Amazon.com
So-called radical marketers stand out from the corporate crowd because they view the marketplace much differently from their more traditional peers. Not coincidentally, marketing consultant Sam Hill and business journalist Glenn Rifkin argue that the most advanced of these unorthodox companies--represented by diverse business ventures like Virgin Atlantic Airways, Iams pet food, Snap-on tools, and Samuel Adams beer--also tend to be wildly successful. In
Radical Marketing, Hill and Rifkin examine these businesses and a half-dozen others with an eye toward the practices leading to their prosperity that could be adapted elsewhere. Some choices may raise eyebrows, such as the National Basketball Association (which lost half its 1998 to 1999 season to a contentious labor dispute) and the Grateful Dead rock band (long criticized for glorifying recreational drug use), but all nonetheless support the authors' hypotheses and reveal through detailed profiles and careful analyses precisely what their experiences offer other firms. Thankfully the authors end by explaining how such practices can be used also by mature companies in less freewheeling fields.
--Howard Rothman
This is a fascinating, must-read marketing book by a consultant and a business journalist who urge companies not only to break traditional marketing rules but also to design a whole new game. The authors describe radical marketers and identify 10 notable ones, including Harley-Davidson Motorcycles, Iams Company, Boston Beer, EMC Corp., Snap-On-Tools, and the Harvard Business School. Traditional marketing is big, expensive, complex, and heavily reliant on advertising. Radical marketing has a strong visceral tie to a specific audience--radical marketeers "look" like their market. Their only reality is a quality product and the person using the product. The authors' 10 rules for radical marketing include the CEO's owning the marketing function; a small marketing department; seeking growth and expansion over profits; and respect for the customers while meeting with them personally to develop new ideas. Radical marketers do something different, something impossible that bucks tradition in their industry. Although some of the advice is not new, the authors skillfully challenge the common understanding of marketing with valuable new rules.
Mary Whaley
