In Search of the Obvious: The Antidote for Today's Marketing Mess -- CONTENTS -- PREFACE -- Chapter 1: In Search of the Obvious -- Common Sense Is Your Guide -- Chapter 2: What Gets in the Way of the Obvious -- The Search Begins and Ends with the Chief Executive Officer -- Marketing's Big Problem: Wall Street -- No Time to Think -- Research Can Obscure the Obvious -- Chapter 3: The Internet Can Be an Obvious Problem -- Info-Clutter -- Beware of E-Mail -- Is Word-of-Mouth Marketing All It's Cracked Up to Be? -- Into the Abyss -- Chapter 4: Advertising People Can Be an Obvious Problem -- Advertising as Theatre -- Loving a Brand? -- The Emotional Trap -- Runaway Sloganeering -- How to Fix the Ad Industry -- Chapter 5: Marketing People Can Be an Obvious Problem -- The Tinkering Factor -- Products That Do Too Much -- Brand Schizophrenia -- Chapter 6: An Obvious Look at the Marketing Process -- Marketing's Importance -- Marketing Simplified -- How to Evaluate Advertising -- How to Evaluate Logos -- Minds Hate to Change -- Branding Simplified -- Branding Simplified: The Bad News -- When No One Is in Charge -- Chapter 7: Some Help in That Search for the Obvious -- Repositioning the Competition -- Coping with the Competition -- Know Your Enemy -- Solution versus Direction -- Mission Statement Words -- Leadership: A Powerful Differentiator -- Something Borrowed Is Simpler -- Coping in a Changing World -- Big Is the Enemy of Obvious -- Major Marketing Mistakes -- Chapter 8: You Must Be Aware of Some Obvious Ground Rules -- Law of the Ear -- Law of Division -- Law of Perception -- Law of Singularity -- Law of Duality -- Law of Resources -- Chapter 9: Some Observations about Obvious Marketing Problems -- Branding Lessons from General Motors: What Not to Do -- Can Wal-Mart Change? -- Confusion in Coke Land -- Whither Newspapers?.

Celebrities Who ''Un-Sell'' Products -- That Bewildering Beer Business -- Whither Starbucks? -- Marketing with Other People's Money -- You Can't Go Up-Market -- Conglomerate Schizophrenia -- Can Sears Be Saved? -- Extreme Makeover: America's Image -- ''Un-Marketing'' Drugs -- Brand China at the Crossroads -- Chapter 10: The Future Is Never Obvious -- Mispredicting the Future -- EPILOGUE -- At the Heart of the Search Is the Concept of Simplicity -- BIBLIOGRAPHY -- INDEX.