Radical Marketing, Sam Hill and Glen Rifkin

Radical Marketing, Sam Hill and Glen Rifkin
Ojo Critico / Personal Rating: 4/5
Leido / Read: December 2007

I like this book because it is intelligent and easy-to-read plus delivers quite a punch in terms of practical lessons and advise. I also enjoy innovative business marketing techniques and this book delivers the goods.

The book advises to see beyond traditional marketing techniques in order to get a brand widely accepted, it doesn't matter if we are talking motorcycles, dog food, or an aging rock band.

In the Harvey-Davidson story, the main message is on how to revitalize a declining brand by building a "family" to "nurture" it into shape. Once quality and service is assured, reputation follows. However, these two things (quality and service) are not enough if consumers do not feel attached to the product.

Radical marketing is not about having large resources, but about committing to a product and service with intelligence and consumer-oriented strategies. For most radical marketers the CEO is wholly involved in the process. He/she is never too aloof not to personally interview clients and get down and personal with researchers and consumers. The advise is not to completely trust market research and to favor instead face-to-face interviews and meetings.

It pays to be uncompromising regarding target audiences. Averaging out doesn't work. "People may like iced tea and others hot tea, but no one stomachs lukewarm tea." Strategies must be really focused on a message and kind of client.

A radical marketer will also create and nurture communities of clients, providers, and distributors.

Some businessess do rely on data for their marketing strategies. In this case, data must be mined to find out what consumers are buying instead of what they say they buy. This requires analyzing consumer and credit behavior to forecast future expenditures.

Additional sensible advise include:

Define product around market
Consumer value simplicity above all else
Engage in corporate responsibility
Pamper your distributors
Have a strong vision of your brand. Ex. Virgin: quality, competitiveness, innovation, and fun.
See things as consumer see them.
Not bigger but faster.
Find your message and stick to it.
Make your customers your marketing department. Identify your connectors, mavens, and salespersons and interact with them constantly.
Focus on your top 25 clients and the rest will follow.
You can only enter an existing market if you offer a product that is cheaper or better.

Finally, your most important resourse is your workforce. Without them no strategy can work, particularly when it comes to sales. Therefore, your salesforce must be highly trained AND well compensated and motivated. Remember: "Sales are to marketing what sex is to masturbation." It only pays when you engage someone else.

The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell

The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell
Ojo Critico / Personal Rating: 4/5

I don't think I can add much to all that has been said about this book. So I'll keep my comments brief and only focus on the things that really interested me.

According to this book, the key elements on how to explain seemly complex phenomena that challenges traditional believes can be found in the following 3 rules:

The law of the few
The stickiness factor
The power of context

To understand these laws is to make sense of sudden fashions in taste, political views, and social change.

The Law of the Few

The law of the few states that there are special people (connectors, mavens, and salespersons) that are key in spreading ideas and news.

Connectors (such like Paul Revere): it is not only the number of people they know, but the kind of people they know. They know what people like and know how to get them together.

Mavens are knowlegable about some (or all) matters. They are not passive but put their insights to work. Sell them an idea they agree with and they will spread it with authority. However, they tend to be emphatic, not necessarily persuasive.

This bring us to the Salespeople. They have the ability to empathize and seduce.

If you have a collection of these characters working for you, you can popularize your ideas and/or products.

The Stickiness Factor

This rule is about how people get hooked to the power of your message. If the Rule of the Few is how your message is passed along, the Stickiness Factor is about how it gets accepted. Actually, I remember seeing a very sexy poster that totally got my attention. The sexuality level was very high (and crude) but after few minutes I couldn't remember the company or the product/service they were selling. All I remember was the picture. They broke the Stickiness Rule due to their inability to link the image to their message.

This rule requieres that the message is memorable and that it moves us into action.

The Power of Context

Finally, the power of context talks about the changes in the environment, such as climate, economics, dominant ideology, and so on. It is about the Zeitgeist.

Overall, these rules are very convincing to explain how ideas get around widely, quickly, and, sometimes, unexpectibly.