Successful marketing requires a deep knowledge of customers, competitors, and collaborators and great skill in serving customers profitably. This book provides the foundation for developing those skills and insights.

Sometimes you need more then a one-sentence answer. While the term marketing generally refers to what a company does to create value for customers, practicing marketers know they have a major role in setting their company’s strategic direction. Successful marketing requires a deep knowledge of customers, competitors, and collaborators—and great skill in serving customers profitably. The book provides the foundation for developing those skills and insights. It’s organized according to the design of the first-year marketing course in Harvard Business School’s MBA program. Each chapter was written by HBS faculty and used by MBA students to analyze marketing opportunities and develop and execute successful marketing strategies. Areas covered include: Consumer behavior Business-to-business markets The four P’s-product, placement, promotion and price Market segmentation, target market selection, and positioning Unique value propositions The design of new products and services Product line extensions and repositioning of exciting businesses Brand valuation and brand equity Fulfillment and after-sale service Direct, retail, and wholesale distribution channels and networks Marketing communications and promotions Advertising, public relations, and choice of media Pricing for profitability Personal selling and sales management Customer relationship management and customer privacy Customer acquisition, retention, and dismissal Basic math for making marketing decisions Timeless yet timely, this book provides valuable background information for understanding and interpreting business and competition from a marketing point of view. That makes it useful in both formal and informal educational settings, including on-the-job training. Simply put, it’s required reading for marketing students and a must-have recourse for marketing professionals.

Introduction to Business covers the scope and sequence of most introductory business courses. The book provides detailed explanations in the context of core themes such as customer satisfaction, ethics, entrepreneurship, global business, and managing change. Introduction to Business includes hundreds of current business examples from a range of industries and geographic locations, which feature a variety of individuals. The outcome is a balanced approach to the theory and application of business concepts, with attention to the knowledge and skills necessary for student success in this course and beyond. This is an adaptation of Introduction to Business by OpenStax. You can access the textbook as pdf for free at openstax.org. Minor editorial changes were made to ensure a better ebook reading experience. Textbook content produced by OpenStax is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Covers traditional marketing techniques and theories alongside the latest concepts, and acknowledges the increased importance of marketing in the customer-oriented environment.

We live in a world were people have become empowered. Consumers can contact companies directly and they can talk to each other with a powerful voice they never had before. Sticky Marketing takes into account these fundamental changes and provides a new set of rules for effective communications in a world transformed by new technology. It introduces a new model of customer engagement and asks 'not what your marketing can do for you, but what your marketing can do for your customer'. Companies have to move away from the old marketing system of shouting messages at people to attracting them by providing value around their product or service - in other words by becoming 'sticky' or attractive. Grant Leboff argues that it is not 'return on investment' that matters but 'return on engagement', not your unique sales point (or USP), but your customer engagement point (your CEP), that will make the difference in today's cluttered marketplace. Sticky Marketing proves that marketing should now be about value creation if you want to truly engage with your customers. It is only by providing value that you can win the battle for customer attention - stop shouting and start a conversation.

"Marketing Metaphoria undresses the mind of the consumer to reveal the powerful, unconscious viewing lenses that shape what people think, hear, say, and do. These lenses are called "deep metaphors" and they populate the unconscious mind. Understanding how people use deep metaphors will help you develop new products, launch innovations, enhance purchase and consumption experiences, create engaging communications, and much more." "Drawing on thousands of interview, the authors identify seven primary deep metaphors. Knowing how they influence your consumers can have a huge effect on your sales and profits. Marketing Metaphoria describes how some of the world's most famous companies as well as small firms, not-for-profits, and social enterprises have successfully leveraged deep metaphors to solve their marketing problems."--Jacket.