Customer Reviews

The Marketing Game : How The World's Best Companies Play To Win

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Eric Schulz has done a fine job of offering great insight into the world of Marketing. Having worked myself for Procter & Gamble for ten years plus having been in the Marketing industry for 20 years, Eric has captured many of the key concepts. This is a great book for understanding a number of key marketing issues and makes a great reference book of ideas and insights on several topics.

With "The Marketing Game: How the World's Best Companies Play to Win", Eric Schulz offers branding strategies "for the rest of us," as Apple Computer's ads used to say. The former Procter & Gamble, Walt Disney and Coca-Cola exec has geared his new book to those in the marketing trenches in need of practical information for going out and implementing programs, in contrast to the more anecdotal or abstract marketing books emanating from CEOs and academics.

The book, recently published by Adams Media, Holbrook, Mass., offers brainstorming and positioning techniques, while warning of "deadly sins" that consistently kill campaigns--say, pride (putting your logo everywhere) or gluttony (using pretty images that have nothing to do with your business).

In the chapter entitled "What Consumer Research Won't Tell You," Schulz draws on his own experience--including a humbling period early in his career working on P&G's doomed Citrus Hill orange juice brand--to chart the ways in which research can lead marketers astray, while suggesting a common-sense alternative from everyday life for establishing the positioning of a brand. "Paying attention in everyday life is nowhere near as exciting as launching a half-million-dollar research project, complete with one-way mirrors and hidden video. But don't be fooled by the trappings of research," he warns. Instead, he offers ways of finding strategic consumer insight outside the disciplines of traditional research.

Schulz, whose corporate marketing activities included a key role in orchestrating Coca-Cola's sponsorship of the 1996 Summer Olympic Games, currently is a consultant based in Great Falls, Va., outside Washington. His clients include Coke's Minute Maid unit (which he formerly challenged while at P&G), Special Olympics and the new-products think tank Eureka! Ranch, Cincinnati.

This is a beneficial and entertaining book for people who are interested in marketing and also for those who may work in that field already. The information in this book was presented in an understandable way that was relevant to the subject and informational to the reader. I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to know more about marketing and business, and to anyone who is looking for some helpful hints to market their product/s more successfully. I often found myself laughing outloud while reading this book!

As a MBA student, I read this book hoping to gain insight into the world of marketing that I would not get in the classroom. What I received was an entire marketing concentration all wrapped into one! The book is written in an extremely "easy to grasp" format, and the real world examples given to support the information discussed make this by far the best marketing book that I have read! Must read material!

"The Marketing Game" is a great reference book for those who are interested in the marketing field. It explores the secrets and underground marketing strategies that were used by the world¡¦s most successful enterprises such as Coca-Cola, Procter & Gamble and The Walt Disney Company.

The book illustrate a number of key marketing issues such as:
¡PBrainstorming - the Stimulus Response technique, which has been proven to be five times more effective than standard methods.
¡PProduct positioning and branding strategies that will create a competitive advantage
¡PPricing strategies that help you to optimize profitability
¡PProduct mix decision that optimize consumer appeal, build share, and neutralize competitors
¡PDistribution strategies that help you put your product in the right place for consumers
¡PThe Six Deadly Sins of Advertising, which reveals how to avoid traps when communicating with customers
¡PConsumer promotions used to create brand personality, build competitive advantage, and stimulate sales
¡PThe Big Bang Theory for creating successful special events and promotions

The book is written in an extremely easy to understand way with many real world examples to support the information discussed. However, the content of the book is not very well organized in my point of view. As readers may have to spend some times in finding out what the main idea or the key points of some paragraphs.

But overall speaking, it is really a good reference book for those who want to gain an insight into the world of marketing. And I would say that this is a book which can give you the insight that you would not get in the classroom.

The Marketing Game

Whether you're a marketing student, small agency outfit or a corporate executive,The Marketing Game by Eric Schulz (Kogan Page, £19.95) is a comprehensive, practical and entertaining guide to successful strategies and improving your marketing acumen. The book gives sound advice backed by clearly explained know-how.

Many marketing books are big on theory and short on practical application, but The Marketing Game has over 100 examples of real-world success stories. It sheds light on how successful campaigns were done, so you can apply the learning to your own business.

Each chapter focuses on a particular area of product marketing, from brainstorming and positioning techniques to the Six Deadly Sins of Advertising and consumer promotion successes.

A former marketing director of Coca-Cola, Procter & Gamble and Disney, Schulz has a depth of experience from which to draw his examples. He also proves that you don't have to have a big budget for your campaign to succeed and great companies are successful because they are smarter than their competitors. Written in down-to-earth style, The Marketing Game is a useful reference tool.

A great pragmatic guide to retail marketing. If you're looking to jump-start your knowledge in the retail marketing space, this is your book. Eric explains retail promotional techniques in plain, simple, and fun language for all to understand. At the end of the book Eric encourages readers to contact him for further advice, and he means it! I called him for additional thoughts on a project I was working on and he enthusiastically took to call and suggested areas for further exploration. Well worth the price of the book.

I read this book in my final semester of MBA school and found it to be an excellent cap to my marketing education. All of the marketing concepts I studied in school, plus many new ideas, are presented in this excellent book. The real world examples in this book bring the marketing concepts to life and illustrate learning that is benefical to any business. As I leave school to start my marketing career I plan to keep this book as a constant reference and recommend others do the same.

The Marketing Game: How the World's Best Companies Play to Win is the most relevant marketing book I have read. It's simple genius! You'll find it's hard to get through without writing down hundreds of ideas and to do's for your brand or company.

Eric Schulz has done a fine job of offering great insight into the world of Marketing. Having worked myself for Procter & Gamble for ten years plus having been in the Marketing industry for 20 years, Eric has captured many of the key concepts. This is a great book for understanding a number of key marketing issues and makes a great reference book of ideas and insights on several topics.