Marketing Power Plays: How the World's Most Ingenious Marketers Reach the Top of Their Game

This is one of three anthologies of articles that first appeared in BusinessWeek magazine, the others focusing on strategy and leadership. The appeal and value of the material will obviously be determined by each reader's own interests. The same is true of other series, notably "Harvard Business Review on...." I really appreciate having these collections of articles because (a) I may not have read all of them the first time around, (b) assembled as they are in a single volume, I can easily compare and contrast the given executives and/or companies and/or issues, and (c) having the volume near at hand means I can easily locate one or more articles whenever I need to review specific material. I also appreciate the fact that it is "totable." Stephen J. Adler wrote the Introduction to each of the three volumes. In Marketing Power Plays, the focus is on "how the world's most ingenious marketers reach the top of their game." Only a few of the executives featured (one per chapter in each of 15 chapters) will be familiar to most readers, notably Jeff Immelt (GE), Steve Jobs (Apple Computer) and Russell Simmons (Def Jam and Phat Farm). Then in a "Trends" section which follows the final chapter, readers are provided with an additional commentary based on material which appeared in a number of different articles: "Reaching an Audience of One: Buzz Marketing, the Vanishing Mass Market, and Cult Brands." For example, here is the "Monday Morning" material that concludes Susan Berfield's article about Russell Simmons, written with Diane Brady and Tom Lowry: The Problem: Maintaining company growth as hip-hop inevitably fades in popularity with the youth market; keeping the business' cutting edge status even while partnering with decidedly unhip megacompanies. The Solution: Offer a diversity of products, from children's and adult clothing to athletic wear and debit cards; Forge relationships with corporate giants that will enable the company to extend its reach. Maintain the integrity of the brand through philanthropic and political ventures that will underscore the company's commitment to hip-hop culture. Sustaining the Win: Continue to focus on building the business' mainstream popularity so that it will continue to thrive even when hip-hop is no longer hip. The emphasis in this and in each of the other chapters is on "what" to do and then on "how" it was done. Of course, there are several excellent books that explore positioning, marketing, brand management, etc. in much greater depth, certainly more than any article or anthology can. For most executives, however, Marketing Power Play's greatest value will be derived from lessons to be learned from a number of quite different situations in which ingenious marketers either created or increased demand in the face of sometimes ferocious competition.