Selling Blue Elephants

How to Make Great Products that People Want Before They Even Know They Want Them

by Howard Moskowitz and Alex Gofman

		Publisher: Wharton School Publishing Pub. Date: 2007 ISBN: 9780136136682 No. pages: 272 Category: Sales & Marketing

In this summary you will learn

How to improve your product design, marketing and messaging using systematic experiments
How to use correct messaging to increase your top-line revenue
How to learn about your customers using Rule Developing Experimentation (RDE)
How to learn about your competition using RDE

Why you should read Selling Blue Elephants

Marketing gurus Howard Moskowitz and Alex Gofman believe their method of product testing, called Rule Developing Experimentation (RDE), can lower your costs, shorten turnaround time, and improve your product development, packaging, messaging and competitive analysis. RDE involves defining your problem, then testing a series of alternatives to determine its boundaries. The data you gather may confirm your expectations, but often enough it will contain surprises. Even if your customers can’t articulate their needs, their choices and behavior will show you what they want. RDE will also inform you about how to sell to each market segment. The authors illustrate their method with interesting case studies; they also include amusing, if irrelevant, sidebars (one covers the history of the tomato, for example). Their style may be digressive and flawed by the overuse of jargon, and some of the graphs and illustrations can be confusing, yet getAbstract recommends this book to experienced marketing managers who are tired of guessing about their strategies and want to base them on reliable data.

About the Authors

Howard Moskowitz is the president and CEO of a strategic brand development firm. In 2005 he received the Charles Coolidge Parlin Marketing Research Award. Alex Gofman earned degrees in computer science and holds several patents. He has published widely on the topic of technology-based experimental psychology.

Rating (what is this?)

Overall		(6)
Applicability		(7)
Innovation		(6)
Style		(5)

Level of Expertise (what is this?)

Level

(5)

Buy the Book

Click here to buy the book "Selling Blue Elephants". If you wish to purchase 20 or more copies of the same title (not the summary, but the "real" book), please contact us at bulkorders@getAbstract.com. Make sure you include the title of the book and your phone number.

getAbstract makes it easy for you to access the summary of Selling Blue Elephants any time or any place. Once registered, you can choose from a variety of download formats: PDF for your computer, BlackBerry, iPhone, Kindle, PDA or other handheld devices. You can even obtain the audio version of many of our summaries.
Subscribe today to gain access to this summary as well as many other compelling titles!