Customer Reviews

Grocery Revolution: The New Focus on the Consumer

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

First off, let me state that this is by no means a book meant for light reading. It was assigned to me as part of Professor Kahn's (the author) Introduction to Marketing lecture at the University of Pennsylvania. Although not the primary text used in class, the Grocery Revolution provides a comprehensive view of the grocery business. It thoroughly discussed the marketing mix (product, price, place, and promotion). Although the book covers everything very well, it tends to become very repetitive, with the same examples cited over and over. Also, there is a huge presence of numbers and percentages from various studies that become overwhelming after a while. The book, however, does provide a very good view of the whole marketing mix in one industry. It is a good book to use as an example for a concrete view of the basic marketing concepts.

This is a very good book to bring the reader up to a high level of awareness on Fast Moving Consumer Goods and grocery in detail.

The text builds in a logical way and provides a common sense understanding of how and why things work the way they do - primarily for the customer.

The bibliography was valuable in confirming my PhD literature search.

If there is a negative issue, the book is very much the party line of current retail thinking and does not venture into suggesting, for example that ECR is just another retailer tool to extract margin from manufacturers, or that a Porter value chain approach to optimising the chain based on consumer needs is a potentially better approach.

This is a valuable book for Masters degree students without firsthand knowledge of grocrey retailing.

This book is divided into two parts, one on the state of the industry, and one on consumer behavior. In the first part, the authors do an in-depth analysis of the changes in the retail industry (the move towards discounting, the responses of small grocery retailers to Wal-Mart-style companies, the changes undergoing the supply chain of suppliers to the grocery industry, etc). In the second part, they delve into the available research on consumer behavior, dealing with issues such as store layout and comfort (smells, colors, space, etc). A very solid book, very dense with information.

Excellent book! A must read for anyone in the consumer packaged goods industry! I wish the authors would write something about trade marketing!

If you are in packaged goods, read this book!

This book covers the current grocery industry from beginning to end. It's ideal for those just entering the business i.e. brand managers, promotion managers, etc. Major retailers, wholesalers are examined in detail. Descriptions concerning popular formats, distribution channels, promotion techniques....you name it....it's here. An excellent read.

As someone who has spent 30+ years living in the world that the authors describe, I found it a good outline of how the grocery business works - from a marketing point of view. The primary value of the book is in the breadth of its coverage, its readability and shortness. I have personally purchased at least a dozen copies to pass on as orientation material for my senior staff who may benefit from more of a big picture of the world they are working in, as well as specialized consultants for our firm that need to understand our milieu. None of these people would read the longer, more comprehensive tomes. So this book fills an urgent need for some of us practitioners.

This book is an outstanding resource for anyone involved in sales or marketing of grocery products. It begins with an overview of recent events that have shaped the grocery industry, and includes implications for future competition. The extensive section on consumer trends and behaviour is well-researched and easy-to-read. The list of reference resources (including research papers and news articles) is impressive.

This is an excellent book offering very practical insight into retail. It not only helps you understand the "why people buy what" it also guides you as to how you should sell what you want to sell. In short it is short cut to quite a few years of retail experience.

This book is an incredible starting point for anyone who works in Grocery. It is also a very useful overview of the trends in the industry. Worth reading a few times.

Hi. I read some of the book when I took Professor Kahn's Mktg 101 class. (for those of you in the class, not much was on the test about this book). Anyway, although it was recommended for "Anyone who shops" I shop practically everyday and grew up shopping often at grocery stores, but did not find the book to be a good read. I consider myself relatively well educated in business related literature as I took the class during my senior year at Penn's Wharton school. There seemed to be too much academic information which distracted me from enjoying the book and getting a lot our of it. For people on Prof. Kahn's level of marketing expertise this book is likely to be very useful, but it is not as useful to undergrads in Marketing 101 or to the general population.