Marketing Books

A good marketing professional needs to be tuned into the present. He needs to understand the changing needs of the customer. He needs to converse with the customers. He needs to be in sync with his customers. Reading is the best way to be well informed and stay well informed. Let us examine 5 authors who have authored books that have influenced me.

1. Gerard Nierenberg- How to read a person like a book: One of the best books for students of management. This book tells us how to be a good reader of non verbal communication or body language. The customer in many cases gives off many non verbal cues and indication of likes and dislikes. Are we catching the cues that the customer is giving us?. Like the doctor in the movie mask says” we all are wearing masks that hide our real feelings and emotions”. This book will allow to understand body language and use it for your own advantages. (Many online versions are available in PDF format). I recommend buying of the book as the reader needs to practice the art and that can’t be done with a E-book).

2. The second set of books are not by a management expert. They are rather by a zoologist named Desmond Morris who has written a series of books all starting with the title “Watching:”. His books like manwatching, naked ape, the human animal, gestures are all classic reads. His astonishing observations and comparisons between human and animal behavior are very illuminative and startling. One needs to be very good is applied psychology to understand the consumer beahaviour as most market related actions is actually buried deep in the realm of human psyche.

3. The third author who influenced me a lot is Vance Packard was an American journalist and a social critic. The must read books by Vance Packard include -  The Hidden Persuaders a book on the advertising industry, The Status Seekers - describing American social stratification and behavior , The Waste Makers - criticizes planned obsolescence describing the impact of American productivity. The Pyramid Climbers - describes the changing impact of American enterprise on managers, the structured lives of corporate executives and the conformity they need to advance in the hierarchy. The Naked Society - on the threats to privacy posed by new technologies such as computerized filing, modern surveillance techniques and methods for influencing human behavior

Fourth in my list are Al Ries and Jack Trout. The authors who gave us the concept of positioning for the first time. The name of the book is positioning: The Battle For Your Mind. Their second bestselling book is titled Marketing Warfare. Their third book The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing, a book that outlines the basic reasons why marketing programs succeed or fail. All three books are marketing classics.

The final author who has impressed me is a author who writes fiction. But mark my words his fictional books are actually well researched and written. The books do have a fictional story line but details one sector or industry so graphically that a reader might be forgiven in thinking that it is a compulsory read for that particular sector. No prizes for guessing the right answer - Yes I am talking about Arthur Hailey: the master story teller.

The following is the list of books written by Arthur Hailey. Brackets indicate the sector or industry that it details. The Final Diagnosis (Hospitals), In high places (politics and governance), Hotel ( Hospitality), Airport (Aviation), Wheels (automobiles), Strong Medicine ( Pharmaceuticals), The money changers ( Banking and Finance), Overload ( Electrical Utility), The evening news (Media), Detective (Crime, detection and Policing)