Filed under: Books in General, Brands, General Business, Marketing | Tags: books, Business, business book, business books, consumer goods, Marketing
If you check in with us from time to time, you’ve probably noticed that I have a bit of a fascination with business titles that deal with consumerism. Part of the interest is rooted in the frequent observation that Americans today have more material wealth and technological convenience than any previous generation, yet they continue to be less and less happy. On another level, I always enjoy the consumer titles because I’m fascinated by branding and the unique combination of factors that can propel one product to the top while a similar one collects dust on store shelves.
In that vein, I was delighted to read this review of a new book by Kevin Maney, a writer for USA Today. Maney’s book Trade-Off examines the gap that exists in the modern world of retail. Customers are drawn more and more to two distinct sets of products. They prefer either inexpensive goods that offer convenience but not quality, or they splash their cash on high-end items that carry a certain clout or trendiness. Products that fall in between these two categories, Maney argues, are likely to be ignored by the majority of the buying public.
Maney is not the first author to tackle the widening gap in consumer goods. Michael Silverstein examined this topic in his book Treasure Hunt, a title we summarized. What’s interesting about both books is the notion that consumers of all income levels cherry-pick from both groups of products. Maney’s book seems to suggest that quality suffers in the pursuit of the lowest price. However, he also remarks that most consumers are comfortable with this idea. I suppose that more and more consumers are willing to live with the adage “You get what you pay for.” Something to think about the next time the person in front of you at Wal-Mart pulls an iPhone out of an expensive handbag before paying for discounted household items.
Filed under: Books in General, From the Editor, Marketing, Uncategorized | Tags: books, Business, business book, business books, Marketing, Publishing
The skill and labor involved in creating a business book is something which not everyone is able to comprehend. Maybe it’s just my personal (and professional) pride, but as far back as my college years, I used to bristle at the suggestion that because people are able to type, they are able to write. The process of researching and writing about a particular topic requires dedication and a copious amount of patience to ensure that the message is clear and accurate.
Not taking the proper amount of care can sometimes result in swift and direct criticism. For an example, take a look at this article from Business Week magazine. The writer of this piece makes some strong allegations against Michael J. Silverstein and his co-author Kate Sayre. While Silverstein and Sayre’s book isn’t creating furor on-par with author James Frey and his much disputed memoir A Million Little Pieces, the veracity of Women Want More is being questioned.
In our ever-vigilant need for full disclosure, I can tell you that we previously summarized one of Silverstein’s books. We chose Treasure Hunt as a January 2007 summary because of its strong study of the changing consumer market. While we never found any of his arguments to be lacking in factual accuracy, the issues raised by Business Week are troubling.
I will be interested to see if this current controversy brings any additional attention to Silverstein and Sayre’s book. I will, of course, keep you posted should anything arise. In the meantime, check out Treasure Hunt. It’s a great read for marketers as they deal with the crunch of the fourth quarter.
Filed under: Books in General, Brands, Marketing | Tags: books, Brands, Marketing
Sometimes the best way to truly evaluate the way a business looks is to take a gander from the outside. The United States gets tagged with many labels, some of which are not too kind. Accusations arise constantly about everything from the country’s carbon footprint to its often reluctant role as global police officer. Still, after reading an article from the folks at Bloomberg.com, one finds it a little harder to shrug off a famous allegation: American brands dominate the globe.
Click the link above and check it out for yourself. According to the Interbrand study cited by Bloomberg, the U.S. can lay claim to eight of the top 10 brands in the world, as well as 13 of the top 20. Findings like the ones in this list create some interesting debates, both domestically and internationally. Much to my chagrin, I’m old enough to recall a time when foreign brands were unacceptable when it came to certain major purchases (cars, televisions, etc). While there are still those whose purchasing decisions are rooted in patriotism, the decision to drive a car produced by Japan or Germany is no longer looked at with a raised eyebrow. In fact, the opposite is more likely to cause curiosity.
Other areas of the world continue to lament the decline of their own local culture, or so it would appear. You’d probably anticipate the French being among the stalwarts who refuse to let the fast-food of the Stars and Stripes steamroll their cafes and bistros. Take a look at the photo that accompanies this articleand you’ll see that the Arc de Triomphe has competition from another set of arches, ones that are a little more familiar Stateside. Even the most particular of cuisine-lovers has to admit, someone must be buying all those burgers.
