Book Description
Incorporating the latest industry thinking and developments, this exploration of brands, brand equity, and strategic brand management combines a comprehensive theoretical foundation with numerous techniques and practical insights for making better day-to-day and long-term brand decisions—and thus improving the long-term profitability of specific brand strategies. Finely focused on "how-to" and "why" throughout, it provides specific tactical guidelines for planning, building, measuring, and managing brand equity. It includes numerous examples on virtually every topic and over 75 Branding Briefs that identify successful and unsuccessful brands and explain why they have been so. Case studies will familiarize readers with the real-life stories of Levi's Dockers, Intel Corporation, Nivea, Nike, and Starbucks. For industry professionals from brand managers to chief marketing officers.
Customer Reviews:
Not worth the money.......2007-05-21
This was not at all helpful. It is nothing more than a notebook full of lines with some vocabulary words on the side of the page. It doesn't even have an index, table of contents etc. I was very disappointed with this and would not recommend it to anyone.
smooth transaction, exact product, nice&easy supplier.......2007-05-14
exact product at an affordable price w a smooth transaction
Not what I expected.......2007-02-22
I expected this book to be more than a workbook to supplement another textbook. I was looking for something which actually provided content on Building, Measuring and Managing Brand Equity.
Maybe I misread the description of this book. I was actually looking for the text of the main book in paperback format.
All you need for Brand Management.......2007-02-07
This covers every aspect of Brand Management. There are other books that specialize on some aspects of branding, but this one is a complete reference.
The One Source.......2003-11-24
If you only buy one Branding book this is the bible. Wow, the price on the second edition has gone way up.
Book Description
A Framework for Marketing Management is a concise paperback adapted from Philip Kotler's #1 selling book, Marketing Management.
A four-part organization covers understanding marketing management, analyzing marketing opportunities, making marketing decisions, and managing and delivering marketing programs. Readers will be able to see how marketing managers have applied key principles in actual company situations, making explicit the connection between theory and implementation at leading firms such as eBay, NTT DoCoMo, Caterpillar, and Starbucks.
For anyone interested in the field of marketing—and its relationship with the consumer.
Customer Reviews:
Excellent condition - textbook with library binding.......2005-09-18
The book arrived swiftly and in excellent condition. I did not know what to expect for the library binding, but I have been very happy so far. It is a plain hardcover with a piece (color) of the original softcover professionally glued to the front. The content is exactly as it should be. Much better durability and great quality. Smooth transaction process, no snags and no problems.
It's good, but the discribution of it should be more specific.......2005-09-06
Actually, it's an international version.
Therefore,the saler should mark this on his or her remarks.
A Framework for Marketing Management, Second Edition.......2005-07-07
I ordered this book over 1 month ago - I have NOT received it yet. I am wondering what happened.
Great!.......2005-07-07
As always, College Books Direct delivered quickly, with no problems. Keep up the good work! You will continue to have my business.
-J
A very good marketing book..........2004-03-20
This is a very good book for those that don't have a marketing background. It is relatively short and concise, which made it a quick read. I has most of what is in the larger book (the reference style book), but really does a good job of condensing the material. This is one that I will keep, as it acts like an 800 page reference book, just smaller.
Book Description
For advanced undergraduate and MBA courses in Supply Chain Management.
This book brings together the strategic role of the supply chain, key strategic drivers of supply chain performance, and the tools and techniques for supply chain analysis. Every chapter gives suggestions that managers can use in practice and all methodologies are illustrated with an application in Excel. Fully updated material keeps the book on the forefront of supply chain management.
Distribution networks (Chapter 4); Sourcing (Chapter 13), discusses different sourcing activities including supplier assessment, supplier contracts, design collaboration, and procurement; Price and revenue management (Chapter 15); Early coverage of designing the supply chain network—after developing a strategic framework, readers can discuss supply chain network design in Chapters 5 and 6 and then move on to demand, supply, inventory, and transportation planning; Information Technology in the Supply Chain (Chapter 17).
For business professionals managing the supply chain.
