Views from the Hills by R. E. Stevens, GENESIS II (The Second Beginning) E-Mail views@aol.com

The Marketing Game -- How the World's Best companies Play to Win

A few weeks ago it was time for my wife and I to take another trip to ireland.  But this time we decided to extend the trip to cover Wales, Scotland and England.  However, from my point of view, there is nothing worse than spending 10 hours cramped in a plane.  It was time to find a good book that can make the time fly.  While browsing in a bookstore, I stumbled upon a book that had been published this year.  I had not read nor heard a single word about it.  (Eric informed me later that the reason I had not heard or read about the book is that it was not published until September of this year and I was probably one of the first to read it.)  As I scanned through it, I found the urge to read chapter after chapter.  While the topics were similar to other books, such as defining your Mission, Brainstorming, Understanding the Consumer, Branding, Advertising, Promotions, etc., the approaches were different.  Examples were abundant.

The book is titled, The Marketing Game, by Eric Schulz.  The ISBN number for anyone interested is 1-58062-222-4.  I highly recommend this book for anyone in consumer research, marketing, or management.  However, if you are a person that shudders at change or doing something different, (or even doing something yourself as opposed to hiring someone to do it for you), do not read this book.  It may be dangerous to your mind.

I found this to be a very easy book to read but at the same time very slow.  the author's ideas are very thought provoking.  About half of the pages that I have read have notes in the margins and about 20% have the edges bent indicating that I want to come back to these thoughts.  Every page has at least one line that I have highlighted for future reference.  I found that we think a lot alike, but please don't let that bias your thinking.  He is very much into doing things differently especially in the area of brainstorming.  He also strongly proposes in-store research as a way to understand consumers and their purchase motivation.  He talks at length about "Passion Points" and how to understand them you have to look at the store shelf and the consumers in the market place.  To quote Eric, "Knowledge Mining is an in-store learning exercise to develop profound understanding about what steers consumer purchase decisions."

Do yourself a favor, stop by your local bookstore and spend a few minutes scanning this book.  I believe you will find it to be very thought provoking and well worth the asking price as well as the time spent reading.

With Eric's permission, I will be presenting some of his thoughts in future Views.  Additional information about the book can be found on Eric's web site "www.the marketing game.com"


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