Implement an Ongoing Customer-Management System
    23. Customer Satisfaction Measures Are Complex
    24. Complaints Are an Asset, Not a Liability
    25. The Best Way to Handle a Customer Complaint
    26. All Is Not Lost When Someone Complains about Your Product or Service
    27. Good Service Is Not Difficult to Provide
    28. Little Things Mean a Lot
    29. Continue to Innovate
  16. Chapter 12: Add Value to Every Transaction
    1. How Can You Provide Customer Value?
    2. Adding Value Differentiates Your Business
    3. Putting People First Starts at the Top
    4. You Can Add Value in Any Business
    5. Show You Really Care about Your Clients
    6. Add an Additional Product
    7. Provide Education and Information
    8. Customize Your Product or Service
    9. Add Value to the Customer's Experience
    10. Provide Exceptional Service
    11. Added Value Also Adds to the Bottom Line
    12. Added Value Takes Many Forms
  17. Chapter 13: Building the Brand and First Recall
    1. A Brand with Equity Is the Only Way to Create a Demand Chain Dynamic
    2. For Long-Term Success Build an Intrinsic Brand
    3. How to Build Brand Equity
    4. It Takes a Village to Build a Brand
    5. Be Specific
    6. The World's Greatest Brands
    7. Word of Mouth Is a Strong Brand Builder
    8. Building Brand Equity through Consumers, Not Advertising
    9. Can Brand Equity Be Transferred Across Product Categories?
    10. What Is the Value of Brand Equity?
  18. Chapter 14: Where and How Do You Offer Your Product?
    1. Above the Line (ATL), Below the Line (BTL), and Through the Line (TTL)
    2. Effective Communication
    3. Neurolinguistic Programming
    4. Effect of Media Proliferation, Clutter, and Market Fragmentation
    5. It All Begins with Customer Relations
    6. Target the Right Message to the Right Audience
    7. How Effective Is Television Advertising?
    8. Radio Provides Immediacy, Flexibility, and Frequency
    9. Is the Print Media Star Fading?
    10. Public Relations Builds Brand Equity
    11. How Do We Communicate Online, the Medium of the Future?
    12. Maximizing the Extraordinary Personal Reach of Social Media
    13. The Majority of Advertising to Direct People to Web Sites Is Offline
    14. Relationship Marketing
    15. Direct Mail
    16. Permission Marketing
    17. Viral Marketing
    18. Examples of Viral Marketing
    19. Always Remember Who Your Actual Customer Is
    20. Utilize the Inexpensive Benefits of Technology
  19. Chapter 15: Internet Commerce and Social Media
    1. E-Commerce Is a Sales Channel, Another Route into the Market Place
    2. Business-to-Business: A True Revolution
    3. Examples of Integrated B2B Solutions
    4. Business-to–Consumer…An Effective Niche Market?
    5. E-Retailing versus Traditional Retailing
    6. Corporate Integration of CRM Is the Key
    7. How Is E-Retail Performing?
    8. Examples of Integrated B2C Solutions
    9. The Future of B2C
    10. Consumer-to-Consumer (C2C)
    11. The Keys to a Great Website
    12. Social Media–A Marketing Phenomenon
    13. Let's Look at These One at a Time
  20. Chapter 16: Close the Sale by Reversing the Risk
    1. Four Kinds of Risk: Emotional, Physical, Financial, and Social
    2. Risk Reversal Works because People Are Honest
    3. Quality of Information
    4. Choose Your Risk-Reversal Technique Carefully
  21. Chapter 17: Cut through the Clutter
    1. Creative Thinking Starts with Research
    2. Differentiation Produces Results
    3. Publicity Is More Powerful than Advertising
    4. Grab the Initiative
    5. Thinking Outside the Square Creates a Win-Win from Potential Disaster
  22. Chapter 18: Persistence and Morality Pay
    1. Success Almost Always Takes Time
    2. Morality Pays
    3. Fantastic Stories of Inspiration
    4. From Zero to Hero
  23. Conclusion
  24. About the Author
    1. Bob Begins His Speaking Career
  25. Index

Product information

  • Title: Kick-Ass Business & Marketing Secrets: How to Blitz Your Competition
  • Author(s):
  • Release date: August 2011
  • Publisher(s): Wiley
  • ISBN: 9781118035085