Customer Reviews:
A good solid supply chain basics book.......2006-05-23
We use this book for supply chain training to new entrants at our firm. It is quite a good supply chain basics book - covering the topic in all its breadth. the coverage is perhaps a slightly less strategic and more technical than our needs - but that is understandable given the background of one of the authors. However, to be fair, it is the best book that we have found on supply chain management to get the people up to speed on the basics.
Price too high.......2004-08-25
What I got was a second Indian Reprint, it costs around $4 in India, but I had to pay around $35 (shippment not inlcuded in this amount)! What an arbitrage!
Good reference material for practitioners.......2003-02-17
I found this book to be a great source of reference for managers. It is not really a good teaching source, as I thought it already starts with a fair amount of assumed previous knowledge and jargon.
The sections that are most well developed are the ones on inventory management and transportation logistics, where I found examples that were directly applicable to situations I encountered in a retail environment. The portion on forecasting was not as useful, and the part on e-business seemed somewhat contrived. Overall, this is the best reference I have found that does not require a heavy amount of mathematical familiarity.
Excellent book overall but..........2003-01-08
I refered and used this book in 2 grad level courses. The first was a business school course on SCM (with an above average quantitative focus for a B-school course) and again for a fully quatitative SC Engineering course. While I was initially very impressed with the book, using this over 2 semesters has raised a few gripes.
For the qualitative issues on SCM {make no mistake, these 'fluff' aspects are very important} there is no other equal. Chopra and Meindl do an outstanding and comprehensive job. They also bring out the importance of using scientific, quantitative techniques for SCM. This however is where my gripes start.
Having brought out the importance of quantitative tools for use in SCM, they do only a moderate job on explaining these tools. For example, the chapter on forecasting (only the most simple and commonly used models are explained) is unnnecessarily complex and confusing. The topics covered are adequete but need revision. Treatment of inventory management also could be more detailed and better explained.
This is an excellent book but for more comprehensive learning (if you want an understanding of the quantitative aspects too), I think this book needs supplementing (say with course notes) or another book like "Modeling the Supply Chain" by Shapiro.
Peter Meindl - The Godfather of modern supply chain mgt.......2001-11-27
Written by one of the leading minds in the field, Peter Meindl of I2 technologies has a lot to teach. This is an excellent text and as a fellow Dallas/Ft. Worth resident, I would enjoy meeting him. If you are an MBA student with a concentration in Operations Management, this text should be required.
Meindl, a management team member of I2, has helped develop I2 into the undisputed champion in enterprise software. While SAP may have the market share with their archaic DOS based application, I2 has windows functionality and everything that matters. They have raised the bar with their supply chain knowledge, leading solutions, and collaborative knowledge in supply chain strategy. This text will give you a big step forward in becoming a Supply Chain leader.
Book Description
Emphasizing change and innovation in the 21st century, Strategic Marketing Management offers comprehensive coverage of current concepts and a variety of timely cases. Anderson and Vincze prepare students to recognize, embrace, and manage change by focusing on higher-level strategic issues and decision making in marketing management. The Second Edition features a new integrated approach that combines both theory and cases in a single volume for easy reference and evaluation. One of the most up-to-date collections available, the comprehensive cases have all been class-tested and cover a range of small, medium, and large organizations across several industries and environments—from product, service, consumer, business-to-business, and commercial to non-profit marketing. A number of cases focus on social responsibility issues and provide an in-depth examination of individual decisions instead of just a simple overview of events.
Helpful Chapter Summaries allow students to both preview major concepts before reading each chapter and review key ideas afterwards. Figures and tables throughout each chapter highlight important points and serve to further illustrate the material. New mini-cases offer more choices for flexible casework in and outside of class and the new Marketing Plan appendix can be assigned throughout the semester—both features reflect the authors' increased focus on critical thinking and application-based learning. Experiential exercises encourage students to practice applying chapter concepts to real-world scenarios, and end-of-chapter Study Questions act as a springboard for meaningful class discussion and test how well students have mastered the material. In addition, a convenient marginal glossary allows students to quickly review definitions as they read, providing immediate reinforcement of important terms.
