Gurus on Marketing

Overview

This one-stop guide to the world’s most important writers on marketing expertly summarises all the key strategic concepts from the work and contribution of each of the leading thinkers in the field of this very important area.

Marketing is a key function within a business. This informed and incisive one-stop résumé of the major gurus who have had a critical influence on marketing thinking and development will bring you rapidly up to speed and offer you fresh ideas to improve your own business.

Sultan Kermally has worked directly with many of the figures in this book, including Peter Drucker, Philip Kotler and Michael Porter. This first-hand experience has enabled him to summarise, contrast and comment on the key concepts with knowledge, depth and insight.

By describing the key ideas of each guru, placing them in context and explaining their significance, he shows you how the concepts have been applied in practice. He looks at their pros and cons and includes the view of other expert writers to bring an in-depth knowledge to the subject.

By skilfully mixing relevant extracts from the gurus themselves with concise summaries and adding further context by interweaving these with contributions from strategy experts, such as Igor Ansoff and others, this becomes a must have resource.

The final chapter provides a valuable bonus with a checklist of gurus and strategic analytical tools.

Content

Introduction

• The relationship between strategy and marketing
• The influence of the gurus
• Heavy weight gurus
• Lightweight gurus
  

ONE: The fundamentals of marketing

• The evolution of marketing
• Key marketing concepts
• A to Z of marketing
  

TWO: Peter Drucker

• Why include him as a marketing guru?
• Where does Peter Drucker come in?
• The customer as the decision maker
  
• What do marketing gurus and writers say about Drucker’s contribution to marketing?
• Drucker’s key publications
• At the feet of Peter Drucker: Lessons learnt
  

THREE: Theodore Levitt

• Marketing myopia
• Production Life Cycle
• Differentiation
• The globalisation of markets
• At the feet of Theodore Levitt: Lessons learnt
  

FOUR: Michael Porter

• Porter's Five Forces and marketing
• How to conduct competitors' analysis
• Porter's Value Chain and marketing
• Porter's generic strategies
• Differentiation and segmentation
• Porter's National Diamond
• Porter's key publications
• At the feet of Michael Porter: Lessons learnt
  

FIVE: Philip Kotler

• Kotler on marketing management Importance and nature of marketing
• Analysing the market environment
• Developing,testing and launching new products and services
  
• Kotler’s perspective on strategic marketing
• Kotler’s key publications
• At the feet of Philip Kotler: Lessons learnt
  

SIX: Tom Peters

• Close to the customer
• Service obsession
• Quality obsession
• Nichemanship
• Listening to the customer
• Closing remarks: A controversy
• Peter's on marketing and marketing issues
• The pursuit of WOW!
• Service with soul
• Peter's key publications
• At the feet of Tom Peters: Lessons learnt
  

SEVEN: George Day

• Day on strategic marketing planning
• His contribution on market-driven strategy
• Why do some companies succeed at custoemr relationship management (and many fail)?
• Day's conclusions
• The 'Red Queen' syndrome
• Day's key publications
• At the feet of George Day: Lessons learnt

EIGHT: Jagdish Sheth

• Seth's views on industrial buying decisions
• At the feet of Jaddish Seth: Lessons learnt

NINE: Thomas T. Nagle

• Nagle on pricing
• At the feet of Thomas Nagle: Lessons learnt
  

TEN: Gurus and strategic analytical tools

• Ansoff's Matrix
• Porter's Generic Competitive Strategies
• Boston Consulting Group - Product Portfolio Matrix
• General Electric Strategic Planning Matrix
• Shell Directional Policy Matrix
• SWOT analysis
• Scanning the external environment: (STEP) factors
• Scenario planning
• Benchmarking
  

ELEVEN: Further information

Author

Sultan Kermally

Sultan Kermally is a Chartered Marketer and Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Marketing. He has degrees in Economics, Sociology and Law, and Diplomas in Marketing, Finance and Accounting.