Business Management - Book Report/Review Example

Business Management Book Review From a massive amount of literature on street smart marketing and extensive research materials on the practical aspects of advertisement, and selling, it requires a real nose to pick up the subtle scent of the open economy market for employing it to use. Though there is a common saying in the management of marketing that people don't go for products, but for the benefits they provide; essential steps still need to be taken for proper design and packaging of the products to catch the eye of potential buyers. Advertisement being an essential part of marketing is definitely a matter that is sought by marketing strategists and business think tanks worldwide. Numerous techniques, only few of which are field tested are documented for reference. In this intricate jungle of strategies, thumb rules and useless jargons on free market acrobatics, Lewis Kornfeld's, To Catch A Mouse Make A Noise Like A Cheese, is a novel approach made for ultimate survival and success in the treacherous quicksand of open market. In lucid language and entertaining style, the long time Radio Shack's selling strategist, Kornfeld, took over the audience, enticing them with the stance of a lurid wonder maker and thereby transforming the age old selling techniques into high definition field wisdom exploiting the then new avenues of consumer psychology in profitable exchange. The fact that one needs to display a delicious and alluring piece of cheese for getting hold of the mouse is indeed a revelation for even the expert salesman. In his book Kornfeld exploits the phenomenon of impulse purchase, duly customizes the exhibition strategy to attract clients where they easily transcend to the comfort zone of the so called best possible deal. This concept explicitly addressed by Kornfeld, even parallels, if not surpasses, the recent most phenomenon of personalized marketing strategies applying mass customization techniques, in order to pick up a highly viable faction of the broad consumer market. The effective marketing strategists would rather talk into the preferences of the consumers, in order to selectively come up with the target audience for a fateful display of his selling potentials. (Dellaert and Shyam, 2001) A veritable hunter always goes by the gut feelings when setting the trap for his catch. Kornfeld generated the background for this hypothesis in the form of discreet well placed skits like "No Smell = No Sell" (P. 18), with an effective bottom liner clarifying the whole point behind the exemplified strategy. The selective use of marketing strategy triggering unprecedented promotion in sales is addressed in every single page of the book, covering a wide range of effective approaches from market assessment, pepping the instinctive and understanding the stereotyped buyers to personal interaction, attention and response. Kornfeld's approach saves a lot of unfocussed ordeal in getting hold of the proper group of long term buyers who have the highest chance to recur in effective future deals. The right idea of owning such veritable buyers through refocusing on their interests and preferences gives the salesman a chance to sharpen the intuitive power to effectively predict the dispositions and tendencies of the prospective buyers. Kornfeld places quite a bit of importance on this approach and suggest the presence of certain motivators that guide people to come, see and ultimately buy the desired products. There are indeed a number of motivating factors that are functional in both habitual buyers and in also in those who buy due to an impulsive behavior. While the impulsive buyers are subject to motivational surge that compels them to go for consumer products thereby supporting their self image, most buyers are under the effect of fear of not owning a particular product. (Dittmar, Beattie and Friese, 1995) Premier market analysts should try to ascertain the nature of these motivators that entice their customers to go for an effective deal. The most obvious solution cited in Kornfeld's book involves direct marketing by word of mouth, exercised at the level of effective situational negotiation with the customers. The word of mouth is an essential tool used in almost all successful small and middle scale businesses where the potential clients are assessed by sensing their underlying consumer emotions and motivations, leading to fruitful transactions. Based on this hypothesis let us formulate the reasons for direct marketing to be the most effective way of providing focus, direction and leverage to the goal of a business ensuring success. (Thomas, 2007) The book, Marketing Strategies for Small Businesses by Richard F. Gerson, being a compilation of a somewhat authoritarian work enumerated in plaintive academic tone, also goes against the usual conventions of mass marketing in expanding the business horizons of small and medium scale endeavors. The blunders involved in mass marketing are dealt with relevant detail in Kornfeld's literature, where mass advertisement plans, large scale publicity efforts and all the so called garbs of the agencies are all delivered to the general public who have not opted for such directives. This is definitely an imposition that can very well lead to public avoidance and negligence. Being a great planner and market analyst Gerson extends the ideas set by Kornfeld in his epoch making book by addressing the similar facts about market winning moves that are effective for survival in an open market economy. Though the book by Gerson tries to address some of the most commonly used mass marketing strategies in enticing a large audience, it complies with the observations of Kornfeld by refuting the so called myths associated with the large scale public marketing techniques that often lead to confusions in planning the strategic moves in small business ventures. These incorrect notions are in perfect conformity with the observations of Kornfeld and refute the most popular idea that effective advertisements always need to be expensive for alluring people. Another important idea that the small business endeavors need to hold upon for getting the desired marketing leverage is the fact that relevant advertisements, no matter how inexpensive and plain they are, can really make a difference in winning over the market. Moreover, advertisement must never be considered as a one attempt exercise and it must be practiced as a successful campaign over a