- New! Dynamic topics include globalization, emerging technologies, the information age economy, and changing managerial hierarchies and organizations, as well as ethical, social, and environmental issues.
- New! All boxed inserts have been replaced or updated to remain current. Each chapter includes the following boxes: Innovate or Evaporate, Marketing and Entrepreneurship, Managing Change, Marketing in the Global Village, Its Legal But Is It Ethical?, and Marketing in the Information Age inserts.
- New! Mini-cases with exercises, called Marketing Management in Action: Closing Case, now appear at the end of each chapter and illustrate the real-world application of key concepts by allowing students to practice making decisions based on what they have read. These shorter cases can easily be assigned for homework by instructors who need a concise alternative to the longer and more involved cases at the end of the textbook.
- New! All chapter-opening vignettes are either new or updated, and profile actual companies to demonstrate the relevance of chapter content.
- New! A Marketing Plan Appendix reinforces the text's overall strategic focus by providing students with detailed, step-by-step guidelines on how to create a complete marketing plan.
- New! Over 50% of the cases are entirely new to this edition and profile a range of companies, including Phillip Morris, Inc., Target, Nike, and America Online. The Instructor's Resource Manual features extensive notes on each case to help instructors facilitate class discussions.
Customer Reviews:
Useless!!!.......2007-04-15
First and foremost, be aware if there are any reviews referring to "textbook", they are not for this "Cram 101 Textbook Outlines" which is supposed to be a textbook companion.
"Cram 101 Textbook Outlines" is useless!!! This is nothing but a bunch of glossary. And a half of the book is blank for writing notes. What a rip-off!!!
There's no outlines at all. No chapter summaries, no
explanation of concepts. Totally useless.
I have used "Collins College Outlines" series (I rate them 3 stars) and "Barron's Business Reviews" series (I rate them 5 stars).
Never buy any of "Cram 101 Textbook Outlines" series.
Technical notes: "Cram 101 Textbook Outlines" is POD (Print on demand). No wonder quality of printing is inferior (Looks like a xerox copy). And priced too high for this quality. For those who are not familiar with publishing industry--POD is used for ultra small quantity less than 100 copies. This is a telltale sign that book is not expected to sell minimum quantity (usually 3,000 copies) that commercial publisher is willing to
commit to publish. Simply put, POD means inferrior and
overpriced books. A work of amateur
Amazing Strategies.......2006-08-04
Well for starters, i had thought that the book will be a drag like all the other marketing stuff,but when i actually got reading through it i realised that it is very interesting. The authors clear all the concepts of marketing so clearly, that once u finish a chapter, it is kinda engraved in ur mind,and this is possible because of all the great examples that they give in addition to the start of chapter case and end of chapter case. The cases at the beginning and the end are the kind that other authors must def try and include in their material. They start of with a case that explains you what happenns with a company and then they explain the concepts in the chapter adn the end case permanently fixes the concept in your head..Overall a great Read!!!
highly recommended
Book Description
In this updated edition of Developing Successful Sport Sponsorship Plans, internationally renowned sport marketing professor David Stotlar takes you inside some of the most lucrative sport organizations to explain how to build a sponsorship plan that works. Drawing on his marketing experience and an understanding of the sport industry that can only come from an insider, he provides the specific issues to consider, the essential questions to guide your thinking, and the right exercises to help you develop and implement a sponsorship plan that is beneficial to both program and sponsor, including fully updated analyses of the latest sponsors and athlete endorsements, as well as a new "Best Practices" section to conclude each chapter. With this latest edition of Developing Successful Sport Sponsorship Plans, students as well as professionals can use this definitive, well-tested protocol to construct their own successful sponsorship plans.
Book Description
This book combines thoroughly field-tested knowledge delivered in a carefully developed step-by-step format. Both the manager and student will be able to build understanding and a key account by the end of it.