While America continues to debate the pros and cons of offshoring and trade deregulation, one export has never failed us: our brands. The value of our most famous companies may trouble some authors, like John Gerzema and Edward Lebar, but others don’t seem to share their concern. Coca-Cola once advertised it’s desire to achieve world harmony through song. We might not be there yet, but they’ve certainly followed through on the other end of their promise. Everyone, practically, has the chance to buy a Coke.
Filed under: Books in General, Marketing, Politics | Tags: books, Business, business book, business books, Marketing
This story caught my eye the other day, and I thought it opened up an interesting debate. Here’s the original article from The Business Journal’s affiliate in Greensboro, North Carolina. It’s tough to think of an industry that is more maligned than the tobacco business, although right now health insurance companies are likely to run a close second. Over the past 20 years, legislation and strong public pressure has squeezed tobacco companies to drastically reduce the ways in which they advertise their products, as well as restrict the locations where tobacco can be used.
The new federal law that gives the Food and Drug Administration regulatory oversight of tobacco products is leading tobacco companies to challenge the law’s validity on free speech grounds. While there are other products that could be sighted as a factor in causing health issues (alcohol and fast food, for starters), tobacco is the only one that has been universally condemned as a health risk. It’s still too early to tell the extent to which government will use this law, but it opens the door for dialogue about the restrictions applied to products that, if misused, are believed to cause harm.
Should it be the government’s job to handle the communication of tobacco’s effects, if it feels the industry itself is failing in this job? The public may prefer it if the companies themselves stepped up and saved the Feds the trouble (and the money) of doing so.
The moral obligations of a business are more prevalent now than ever before in the public consciousness. We covered this idea ourselves when we summarized Lynn Sharp Pain’s Value Shift in a previous edition of Soundview Executive Book Summaries. Pain’s argument that customers expect a higher standard of corporate behavior creates an especially vexing problem when one considers the tobacco companies. As of now, tobacco is still a legal product and the ability to smoke is a choice. It’s the public’s problem to conclude whether the companies or the government is the entity to trust when it comes to providing information about the product and its effects.
Filed under: Books in General, From the Editor, General Business, Leadership, Marketing, Success | Tags: Business, business books, career skills, Collection, Leadership, management, Marketing, Strategic Management
I tend to be one of those people who gets caught up in the moment. Much of my time is spent looking ahead to upcoming business titles and working with our editorial team to chart out the trends in business publishing. The downside is there’s often little time left for looking back.
What tends to spark those rare moments of reflection is when I read something online or am doing a bit of research on a past event, such as this list of world headlines from 1999. In those moments I tend to shudder and think to myself, “Wow, that was 10 years ago … already!” While this statement is generally followed by a lament about my age, sometimes it causes me to look back at the titles that we’ve covered.
I’m always grateful for these moments because it’s in them that I see the continued relevance of many of our summaries. There’s a reason that James Collins and Jerry Porras’ Built to Last is still among our top sellers five years after its release. The business book world is one in which a high percentage of titles released in a given year are deemed out-of-date within a year of their debut. Fortunately, part of our selection process is to give subscribers summaries of books that we know will be around for some time.
The culmination of our efforts is now available for your benefit. Soundview is now offering a Premium Online Subscription. This subscription gives you full access to our entire online library. That’s 10 years of summaries! The library is completely searchable by title, author and subject.
Visit us at Summary.com for more information. Sometimes the best way to look ahead is to look back first.
Filed under: Economics, From the Editor, General Business, Marketing, Sales, Small Business, Strategic Management, ethics | Tags: Business, Economics, Marketing, Small Business, Soundview, Strategic Management
Part of producing each month’s edition of Soundview Executive Book Summaries involves recording and editing the audio version. While conversing with a colleague at a studio with whom we work, the subject of malls came up. My friend mentioned that he’s seen more than a few empty storefronts as he walked through one local mall.
By coincidence, I came across this interesting photo study from Time magazine today. It’s important to note that at least one of the photos included in this collection is of a set of stores that were abandoned decades ago. However, the remaining stores are all fairly recent closings.