longer period of time. Most advertisers think of displaying hilarious and often unconventional messages for leaving a deep and long lasting impression on the general public. Kornfeld also points out in his book that advertising exercise should never be considered as a joke. More importantly the advertiser should consider it as a means for displaying news. According to the observation by Kornfeld, news is always accepted by the public with sufficient interest and perfect ads should always make some kind of news for a lasting public impression. The most misleading notion that is clarified in Gerson's book concerns the mass scale advertisement agencies and he reasons in an effective manner as to why such outside consultants often lead to disappointing results in a free economy marketing endeavor. Kornfeld also refutes the similar idea in his arguments by clearly stating, "-Concerning ad agencies: I donot look kindly or gently at any outside consultants until other solutions have been discarded" (P. vi); rather he emphasizes on self advertising campaign and observes its fairer prospects in this aspect. The external ad agencies have a tendency to generate predisposed mass advertising plans without any reference work on the nature of the target audience, the changing conditions of demand supply relationship and market trends. This creates sum sort of impositions on the natural ebb and tide of the consumer market thereby leading to disastrous projections in some cases. Actually like Kornfeld, Gerson, too observed the importance of advertising to be a part of the overall marketing strategy. Depending upon the changing conditions of the free flowing market there are indeed a number of avenues for the allowance of complementary adjustments in the marketing approach that are not observed and practiced by these external agencies. Kornfeld stresses on the self dependent marketing and advertising plan that can only allow the analysts to prioritize their strategies according to their trade requirements. The mass marketing mistakes though not directly mentioned in Kornfeld's approach, are subtly present as a cautionary undercurrent in his literature. Strictly speaking the book aims to emphasize on the importance of customer loyalty rather than customer propensity as a major determinant of marketing index in the consumer market. The customer loyalty as signified in Kornfeld's book develops on the formidable platform of customer value. Later researches indicate that the greater the long term or life time customer value, the better is the chance of a customer to be associated with the services of the provider. The long term customer value helps to strengthen the life long relationship of the customer with the concern and this phenomenon further hikes its future marketing returns. Communication programs are considered to be the principal guiding factor in generating such life long productive customer relations. Customer loyalty, being a capital required for effective marketing returns, generally depends on the strength of the long term customer relationship nurtured by the effective marketing strategists for the future growth of the company. Direct marketing strategies support customer loyalty and helps in establishing the strong one to one customer provider relationship that is must for an effective drive towards success. (Stone and Jacobs, P. 10-11) Radio Shack still practices the Kornfeld philosophy in its marketing strategies today. Its relationship established with the potential customers is solely based on their product consumption index and the marketing team doesn't go back to those who have not made a single purchase from their outlets in the last three months. This novel marketing strategy definitely involves the essence of direct one to one approach and indulges in maintaining a prospective customer database for most of their profitable deals in the future. The Customer Data Collection Policy of Radio Shack is an appropriate reflection of this marketing scheme. By following this commercial tradition, Radio Shack has been able to maintain a harmony in steady sale throughout the past years and this has made the company's fortune yet unparalleled by the other existing corporations. Radio Shack has successfully showed the potency of the massive database, which is the main means of keeping in touch with their loyal customers. Both Kornfeld and Gerson are unanimous on this particular aspect of retaining the reputed countenance of the organizations to their long time clients. 21st century commerce is a high paced realm and many of the previously appreciated theories have been refuted in the long run. One to one customer relationship, as shown by Kornfeld and Gerson, is the only way out to achieve success in this present era. Recession has become one of the biggest issues in the contemporary world market and the phenomenon mainly shatters the fate of small businesses. It has been noticed that no other marketing strategy is more consumer-responsive than maintaining one to one customer relationship and customer portfolio in respect to all economic environments. (Sharma, 1993) Therefore what Kornfeld has expressed in his work is a true example of business prophecy. This is where he surpasses the other stalwarts of commercial literature and To Catch a Mouse Make a Noise like a Cheese is established as an ever memorable work in this field. References 1. Kornfeld, Lewis, To Catch a Mouse Make a Noise Like a Cheese, 1992, Summit Publishing Group 2. Gerson, Richard F, Marketing Strategies for Small Businesses, 1994, Thomson Crisp Learning 3. Stone, Bob and Jacobs, Ron, Successful Direct Marketing Methods, 2001, McGraw-Hill Professional 4. Dellaert, Benedict G.C and Syam, Niladri B, "Consumer-Producer Interaction: A Strategic Analysis of the Market for Customized Products", 2001, Review of Marketing Science Working Paper, retrieved from: http://www.bepress.com/roms/vol1/iss1/paper1/ on November 3, 2008 5. Shama, Avraham, "Marketing strategies during recession: a comparison of small and large firms", 1993, Journal of Small Business Management, retrieved from: http://www.allbusiness.com/marketing/market-research/401989-1.html on November 3, 2008 6. Thomas, Andrew R, "The end of mass marketing: or, why all successful marketing is now direct marketing", 2007, Emeraldinsight, retrieved from: http://www.emeraldinsight.com/Insight/viewPDF.jspFilename=html/Output/Published/EmeraldFullTextArticle/Pdf/3250010101.pdf on November 3, 2008 Read More