By analysing how key accounts really work in detail the authors create the tools that the reader will need in the marketplace. Equally it gives a clear picture of why KAM must be an important element of the corporate strategic plan.
Based on best practice from major companies globally there is no more definitive overview of this critical business to business strategy for sales and marketing managers and serious students in business and marketing.
* Written by one of the world's leading research teams into business-to-business marketing and key account management
* A hands-on approach with exercises and real-life case studies from which to draw insight
* Extensively revised to take in the latest empirical data and research developed from working with some of the world's leading companies
Average customer rating:
- Good book, some dated examples, frequent missing CD
- Robert the Advertising Planner
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Integrated Advertising, Promotion, and Marketing Communications, Second Edition
Kenneth E. Clow , and
Donald Baack
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Consumer Behavior (9th Edition)
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Essentials of Marketing Research
ASIN: 0131405462 |
Book Description
This volume takes a broader approach than Advertising or Promotions surveys and gives readers an integrated learning experience by incorporating Internet exercises and a Building an IMC Campaign project, with free Advertising Plan Pro software in every copy. The volume addresses integrated marketing communications, corporate image and brand management, consumer buyer behavior, business-to-business buyer behavior, promotions opportunity analysis, advertising management, advertising design, both theoretical and executional frameworks, IMC promotional tools and integration tools. For marketing professionals and ad agency account executives.
Customer Reviews:
Good book, some dated examples, frequent missing CD.......2005-07-23
I have enjoyed this book. In most cases I can skim the sections I know, skipping examples, and do well on the tests so it is very well structured. There are lots of excellent examples flushing out contents for the total newbie. A lot of thought went into the projects and case studies. If you are looking for a good overview of markting concepts and have a solid instructor to lead discussions about them, this is a great textbook.
That's the good.
The bad is that a number of examples are quite dated. For example, the book claims that Nintendo owns something like 82% of the video game market. How many years ago was this written and how would Sony and Mircrosoft respond? Intel's partnership with Gateway is mentioned in co-branding whereas the modern example would be Dell. Intel actually pays for 2/3 of Dell's advertising as part of the Intel Inside promotion.
Furthermore, the book makes no mention of Account Planning, and increasingly important field in advertising. One would think we still lived in 1992 when the Account Executive was asked to handle all strategic decicisions.
The book needs an overhaul in these ways but the essence is still very solid.
[...]
If you need to buy this textbook, buy it early, and make sure you get the CD. If you don't, send it back.
Robert the Advertising Planner.......2005-07-06
A good textbook for university students. For pro's, the book lacks a touch of ingeniuity.
Book Description
If you want to conduct market research, but feel you have little experience in doing so, we have the ideal updated and revised resource for you! Written in an engaging and active style, the
Second Edition of
The Market Research Toolbox: A Concise Guide for Beginners describes how to think of market research in the context of making a business decision. The book begins by defining market research and discussing some of the various techniques. It then goes on to examine what objectives can be met by doing market research and the expected payoffs.
The Market Research Toolbox examines six traditional market research techniques:
• secondary research • customer visits
• focus groups • surveys
• choice modeling • experimentation
Author Edward F. McQuarrie describes how each technique works, along with its costs, uses, tips for success, and when and how to use certain techniques, as well as precautions to take while using them.
New to the
Second Edition:
- Includes new chapters on questionnaire design, sampling procedures, and data analysis to ease students into developing their own market research
- Expands the discussion of how to determine needed market research via analysis of the underlying decision problem
- Contains updated suggestions for additional reading to provide students with the most up-to-date resources on market research
- Provides an Instructors Resource CD containing PowerPoint slides, case questions, teaching notes, and a sample syllabus
The Market Research Toolbox is a valuable textbook for a variety of advanced undergraduate and graduate business courses such as Marketing Research, Marketing Management, Customer Service, Industrial Marketing, Sales Management, Consumer Behavior, and Product Development. It will also be of particular interest to product managers, research & development managers, program managers, engineers, quality professionals, and executives responsible for developing business strategies.