I found the photo study while reading an article about hard times at clothing retailer Abercrombie & Fitch (A&F). If you have children, or attended college between 1996 and 2006, you’re probably intimately familiar with this company. As an editor, I love the way Time used the classic tactic of posing a question in its headline. Is A&F really the worst recession brand? We might want to cast a critical eye over other business sectors before we do too much picking on people who sell hooded sweatshirts and, as the Time article notes, $90 jeans.
Still, the central issue in the article that is most worthy of discussion is how companies that are perceived as luxury brands should handle tough times. I found the concept of price cutting to be of particular interest in this article. Theoretically, a luxury brand that cuts its price runs the risk of losing its status, but does this assumption apply during times of economic hardship? I agree with the marketing professor in the article who notes that if you keep your prices low for a period of time, you create an expectation among customers that they’ll stay that way.
What’s your take on how luxury brands should navigate a recession? Send me a comment and let me know your thoughts.
Filed under: Books in General, Marketing, Sales | Tags: books, Business, business book, business books, Economics, Leadership, Marketing, Sales, strategies
I’ve always wondered how Arthur Miller came to select “salesman” as the profession of choice for his most famous character, Willy Loman. During the time in which Miller’s play Death of a Salesman made its stage debut, sales was among the most American of careers. Whether it was an insurance rep cold-calling people while a Lucky Strike burned in his desk’s ashtray, or a smart-suited gent standing in a field of shiny Chevrolets, sales was a position of some stature in any organization. Of course, it may be the sheer volume of rejection that gives plenty of opportunity for tragic underpinnings, but I don’t know if that was the sole motivator behind Miller’s decision.
Take a look at some of the other depictions of salesmen in film and literature and you can see that this “hard luck” element came to dominate the cultural landscape. Who can forget the late John Candy’s sympathetic turn as Del Griffith, “Director of sales, American Light and Fixture, shower curtain ring division” in the film Planes, Trains and Automobiles? David Mamet added to the portfolio with Shelley “The Machine” Levine in his play Glengarry Glen Ross. With the recent announcement that Google, the company thought unassailable by the current financial crisis, will be cutting sales and marketing jobs, there is the temptation to think that many current sales representatives may take on the bleak world view of their pop culture predecessors.
Out of that void, however, I’d rather remind people of a man named Blake. Despite not appearing in Mamet’s original play, this abrasive, intense sales “motivator” exploded onto the screen in the film adaptation of Glengarry. With an equal mix of smolder and brashness, Alec Baldwin gave salesmen everywhere a memorable mantra “A-B-C: Always Be Closing.” Despite the portrayal being an exaggeration of the field, tough times likes these call for a little motivation, and it’s hard not to take something away from Baldwin’s speech.
We’re doing our own part to help the sales cause. Our latest iPhone collection Sales Summaries Volume I is now available. This collection includes Making the Number by Greg Alexander, Aaron Bartels and Mike Drapeau, as well as The Perfect Salesforce by Derek Gatehouse and The Ultimate Sales Machine by Chet Holmes.
Go to iTunes now via your iPhone to download the collection!
Just recently I had the director of online marketing at HarperCollins drop me a quick note, informing me of a couple new titles the publisher has coming out. It’s always nice to get the scoop. I wanted to share one with you today, one that you might regularly brush off, just as you flip by them on the TV.
What am I talking about? DRTV, also known as direct response TV, or better yet, infomercials.
Due out before the end of March is But Wait … There’s More!: Tighten Your Abs, Make Millions, and Learn How the $100 Billion Infomercial Industry Sold Us Everything But the Kitchen Sink by Remy Stern.
From the e-mail that was sent to me: “Stern’s eye-opening account also offers a penetrating look at how late-night television conquered the American consumer and provides insight into modern American culture: our rampant consumerism, our desire for instant riches, and our collective dream of perfect abs, unblemished skin, and gleaming white teeth. Both a compelling business story and a thoroughly entertaining piece of investigative journalism (with a touch of muckraking and social satire), But Wait . . . There’s More! will ensure that you never look at those too-good-to-be-true deals the same way again.”
Yes, we might all laugh at them, but according to a February New York Times article, they are making profits steadily and heading into prime time more often. Just the other night I saw a quick spot for the Tomato Tree …wow 60 pounds of tomatoes…suddenly I have a craving for a BLT.
