Cover -- Title -- Copyright -- Contents -- Preface -- Part 1 Markets and Marketing -- Definition -- What is marketing? -- In your opinion, what are the main concepts used in marketing? -- How would you summarize the key processes involved in marketing and their importance? -- Many companies see marketing as mainly a department, but you've described it as a total company philosophy and practice. How is that? -- Doesn't marketing have to be adapted to each country and region? Are there any fixed principles? -- What are some of the chief misconceptions about effective marketing that are still operating in today's companies? Who isn't "getting it?" -- When did marketing first appear? -- Is marketing more an art or a craft? -- Is marketing an applied science? -- When did marketing start to include concepts from psychology, sociology, and anthropology, as well as from economics? -- The use of the term marketing is now expanding beyond the area of ordinary goods and services. Is this good? -- Is it possible that the products available today meet all or almost all of our needs and that the problem facing marketing today is that there are few remaining needs to be met? -- Why is marketing the best way to satisfy individual needs? -- Is marketing the same in the consumer goods, services, and businessto-business areas? -- What is the mission of marketing? -- You say that marketing must play the lead role in shaping business strategy. Do you think that business executives are fully aware of the role that marketing can play in helping the company succeed? -- You have said that if the people in a company's marketing department can't propose any new opportunities, they should be fired. But are there many good opportunities still left? -- What significant business opportunities do you identify in the evolving economy?.

What is the difference between marketing and merchandising? -- What are the most logical telltale signs that you need to do something about your marketing-aside from declining sales? -- How about this: Where does the CEO or business owner who really isn't that savvy about marketing begin-aside from reading your books? -- How has marketing changed since its beginnings? -- Do marketing theory and practice change very much? -- If you were forming a business and building a sales and marketing infrastructure, and had your pick between a great salesman or a great marketing man, but you could afford only one, which would you pick? Why? -- What is the worst type of marketing? -- Is there anything particularly encouraging in marketing today that makes you personally feel optimistic about its future? -- In your definition of "demarketing," you suggest that marketing can be used to dissuade people from using certain products and services. Doesn't that annul the marketing concept, which is "to meet customers' needs?" -- What are some major characteristics of recent U.S. marketing? -- What have you been emphasizing in your speeches about the nature of marketing? -- How is the role of marketing changing today in the light of globalization and new technology? -- What are some basic things that nearly all businesses engage in that you consider marketing but that many businesspeople may not realize are marketing? -- Do you think that knowing at least some marketing concepts is essential for everybody nowadays? -- Do you think that marketing should be taught in high schools? Why? -- Regis McKenna wrote an article in the Harvard Business Review with the title "Marketing Is Everything." Do you agree?.

What is holistic marketing? How does it differ from traditional marketing? Could you briefly explain how holistic marketing can enable companies to design winning market offerings? -- Customer Power and Satisfaction -- Power has shifted from the suppliers to the customers. Why? -- Companies say that "the customer is number one." Isn't this a good sign that companies are becoming market-oriented? -- What are reverse marketing, reverse pricing, reverse advertising, reverse distribution, and reverse design? -- I'm not sure what a "prosumer" is. Can you elaborate? -- What do you think are the most important factors in creating customer satisfaction these days? -- Trends in Marketing -- Which megatrends do we have to consider for the future? -- In your books, you have pointed out that globalization, hyper-competition, and the Internet are reshaping markets and businesses. What effect are these dynamics having on marketing? -- What are the main new trends in marketing? -- How will organizations be affected by the substantial increase in the velocity of change? -- What are the major changes within the field of marketing since the famous 4Ps? -- New Ideas in Marketing -- What are the newest skills needed in marketing? -- What is experiential marketing? -- What will be the impact of real-time information on the practice of marketing? -- Is the trend toward customized products and services still going strong? -- What are metamarkets? How can companies capitalize on the emergence of metamarkets? -- Major Challenges -- What are the most significant challenges marketers face today? -- You say that the main economic problem plaguing companies is industry overcapacity. What are the main causes of this problem? How can companies cope with it? -- What is the difference between a competitive market and a hypercompetitive market?.

You write that the customer has become the hunter. What impact does that have on marketing strategies? -- How can a company survive in an environment where the markets are changing faster than the marketing? -- Deficiencies of Marketing -- To what extent are marketers themselves responsible for their own marginalization? -- What are the major impediments to effective marketing? -- Can you identify any overall approaches to marketing or business that commonly create a business environment in which the "Ten Deadly Sins of Marketing" are likely to occur? -- What are your major disappointments about the state of marketing? -- Criticisms of Marketing -- Do you think that marketing needs to reinvent itself in the face of antiglobalization protests? -- Does marketing only meet needs, or does it create needs? -- Are customers becoming more cynical about business and marketing? -- Some people say that marketing techniques create false images about products and companies. How would you answer that? -- Skills -- What understandings do marketing managers need in order to be successful? -- In general, is marketing well taught? Do you think that managers put into practice the marketing techniques they learn in business schools? How much of being a successful marketer is about having the right instincts? -- Careers -- What compelling reasons can you give to encourage students to study marketing? -- What kinds of people go into marketing? -- Could you give a recipe for success for a young professional in marketing? -- How many people in the U.S. are employed as marketers? -- In some large companies, the turnover rate among marketing directors is extraordinarily high-some jobs change every eighteen months. Why the high turnover rate?.

Should a large corporation make sure that at least one marketer sits on its board? Marketers surely have a voice within each product division, but should they have a voice on the corporate board? -- What makes a successful brand manager? -- Should marketers have more financial training? -- Is it true that some people are naturally better at marketing than others? -- What career advice would you offer tomorrow's managers? -- Part 2. Marketing Strategy -- It is increasingly hard to find and keep a competitive advantage, given the rapid copying of products, the radical shortening of product life cycles, the increased information available to customers, and customers' growing defenses against commercial messages. Can companies still achieve competitive advantages? -- What marketing strategies work best in today's marketplace? -- What are the major strategies available to market leaders? -- What are the major strategies available to challenger firms? -- How can a company determine whether to compete by cultivating operational excellence, product leadership, or customer intimacy, the three disciplines mentioned by Michael Treacy and Fred Wiersema in The Discipline of Market Leaders? -- In business, are there any permanent winners? How long does it take for a marketing strategy to get outdated? -- Do logistics play an important role in competitive strategy? -- The trend in many markets is for convergence between traditionally separate worlds. Consider banking and insurance. The apparently huge profits available from life insurance investments led banks to acquire insurance companies. But it has proved very difficult to realize the convergence potential. Why? -- Supermarkets have toyed with venturing into banking services. Does this make sense? -- Segmentation -- What is happening to mass marketing? Does it still work? Is it dead or dying?.

What is the best way to segment a market?.