Customer Reviews:
An essential entry-level guide to marketing research.......2006-10-15
"If you intend to execute a particular market research project yourself, you will certainly need to read more than this book - for the sake of brevity, this book won't go into a great deal of depth on any single technique, but will merely open the toolbox and explain its contents and application," states author Edward F. McQuarrie, who clearly sums up the purpose of this book in the preface.
This book gives a clear overview of different types of market research (secondary research, customer visits, focus groups, survey research, choice modeling, and experimentation), as well as related topics such as questionnaire design, probability sampling and data analysis. The units end with clear "Do's and Don'ts,' as well as very helpful lists of suggested readings for those interested in learning more about a particular area of research.
While I found this book extremely informative, I personally would have liked a few more examples to clearly illustrate some of the points. In any case, I recommend this book to marketers, who want to learn more about the benefits and limitations of marketing research techniques.
Very Good Entry Level Overview.......2006-03-21
For beginners in marketing research, this book will give you a strong understanding of the basic approaches and the relative values of different strategies.
The best value this book should provide are to people who believe that their business is doing market research by interviewing a few customers or conducting an occasional study. This book will clearly articulate the value and the errors that limited study can offer your business or group.
Especially valuable to Product Managers, Sales People, and their managers.
Marketing.......2005-10-24
Great book for research for the non-marketing professional trying to learn more about those specific skills.
Good, but EXPENSIVE !.......2003-10-23
Well, this book covers all the essentials to conducting marketing research, or at least to understanding how it is conducted! I would have given it a fourth star if the price tag had been lower.
Remarkable and perfectly titled.......2001-09-10
If you're dipping your toes into the waters of market research, you need this book. Its title is perfect: This really *is* a toolbox, written concisely for beginners.
I bought this book when my boss assigned me a market research task that could determine company direction. He gave me the task because of my past work with surveys and usability testing. I wasn't comfortable flying by the seat of my pants on this one -- determining company direction isn't the same as determining what people didn't like about a Help system you created or determining what does and doesn't work well in a computer program's user interface.
So I bought this book, and I'm glad I did. McQuarrie minced no words in explaining what market research is and what market research can and can't do for you. He next helped me determine the real goal for my research, and showed me what market-research tools are best suited for achieving that goal. He even told me what tools *not* to use. He did all this in the first 35 pages. The rest of the book describes the tools in the box. I only read the chapters about the tools relevant to my task. Within two hours, I had learned exactly what I needed to know for success -- no more, and no less.
I especially appreciate McQuarrie's writing style, which Strunk and White would call "vigorous." He packs a lot of information into very few words.
Take note: McQuarrie explains that his book will help you determine what tools you should use and tell you the basics of using the tool. However, he cautions that you should hire specialists to actually use the tools, because there is a lot of specialized knowledge behind successfully using each one. If you're determined to use these tools yourself, McQuarrie tells you what other books to read to get started.
Average customer rating:
- Computer marketing explained in an entertaining way
- A grim, but highly instructive and entertaining story
- Reading what you already know but didn't realise
- It's for anyone in marketing
- New, updated edition of a classic
|
In Search of Stupidity: Over Twenty Years of High Tech Marketing Disasters, Second Edition
Merrill R. (Rick) Chapman
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ASIN: 1590597214 |
Book Description
In Search of Stupidity: Over Twenty Years of High-Tech Marketing Disasters, Second Edition is National Lampoon meets Peter Drucker. It's a funny and well-written business book that takes a look at some of the most influential marketing and business philosophies of the last twenty years. Through the dark glass of hindsight, it provides an educational and entertaining look at why these philosophies didn't work for many of the country's largest and best-known high-tech companies.
Marketing wizard Richard Chapman takes you on a hilarious ride in this book, which is richly illustrated with cartoons and reproductions of many of the actual campaigns used at the time. Filled with personal anecdotes spanning Chapman's remarkable career (he was present at many now-famous meetings and events), In Search of Stupidity, Second Edition examines the best of the worst marketing ideas and business decisions in the last twenty years of the technology industry.
