Kotler on Marketing: How to Create, Win, and Dominate Markets

Managing changing needs and desires! Kotler summarizes this field which is wide and becoming wider. In cogent, succint style, this book takes the marketing executive, student or executive who has to deal with marketers through where the field has been, where it is today and where it is heading.'This is well done. Examples from real world are included (not much hypothetical, classroom or research stuff included) with great questions to ask yourself at the end of each chapter to probe deeper into the topic. Additional references are provided for those who wish to utitlize the concept further.I find Kotler very easy to read and follow. The approach here presented is right on! There is a warehouse of great lines that can propel one's marketing, e.g. "If companies focus only on their costs, they will never grow to greatness. Without a top line, there will be no bottom line." or "The way to beat your competitors is to attack yourself first." "Finally, customers don't want promotion; they want two-way communication." This is a gem of a book to mine for info or to put into practice. Likely those not familiar at all with the field will gain much from reading, while those engaged will find this work extremely practical, productive, clarifying and motivating. Not only does he point out trends and weaknesses and opportunities, but in most cases, provides real practitioners and examples, plus optional opportunities.

"Companies often fail to recognize that their marketplace changes every few years...Last year's winning strategy may become today's losing strategy. As someone observed, there are two kinds of companies: those who change and those who disappear...Today's economic landscape is being shaped by two powerful forces- 'technology' and 'globalization.' The technological landscape today is dotted with new products...Technology is the ultimate shaper not only of the material substructure of society, but also of human thought patterns...Technology drives the second major force, globalization...Besides technology and globalization, other forces are reshaping the economy. 'Deregulation' is occurring in many economies. Protected companies, often monopolies, suddenly confront new competitors...Another strong force is 'privatization', where former publicly held companies and agencies have been turned over to private ownership and management, in the belief that they would be better managed and more efficient...Yogi Berra, the legendary Yankee catcher, summed it up when he said, 'The future ain't what it used to be.' He might have added: 'Do you feel your company is being chased by wild animals. If not, you should!' Markets are pitiless. Jack Welch would start his management meetings with the admonishment, 'Change or die.' Richard Love of Hewlett-Packard observes: 'The pace of change is so rapid that the ability to change has now become a competitive advantage.' The ability to change requires an ability to learn. Peter Senge and others have popularized the notion of a 'learning organization.' Not surprisingly, companies such as Coca-Cola, General Electric, and Skandia have appointed vice presidents of knowledge, or learning or intellectual capital. Those vice presidents have the task of designing 'knowledge management systems' to enable rapid company learning about trends and developments affecing consumers, competitors, distributors, and suppliers" (pp.3-5).In this context, in Chapter 1, after saying as the pace of change accelerates, companies can no longer rely on their former business practices to sustain prosperity, Philip Kotler compares busines assumptions and practices that were practiced 'then' with the ones being increasingly practiced 'now' as following:I- 'Then'1. Make everything inside the company.2. Improve on one's own.3. Go it alone.4. Operate with functional departments.5. Focus domestically.6. Be product-centered.7. Make a standard product.8. Focus on the product.9. Practice mass marketing.10. Find a sustainable competitive advantage.11. Develop new products slowly and carefully.12. Use many suppliers.13. Manage from the top.14. Operate in the marketplace.II- 'Now'1. Buy more things outside (outsource).2. Improve by benchmarking others.3. Network with other firms, collabotate.4. Manage business processes with multidiscipline teams.5. Focus globally and locally.6. Be market-and customer-centered.7. Make adopted/or customized products.8. Focus on

Kotler's latest book is a great refresher course on marketing in the new millennium. The organization and prose of the book make it an enjoyable read, not at all academic and stuffy. We're using it as a textbook in an MBA Marketing Strategy course, and it is comprehensive and insightful as to the new challenges of marketing. The book is organized into four parts:Part One: Strategic Marketing - including sections on building profitable businesses through world-class marketing; using marketing to understand, create, communicate and deliver value; identifying market opportunities and developing targeted value offerings; developing value propositions and building brand equity.Part Two: Tactical Marketing - developing and using market intelligence; designing the marketing mix; acquiring, retaining and growing customers; designing and delivering more customer value.Part Three: Administrative Marketing - planning and organizing for more effective marketing; evaluating and controlling marketing performance.Part Four: Transformational Marketing - adapting to the new age of electronic marketing.Whether you read the book from cover to cover, or add it to your reference library and just read specific sections, you will find it full of useful theories, practical advice and many current examples.

This book is written for those who is not expert in Marketing and doesn't have time to read through the Marketing Classics "Marketing Management" (one of the thickest Marketing book) by the same author. As it put all Kotler's idea in one book, it also serve as a "review" even for those who read through "Marketing Management". If you are only allow to buy one book from Kotler, buy this! Greate book!

I use it for my summer hi tech marketing project. I basically follow it entirely on the outline of my marketing plan. Compared to many other marketing books that contain ideas which may or may not work --- obsolete over time. This book contains the true fundamentals of marketing. It is like the Calculus of mathematics. Once you know the basics, you know the rest. In addition, the questions format of the books provide you with leads to brainstorm ideas. I think this book will be my reference for next 20 years!