The Marketing Mavens

By Noel Capon

Book Overview

The way far too many people at far too many companies think about and execute marketing was born in an era when suppliers-the companies generating products and services-were in the catbird seat. That world is long dead, and customers now occupy that position. In this relentlessly globalizing economy, we live in a world of oversupply and underdemand, with too many suppliers chasing too few customers, offering more goods and services than the market can absorb. Noel Capon set out to discover what differentiates people who know how to succeed in this changed world-people who are able to create customers for the products and services of their business. The Marketing Mavens is based on a four-year-long research program that spanned twenty-five industries, identifying long-term winners and what they do differently. Put simply, Marketing Mavens place customers at the center of their business and make marketing everyone's job. Using a wide variety of intriguing, in-depth examples, from ESPN to the Mayo Clinic, Dr. Capon shows how the mavens create customers. How by placing the sports fan at the center of its business, ESPN creates programming that meets the needs of fans that were never given a second thought by the networks; or how physicians at the Mayo Clinic, being both technical experts and skilled at creating a patient-centric ambience, motivate people to pay the extra travel and lodging expenses not covered by insurance. Marketing Mavens, though a rare breed, can be found up and down an organization-from the CEO to chief marketing officers to business unit managers. Noel Capon has talked to mavens from across the global economy and brings forth their uncanny insights behind the five imperatives of the true Marketing Maven: ? Picking markets that matter ? Selecting segments to dominate and finding the sweet spot in that segment ? Designing the offer to create customer value and secure differential advantage ? Integrating to serve the customer ? And measuring what matters Noel Capon in The Marketing Mavens redefines marketing, moving it from a focus on selling and communication into a discipline that guides all the key decisions of a business. By seeing marketing as everyone's business-not the domain of a few specialists-you'll get your business in step with the way the world really works . . . and start creating customers. Next year's profits don't depend on next year's numbers but on next year's customers. The Marketing Mavens points the way to those customers, profits, and an increased stock price. From the Hardcover edition.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0307354091
• ISBN13: 9780307354099
• Release Date: June 2007
• Publisher: Crown Business
• Length: 320 Pages
• Weight: 1.35 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.2" x 1.3" x 6.6"

Customer Reviews

A most excellent book.

To get to the core of what works in marketing this book goes to the best performing marketers over the long-haul. The key is that they are not marketing the way they once were, because they are not thinking about marketing the way they once were. Excellent book and one of very few I've bothered to write a review for.

Finally an up-to-the-minute viewpoint that is relevant and useful!

I was given this book by a member of our company's senior leadership in preparation for a national meeting. As usual I dreaded the thought of pounding through another book of things that I have already done in my 20 years in marketing. But much to my surprise this book explored parts of the business that need talking about and left alone the annoying "how to be a better marketer", entry-level dialogue that is so prevelant in books that cater to the lowest common denominator. Marketing Mavens gets to the heart of the issue of creativity, innovation and true branding by addressing how marketing is viewed by senior leadership of companies. Too often marketing is siloed off as an expense item that produces sale support materials and does "communication" activites. This book bodly goes where marketers have wanted to go for decades and that is to have a proper place at the table in regards to strategic decisions that impact the reputation of the companies' brand to prospective customers, current customers and business to business customers (the internal sale). Really great work and worth the read. I purchased a copy of this book for every member of my marketing team and for my senior leadership and it has opened up honest and robust dialogue about what we do well and areas for improvement.

Multiple Insights on Every Page

When you read the first nine pages of a book, and you've underlined multiple insights on every page, you know you've made a good investment in a book and in your future.

Fresh thinking. And good timing. Capon does a good job here.

Noel Capon enters a thoroughly ploughed field of business writing and surprised this reader by digging up many fresh treasures. He achieves this through his savvy research project (this book is way more than the standard round-up of usual suspects,) and through choosing some left of field businesses to examine: The Mayo Clinic? The result is fresh writing, fresh thinking and recommendations that aren't necessarily all new, but are re-phrased and re-expressed for today's times. I'm beginning to find marketing gurus like Aaker (Example: Building the Brand-Driven Business: Operationalize Your Brand to Drive Profitable Growth,) somewhat tired these days, and slipping behind the game in terms of what the age of the internet has done to personalise and redefine the relationships between organisations and their customers. Mass marketing, as it became defined in the post-war years up to the 1990s, is over and done with: everything is coming down to a one on one encounter, but on a large scale. Capon clearly gets this, and communicates this. I particularly appreciate his writing on how organisations need to better integrate (break down those silos,) in order to serve the customer, and how organisations must measure what matters. For many marketers, as they'll see here, 'what matters' may be quite different from what they've been measuring to date. Well recommended. $18? Spend your money.