The second edition includes new chapters on Google and on how to avoid stupidity, plus the extensive analyses of all chapters from the first edition. You'll want to get a copy because it
- Features an interesting preface and interview with Joel Spolsky of "Joel on Software"
- Offers practical advice on avoiding PR disaster
- Features actual pictures of some of the worst PR and marketing material ever created
- Is highly readable and funny
- Includes theme-based cartoons for every chapter
Download Description
In Search of Stupidity is National Lampoon meets Peter Drucker. A funny and well written business book that takes a look at some of the most influential marketing and business philosophies of the last twenty years and, through the dark glass of hindsight, provides an educational and vastly entertaining examination of why they didn't work the for many of the country's largest and best known high tech companies. Make no mistake; most of them did not work.
Richly illustrated with cartoons and reproductions of many of the actual campaigns used at the time, marketing wizard Richard Chapman takes readers on a hilarious ride through the last twenty years. Filled with personal anecdotes spanning Chapman's remarkable career (he was present at many now famous meetings and events), In Search of Stupidity is a no-holds-barred look at the best of the worst hopeless marketing ideas and business decisions in the last twenty years of the technology industry.
"The history of marketing and technology is riddled with cautionary stories that stick up like dung covered punji sticks. Read this, and avoid stepping on one."
Jeff 'Hemos' Bates
Director OSDN Online
Exec. Editor Slashdot.org
"Rick Chapman knows where the bodies are buried -- when most people have forgotten there was even a murder. This history of tech marketing disasters is well-written, enjoyable, and gets its facts straight."
Jonathan Angel
Senior Editor, West Coast
Adweek's TECHNOLOGY MARKETING magazine
"In Search of Stupidity: Over 20 Years of High-Tech Marketing Disaster" gives us an amusing (and sometimes embarrassing) array of anecdotes of how far we've come (and not come) in high technology, as well as the path we've tread along the way. This is a fun read, with many invaluable lessons."
Brenda Bennett South
Vice President
Weber Shandwick
"In Search of Stupidity is an invaluable history lesson in how to avoid monumental marketing mistakes that are unfortunately common in the software industry. Perhaps caused by the lack of institutional knowledge Rick points out that is caused by the youth of the industry, the only thing that would be stupid now is to not read the book! If you don't do it for your career, do it out of fear that Rick will highlight you in a sequel!"
Alyssa Dver
BusinessWeek special sections contributor
"'In Search of Stupidity' is a delightful and deceptively useful chronicle of what went wrong in the high-tech industry. Having followed many of these companies and products over the years, I'd often wondered why such smart people made such weird choices. Rick Chapman has many of the answers. Anyone who has ever yelled at the computer screen will enjoy this book."
James Fallows
Former editor in chief of US News and World Report and a regular writer for The Atlantic.
Customer Reviews:
Computer marketing explained in an entertaining way.......2007-05-27
As a techie, I find most marketing books boring. This one was lively enough to keep me interested. The author uses plenty of hyperbole and sarcasm, so it's sometimes hard to tell fact from opinion, but in general, his analyses ring true.
A grim, but highly instructive and entertaining story.......2007-04-04
I have been in IT since '79 and have seen all the companies Rick talks about come and go. The errors that were made, and still -are- made are mind boggling. All these proverbs about history repeating itself? They are right, when you don't learn from mistakes!
Reading what you already know but didn't realise.......2007-03-08
What I liked most about this book that it puts a lot of known "history" in perspective, especially with regards to Microsoft.
The author puts a lot of humor into this book and understands how to put things into perspective. I do hope that there will be a third revised edition in the coming years.
It's for anyone in marketing.......2007-02-08
The book is well-done and has some of the best software anecdotes... and discussions of marketing... that I have read in quite some time. I'm not in the software biz, but i have always been fascinated by it... and how its personalities can enhance, and in the cases you cited, undermine what are often very good products. I have been a marketer all of my career, and i felt that the paragraph on p 276 starting with "And then an awful realization..." was one of the best descriptions of what B2B marketing managers face and how difficult marketing management can be that i have ever encountered. I recommend the book highly for both entertainment and for marketing insights.
