Bottom-Up Marketing

It's like drinking a glass of chilled water while crossing a marketing desert land. Crisp, clear and to-the-point. Kishore Dharmarajan Author of Eightstorm: 8-Step Brainstorming for Innovative Managers

Traditional approach is for executives to define the strategy and for the middle management to follow through with execution and tactics. The authors describe that the more effective approach is for an executive to be on the front line working with the customers. This is because a strategy developed in relative isolation from customers is unlikely to leverage off of the company's positioning in the customer's mind. The executive's objective would be to identify the competitive mental angle or the position / niche his company holds in the customers mind. This leads to identifying a simple differentiating tactic. Examples include pizza delivery time (Domino's) or "we're #2; we try harder" (Avis). This approach becomes highly effective when the executive uses the simple winning tactic as a lightning rod to gather and focus the entire company's energy. This involves continuous improvements in processes, products, positioning towards the singular goal of penetrating deep into customer's mind via the beachhead that was initially identified. Contrary to most models, a strategy is developed from a winning tactic by seeking broad input from customers and a variety of stakeholders; however, execution, planning, and marketing are carefully controlled and coordinated in a precise military fashion to surgically deepen the penetration in a customer's mind. The emphasis is on fixing things within the organization to match the meaning already present in a customer's mind rather than spend a lot of resources ineffectively to change a customer's mind.

I found this book to be an excellent resource. These two authors have written two other incredible titles which I also recommend: 'Positioning: The Battle for your Mind' and 'The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing'. This book ties in with these two and builds on them. The information in this book is quite useful, and the authors give great examples that illustrate their point. I found this to be an easily understandable text that was immediately useful. This book covers important tools such as monitoring trends, focusing your product line to claim a niche of the market and exploit it ahead of your competition, as well as how to build a successful marketing program with a sound foundation and carry out its successful execution. A lot of great basics are included here.

If you or your spouse is going into their own business, then this is the book to read. It breaks down a lot of the self-deception and wishful thinking that most people engage in before they step into the harsh reality of owning their own business. I would have been skeptical about their "20-20 vision of hindsight" but for the fact that their assertions so closely matched the experiences I had in my own start-up. It was like as if they did a thesis on all the mistakes I personally had made. If you're thinking about (1)your own business or (2 driving a great idea up through your place of work, then you need to read this. If you don't get all of in on the first sweep, read it a second time. If your spouse is going into business and if they refuse to read it, then YOU read it, and grill them with questions. For your sake. For their sake. I'm eating my way through Al Ries' books right now. I only wish I had done it 5 years ago. Yes, we all have to make our own mistakes, but how come he knew all mine before I made them?

I have owned this book for several years, and it is the one book that I always tell anyone who is in business or wants to start one to read. I have been in business for 30 years and this is the only book that makes any sense.. I loaned my copy to a friend today and wanted to see if it was still available. I am also odering the other books. Keep up the good work. Elvin Price