Since its publication in 1983, The Marketing Imagination has been widely praised as the classic, all-inclusive "Levitt on Marketing." Now Theodore Levitt -- renowned as the Harvard Business School's "guru of marketing" -- has newly expanded his original work to recap the developing globalization debate and to respond to his critics. He has also added his famed McKinsey Award-winning essay "Marketing Myopia," and included detailed accounts of how to maximize the product life cycle and achieve the delicate balance between innovation and imitation. As before, this new edition of The Marketing Imagination shows Levitt at his best -- sharp, knowledgeable, erudite, and, yes, as imaginative as ever.
Browse our Bookshelf Favorites store for big savings on popular fiction, nonfiction, children's books, and more. |
Book Description
Frequently Bought Together
Editorial Reviews
Review
Philip Kotler Northwestern University Ted Levitt's name is synonymous with marketing. His writings consistently offer rich insights served up in a souffle of good style. In The Marketing Imagination, Levitt takes the reader through some important new concourses in the marketing world that he has explored deeply during this decade.
The Wall Street Journal MBAs everywhere encounter Ted Levitt's name on their required-reading lists, and it is likely to remain there long after experts on Japanese management, one-minute management and high-output management finally drop from the bestseller lists. The Marketing Imagination is a much-needed reminder of the ideals to which managers should bind their ambitions.
Newsday Ted Levitt is the best marketing mentor around...The Marketing Imagination is guaranteed to provoke controversy. It's a crackling text...every argument it stirs will be worthwhile.
Tom Brown Honeywell, Inc. A book for everyone in business. It is provocative and challenging.
Industry Week Ted Levitt's literate, thoughtful treatment takes the reader from the broadest theoretical concepts to specific how-to pointers.
Atlanta Constitution and Journal Marketers will eventually have to learn the lessons of The Marketing Imagination or risk a career change.
The Wall Street Journal MBAs everywhere encounter Ted Levitt's name on their required-reading lists, and it is likely to remain there long after experts on Japanese management, one-minute management and high-output management finally drop from the bestseller lists. The Marketing Imagination is a much-needed reminder of the ideals to which managers should bind their ambitions.
Newsday Ted Levitt is the best marketing mentor around...The Marketing Imagination is guaranteed to provoke controversy. It's a crackling text...every argument it stirs will be worthwhile.
Tom Brown Honeywell, Inc. A book for everyone in business. It is provocative and challenging.
Industry Week Ted Levitt's literate, thoughtful treatment takes the reader from the broadest theoretical concepts to specific how-to pointers.
Atlanta Constitution and Journal Marketers will eventually have to learn the lessons of The Marketing Imagination or risk a career change.
About the Author
Theodore Levitt is Editor of the Harvard Business Review and Edward W. Carter Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School. One of the most widely read and respected figures in marketing, he is a four-time winner of the annual McKinsey Award for the best article in the Harvard Business Review.
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images? |
More About the Author
Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
37 of 39 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Of the more than 27 billion books on marketing now in print, none has had a greater impact than has this one. It is truly a masterpiece. By way of background, in 1960 (in its July-August issue), The Harvard Business Review published "Marketing Myopia" in which Levitt ties marketing "more closely to the inner orbit of business policy." Specifically, "Management must think of itself not as producing products but as providing custom-creating value satisfactions." Companies should be marketing-led rather than production-led. That will happen only if and when there is a total commitment by senior management (and especially by the CEO) to satisfying current customers so that they remain loyal, and, to attracting new customers. Only marketing creates or increases demand. Without demand, there are no customers.
In the same article, Levitt makes an important distinction: "Selling concerns itself with the tricks and techniques of getting people to exchange their cash for your product. It is not concerned with the values that the exchange is all about. And it does not, as marketing invariably does, view the entire business process as consisting of a tightly integrated effort to discover, create, arouse, and satisfy customer needs." Given this background, you can now place The Marketing Imagination in a proper context. "Marketing Myopia" is reprinted within the revised edition, first published in 1986.The chapter titles correctly suggest the scope of the subjects Levitt discusses:
1. Marketing and the Corporate Purpose
2. The Globalization of Markets
3. The Industrialization of Service
4. Differentiation -- of Anything
5. Marketing Intangible Products and Product Intangibles
6. Relationship Management
7. The Marketing Imagination
8. Marketing Myopia
9. Exploit the Product Life Cycle
10. Innovative Imitation
11. Marketing and Its Discontents
I now ask you to re-read this list of chapter titles, keeping in mind that Levitt's comments on each subject were formulated 15-20 years ago. That is, pre-WWW. That is, prior to the widespread understanding and appreciation of positioning, paradigms and paradigm shifts, "customized mass production," Marketing Value Added (MVA) to create Economic Value Added (EVA), brand equity, product and service differentiation, etc.