New, updated edition of a classic.......2007-01-15
This is the second edition of Merril R. Chapman's best-seller In Search of Stupidity. To the first edition's collection of episodes of strategic blunders, marketing disasters and outright hubris on part of various high-technology companies during the 80's and the 90's, the new edition adds a few notable episodes. Companies listed include: IBM, Digital Research, Apple, Microsoft, MicroPro, Ashton-Tate, Siebel, Borland, Intel, Motorola, Google, Novell, Netscape, and various dot-coms from the Internet bubble times.
Apart from being a fun and enjoyable read, In Search of Stupidity is also a valuable resource for high-tech entrepreneurs, marketers and geeks wanting to turn their technical prowess into a profit. There's nothing like learning from the mistakes of others in order to avoid repeating them, and one of the merits of this book is that it does not limit itself to making fun of clueless companies, but extracts and digests from their tales a number of immediately useful advice.
So you can expect to learn how to avoid the same sort of positioning mistakes that doomed MicroPro, how not to inimicate the developer community that constitutes the lifeblood of your products, like Ashton-Tate constantly did, how to avoid damaging your relationships with the press, and many other useful tidbits. In this respect, the Stupid Analysis chapter at the end of the book is especially useful, in case you missed some of the more subtle lessons that were contained in the narrative presented in previous chapters.
In summary, this books is valuable both to entrepreneurs and managers, and to geeks who want to enter marketing, management or start their own company. Even if you are content with keeping a purely technical role, should you start recognizing the signs of stupidity on part of your company, you could at least be prepared to polish up your resume.
To be honest, it could be argued that some of the most egregious screw-ups described in the book were, at least in part, due to sheer bad luck, and that hindsight is always 20/20. Still I think that the stories told here teach some extremely valuable lessons. External circumstances alone cannot account for all that happened; it takes much stupidity and arrogance to turn unfavorable events into total disasters.
If you want to be picky, there is a couple of instances where the message of the book sounds a bit off. The first one can be found in the story of Google's fight with [...] over the issue of privacy, and its supposed bowing to the censorship imposed by the Chinese government. You can argue how much you like that Google acted stupidly in these circumstances. Its behavior might have tarnished its ethical image--"Don't be evil", remember?. However, it doesn't seem to have affected Google in any serious way; few people remember the episodes and Google is going as strong as ever. Compared to the other examples found in the book, this is a case of very mild stupidity, if at all, and it looks like Chapman seriously wanted to pick on Google but couldn't find any real damning evidence.
The second point is in chapter 12, The Strange Case of Dr. Open and Mr. Proprietary, where the author traces the beginnings of the Free Software movement to the first hackers who started out by illegally copying Microsoft's Altair BASIC. If one didn't know better, one might start to think that Free Software pioneers were just a bunch of freeloaders, if not thieves. In the rest of the chapter, however, Chapman makes it abundantly clear that the only example of stupidity, in this case, can be found on the side of proprietary companies who failed to understand the Open Source/Free Software movement and its effect on the software industry.
To sum it up, In Search of Stupidity is a very good book, especially if you missed the first edition. Five stars are well deserved.
Book Description
Professors, students and professionals can use this process-oriented approach for developing, writing, implementing and managing "win-win" marketing plans. Authored by an international leader in the field of sport management, this workbook uses specific examples from sport organizations and sample plans to illustrate each task. The updated edition contains eight new chapters, as well as a "best practices" section at the end of each chapter to illuminate the complex world of sport marketing.
Customer Reviews:
Agree.......2007-04-01
First edition of this book was a disappointing investment. Would not under any circumstances look at this 2nd edition.
Too basic.......2001-09-28
The title seemed very promising but unfortunately I was not impressed. It just barely touches the areas of work that need to be done in a marketing plan with a sports perspective. Anyone who wants to work on a marketing plan for their sports organisation will find it vague at the very best.
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