Effective Marketing (Small Business Guides) [Hardcover]

Peter Hingston (Author)

Book Description

Series: Small Business Guides | Publication Date: May 28, 2001

Expert advice for success in a small business. Learn from an expert, first-hand experience all you need to know to market your small business successfully. From carrying out essential market research to effectively pricing your product or service, Effective Marketing shows you all the best approaches to use. There is also detailed information on exploiting profitable distribution channels, projecting the right image, and using advertising to maximize your sales. Charts and diagrams, at-a-glance tip boxes, case studies, questionnaires, and checklists enable you to understand the many different aspects of successful marketing. In Planning Your Strategy, you'll learn about starting your market research, observing the competition, assessing your project, pricing, sorting out your distribution, planning your marketing, and projecting the right image. Then move on to Advertising, which covers advertising basics, producing effective advertisements, creating good leaflets and brochures, followed by Promotion and Sales, which covers working with the media, promoting sales, selling techniques. Finally, you'll benefit with Staying on Track, through analyzing your sales data, and dealing with changes and competition. Effective Marketing also provides Useful Information, from legal matters, and glossary, to useful contacts, and suggested reading. Effective Marketing is one of four new titles in an innovative series of practical guides, covering every aspect of business, for everyone starting their own small business.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

If you've always wished for a marketing guide that didn't take as long to read and digest as the actual marketing process itself, you'll love this itty-bitty crash course, which zooms in on four key areas: putting customers first (understanding your market and your customers' buying habits, building relationships and winning new customers), building strong products (improving and differentiating your products, developing a brand), maximizing publicity (planning a campaign, and advertising via print, radio, direct mail, and the Internet) and developing an overall strategy (thinking strategically, setting objectives, achieving goals, and gaining support). On every page, boxed "power tips," quickie case-studies, to-do checklists, and easy-to-follow flowcharts demystify the process. Granted, if you're looking for specific or in-depth guidance, you may find this book too general in its approach. But if you're looking for a thumbnail guide to the basics, it'll do just fine.

It's worth mentioning that the book is also part of reference publisher Dorling-Kindersley's Essential Managers series--20 itty-bitty books on business and career topics ranging from communication, leadership, and decision-making to the management of time, budgets, change, meetings, people, projects, and teams. Combining the For Dummies series' talent for breaking down a lot of information into bite-sized bits and sidebars with Dorling-Kindersley's signature, crisp graphics on a gleaming white backdrop, they don't represent the cutting edge of business thinking and they don't necessarily reflect any unique individual perspective.

Instead, it's as though someone collated the best general thinking on these 20 topics and rolled them out into 72 brightly designed and easy-to-read pages, studded along the way with boxed tips, color shots of a multiracial cast of "coworkers" animatedly hashing through the workplace issues of the day, and a self-test of one's skills in the topic at hand on the last few pages of each volume. Again, they're not for anyone looking for in-depth or focused help on any of the subjects they cover, but they're perfect as a quickie general-interest reference... and let's face it, they're so cute, and look so smart in a neat little stack or row, that you'll probably want to buy a whole bunch to give to your entire department or staff. --Timothy Murphy --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

It hits all the bases... () --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 192 pages
• Publisher: DK ADULT (May 28, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0789471973
• ISBN-13: 978-0789471970
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.9 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,518,655 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Solid little guide for small retail businesses on marketing effectively!, December 17, 2006

By 

Jeff Lippincott "JLIPPIN" (Princeton, NJ USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: DK Essential Managers: Marketing Effectively (Paperback)

Small businesses have three general areas they have to concern themselves with if they want to stay in business: (1) creating and distributing a product &/or service, (2) accounting & bookkeeping, and (3) marketing. The third area, marketing, involves promotion, public relations, advertising, and sales. I mention all this because effective marketing (the title of this book) involves merging the THREE areas so they work together AND using all FOUR aspects of the marketing area. I didn't notice much, if any, discussion in this book on promotion or sales. And, in my humble opinion, advertising was given far too much discussion as a way for a business to market.

The book is split into four parts:

1. Putting customers first
2. Building strong products
3. Maximizing publicity
4. Developing a strategy

My favorite parts of the book were parts 1 and 4. That is where the most generic points were made regarding effective marketing. In Part 2 the book addressed small businesses that sell products. And that was well done. However, as a result of Part 2 talking about retail store marketing to the exclusion of service business marketing, I would have liked the book better if it had been titled "Retail Marketing Effectively." I suspect that an attorney, CPA, or other professional seeking help on marketing would be disappointed with this book.

I don't know that I would have devoted an entire part of the book to public relations. That is a nice subject to cover, but where was the information on promotion and sales? There is more to marketing than just advertising and public relations.

I realize this book was written back in 2000 or 2001, but it only devotes 4 pages to using the Internet for marketing purposes. I would have liked the book better if it had provided more coverage on this subject. eBay was around back then and wasn't even mentioned by the author. 4 stars!

5.0 out of 5 stars You Can Market As Effectively As I Do, June 22, 2005

By 

Deremiah *CPE "Inspirational Speaking Star & ... (Saint Charles, IL USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: DK Essential Managers: Marketing Effectively (Paperback)

Moi Ali, has written a great book in Marketing Effectively. This book is one of a series of very in depth instructional books written for business women and men.

If you are looking for a step by step book that is completely beneficial to the development of your marketing insights get ready for some simple but profound guidelines.

From putting customers first to developing a strategy for your business, the areas that are covered in this amazingly small mini-book are yours to keep as long as you use them. It seems all of the Essential Managers books by DK are written to assist you throughout any phase of your development. I know you will enjoy this book so please let me know.