5 Wonderful Books that will Make You Admire Marketing
Have you ever read a business book? Did you find any positive takeaway from them? Did they increase your love for the subject?
Well, while most of the books have core target readers and are heavy on technical knowledge which makes an ordinary reader more distant from the subject.
Having a career as a marketing professional, I would obviously want that to be appealing to many people. You may already know what marketing people do, or have a general idea about them. I will elucidate the role of a marketer in my future blogs.
In this blog, I list down 5 books any non-marketer can read to have an appreciation for the subject. All these books are written in a plain and engaging language without being heavily bent on jargons and technical knowledge. I recommend these books to anyone looking to know about marketing or who has no idea about the subject. These books are sure to leave you with a contented heart and you can have some positive takeaways from them.
Contagious: Why things catch on by Jonah Berger
In this book, Jonah Berger discusses why some things catch on while others cannot. He defines 6 factors or 'STEPPS' about how making your communication reach a wider audience and make them 'Contagious'.
About the author: Jonah Berger is a professor at the Wharton School of Penn State University with expertise in the word of mouth, consumer behaviour. He has published over 50 articles in internationally reputed journals and has helped companies like Apple, Facebook, Nike, Google, GE in getting their ideas to catch on with the masses.
Marketing Warfare by Al Ries and Jack Trout
This book is closest to my heart. My initial interest in Marketing came from this book. The authors here, try to draw parallels between Marketing Strategy and Warfare Strategy. They discuss Offensive, Defensive, Flanking, and Guerilla strategy in the context of Marketing. Adding to it there are evergreen stories in Marketing like 'The Cola War', 'The Beer War', 'The Burger War' etc.
About the Authors:
Al Ries is a marketing consultant with 50+ years of experience in the field. His articles on Positioning propelled him to fame in the 70s. He has authored and co-authored 11 books.
Jack Trout is the founder of Trout and Partners, a company that has done 'Positioning Strategy' for various companies like IBM, HP, Intel. He has 40 years of experience in Marketing and is the pioneer of many fields of Marketing.
Dream with your eyes open: An Entrepreneurial Journey by Ronnie Screwvala
This book talks about business in general. Ronnie Screwvala talks about his journey as an entrepreneur coming from a humble middle-class background taking risks one step at a time. This book motivates you to take risks while telling narrating a success story. It urges you to have a 'never say no' attitude towards everything in life.
About the Author: Ronnie Screwvala is the man behind many successful businesses in India. If you have been following the entertainment industry closely, you would know about UTV movies, RSVP films already. This man was behind all those companies. Even the current online higher education portal Upgrad was his initiative.
Introducing Game theory: A graphic guide by Dr Ivan and Tuvana Pastine. Illustration by Tom Humberstone
This book is another basic level book on the subject. Without going into the complexities of equations to explain the theory, the authors stick to basic logical explanation with many simplistic real-life examples. Reading this book makes grasping concepts of 'Prisoners' Dilemma', 'Common Rationality Expectations' and many other topics much easier.
Though this book doesn't deal with marketing directly, the topic's relation to human behaviour makes it an important inclusion. It deals with the passing of information, communication; which are an integral part of any marketing activity. Two key areas in Marketing where a marketer could apply this theory are advertising, communicating product quality to the customer.
About the Authors:
Dr Ivan Pastine's explanation of financial crises using Game Theory is a part of PhD programmes at Harvard and the London School of Economics. He is currently a lecturer at University College Dublin.
Dr Tuvana Pastine is an economist working at Maynooth University, Ireland. With a specialisation in Game Theory, she has published a wide variety of literature on the topic.
Tom Humberstone is an illustrator from Edinburgh having a glorious career in New Statesman, The NIb, Vox, The Guardian, Vice and the like.
Pandeymonium: Piyush Pandey on Advertising
Being brought up in the early 2000s, we have seen many wonderful advertisements from brands like FevikStick, Fevicol, Dairy Milk, Santoor etc. Many of them are memorable even to this day, remember the Fevi Stick guy's excitement after catching fishes using the glue.
The author talks about his humble beginnings and how he was exposed to creativity since his childhood. He talks about never letting go of the inner child and keep asking questions. Reading the book I realised that if any film-maker had the best influence on my childhood, it is this ad film-maker.
About the Author: Piyush Pandey is the Global Chief Creative Officer at Ogilvy and Mather. He has been the most influential man in Indian advertising for eight straight years by the Economic Times. In the Media Asia Award 2002, he was voted as Asia's Creative Person of the Year.
Conclusion
Book Images source: Goodreads
Cover Image source: Jim Millan
Comments
Post a Comment