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Free Gift Inside!!

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Free Gift Inside!!

Forget the Customer. Develop Marketease

Capstone,

15 min read
10 take-aways
Audio & text

What's inside?

Do not make customers the center of the marketing universe. Ignore them. Tease them. Trick them. They will come to you.

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Editorial Rating

8

Qualities

  • Innovative
  • Applicable

Recommendation

This book meets its promise of deflating the academic presentations contained in more theoretical marketing books. Too often, those books sub-divide and label marketing approaches and customer acquisition strategies into acronym-ridden codes that only confuse readers. Many of these books assume that the customer is the center of the marketing universe. Author Stephen Brown contends just the opposite. Customers are not the core of the cosmos. At best, constantly catering to their whims and changing tastes often ties marketers into unproductive knots. Using powerful - if sometimes questionable - examples, Brown shows that customers readily follow good marketing campaigns. Yet, the book relies so heavily on alliteration, puns and perky jokes that it often becomes just too cute, which impedes its solid marketing message. getAbstract.com recommends it as useful reading for marketing professionals who seek fresh ideas and a break from the old jargon. Alas, despite its title, no free gift comes with it, other than some razzle-dazzle marketing war stories.

Summary

The Customer Is Not King

The very idea that the customer is not the center of the marketing universe is heresy in many marketing circles. For the past two generations, experts have taught marketers that the customer must be totally satisfied for products to fly off the shelves. Marketers have urged their managers and staff members to become customer-centric, to be customer-focused, to build customer satisfaction, to pursue customer care and to use technology to build customer relationships. Yet, while many marketers have spent their entire careers pursuing customers, the results have not produced the loyalty they expected.

One reason is modern society’s overflow of commodities. All kinds of products are offered in wide abundance. Customers have nearly unlimited choices. Nothing is scant or hard to get, which makes scarcity appealing. A corollary to the lure of rare things is that it is possible to become successful when you do not treat customers with the utmost respect. Think of exclusive bars or restaurants that keep many patrons waiting outside in long lines behind velvet ropes as people on the "preferred" or "VIP" list are admitted immediately. As the "A" crowd...

About the Author

Stephen Brown is a professor of marketing research at the University of Ulster. He has held visiting positions at Northwestern University, the University of California and the University of Utah. He has written or co-edited 13 books, including Marketing Apocalypse, Postmodern Marketing and Romancing the Market. His work has been published in the Harvard Business Review, Journal of Marketing, Journal of Advertising and Business Horizons.

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