Marketing Express (Express Exec) [Paperback]

This is one in a series of "ExpressExec" volumes published by Capstone/Wiley, each of which provides a concise but remarkably comprehensive review of fundamental principles and core concepts of a major business subject. In this instance, the subject is marketing. The term "express" is relevant because the manner in which the material provided enables a reader to accelerate her or his understanding of the given principles and core concepts and accelerate a review of them later. One added-value benefit is that each volume is pocket-size and can thus be a convenient travel companion.

John Mariotti offers his own opinion of why marketing and marketing

strategy are so important to managers in the 21st century. He includes a number of relevant quotations from prominent experts on marketing (e.g. Theodore Levitt, Philip Kotler, C.K. Prahalad, Regis McKenna, and George Gilder) that are inserted within the narrative to enhance key points. Mariotti uses a number of reader-friendly devices that are also very effective: summaries of key points from primary sources (e.g. "The Essence of Marketing" from Levitt's The Marketing Imagination), "snapshot" analyses (e.g. eBay's business model and "how Sephora illustrates "The New Look of Retail" by changing the rules of the shopping experience), check-lists (e.g. "What the Complete Marketing Plan Must Contain" and "Five Stages of the [Internet] Revolution"), and several mini-analyses (e.g. of the Toys R Us-amazon.com partnership, Nissan's commercials, Benetton's decision to stop "gross-out" advertising). Many readers will especially appreciate the "Key Concepts and Thinkers" (Pages 88-98), followed by "Ten Steps to Making [Marketing] Work" and then a set of "Frequently Asked Questions" which helps the reader to locate marketing concepts or issues of greatest interest to her or him.

Frankly, I was surprised as well as impressed by the nature and extent of Mariotti's coverage (in only 112 pages) of a business subject as complicated as marketing obviously is. My rating of this book (booklet?) is explained by the fact that I am commending it for what it is (within rather strict limitations) while duly acknowledging what it is not.

Those seeking greater depth of analysis should check out other sources. Mariotti offers his own recommendations in a "Resources" section. Here are several of mine: According to Kotler, Marketing That Works: How Entrepreneurial Marketing Can Add Sustainable Value to Any Sized Company co-authored by Leonard M. Lodish, Howard L. Morgan, and Shellye Archambeau, Marty Neumeier's The Brand Gap: Revised Edition (2nd Edition) and the more recently published Zag: The Number One Strategy of High-Performance Brands, Tom Asacker's A Clear Eye for Branding, and The Marketing Gurus: Lessons from the Best Marketing Books of All Time compiled by Chris Murray and Soundview Executive Summaries.