In essence, marketing means "getting and keeping customers in some acceptable proportion relative to competitors." That was true in 1986 when Levitt wrote those words and remains true now. However, even if Levitt and all the other major thought leaders in marketing were to collaborate, their collective genius could not create demand for shoddy goods, nor overcome mediocre customer service. The corollary is also true: neither product superiority nor operational excellence has compelling value to customers unless and until "the marketing imagination" manages their perceptions of them.
If you need to clarify your own thinking on key issues which include but are not limited to marketing, Levitt can be of substantial assistance. Also, you will thoroughly enjoy the pleasure of his company.
In the same article, Levitt makes an important distinction: "Selling concerns itself with the tricks and techniques of getting people to exchange their cash for your product. It is not concerned with the values that the exchange is all about. And it does not, as marketing invariably does, view the entire business process as consisting of a tightly integrated effort to discover, create, arouse, and satisfy customer needs." Given this background, you can now place The Marketing Imagination in a proper context. "Marketing Myopia" is reprinted within the revised edition, first published in 1986.The chapter titles correctly suggest the scope of the subjects Levitt discusses:
1. Marketing and the Corporate Purpose
2. The Globalization of Markets
3. The Industrialization of Service
4. Differentiation -- of Anything
5. Marketing Intangible Products and Product Intangibles
6. Relationship Management
7. The Marketing Imagination
8. Marketing Myopia
9. Exploit the Product Life Cycle
10. Innovative Imitation
11. Marketing and Its Discontents
I now ask you to re-read this list of chapter titles, keeping in mind that Levitt's comments on each subject were formulated 15-20 years ago. That is, pre-WWW. That is, prior to the widespread understanding and appreciation of positioning, paradigms and paradigm shifts, "customized mass production," Marketing Value Added (MVA) to create Economic Value Added (EVA), brand equity, product and service differentiation, etc.
In essence, marketing means "getting and keeping customers in some acceptable proportion relative to competitors." That was true in 1986 when Levitt wrote those words and remains true now. However, even if Levitt and all the other major thought leaders in marketing were to collaborate, their collective genius could not create demand for shoddy goods, nor overcome mediocre customer service. The corollary is also true: neither product superiority nor operational excellence has compelling value to customers unless and until "the marketing imagination" manages their perceptions of them.
If you need to clarify your own thinking on key issues which include but are not limited to marketing, Levitt can be of substantial assistance. Also, you will thoroughly enjoy the pleasure of his company.
13 of 13 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
I read Ted Levitt's awesome article 'Marketing Myopia' some years ago and promised myself then that I would find out more about the thoughts of this unique writer. This man is a Guru of the old school - shoulder to shoulder with the likes of Deming, Drucker and Mintzberg. He is referenced by Tom Peters and other 'modern' writers. As a non-marketeer I did not know quite what to expect - what I got was an (at times breathtaking) insight into areas of the marketing 'black art' that I didn't know existed! He covers Relationships, Service, Product lifecycles, Differentiation and much more. He writes with such style and passion for his subject that you cannot help but be infected by it. Anecdotes of marketing genius and stupidity are peppered throughout the book. Key words, concepts and phrases are repeated over and over, to the point that the words hit you like a blunt instrument. You don't forget them - you wouldn't dare! Some parts are quite detailed and technical, but your attention cannot wane lest you miss the next part of the roller coaster ride. This is an old book of old articles, but the ideas are as fresh as ever - seasoned marketeers should read it just to recharge their enthusiasm if nothing else. Levitt uses several metaphors to illustrate his ideas - the most prevalent being sex. At times I found this to be a bit irritating but it was always used with taste and humour which mitigated my irritability. I first got this book from the library and had to own one - Levitt is the Stephen Hawking of Marketing - buy it, read it ENJOY.
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
This is, simply, the best marketing book ever written. Ted Levitt, a Harvard B-School professor, previously wrote "Marketing Myopia," where he told us the railroads went belly up because they thought they were in the train business rather than the transportation game.
You cannot buy a product. Rather, you buy the feelings you expect to receive from your vision of the product -- and generally your vision is fuzzy. People are not rational decision-makers -- we judge books by looking at their covers.
An astute marketer never sells a commodity. Only fools sell on price alone. Add some service to the mix and transform what you're selling into something else altogether.
The Marketing Imagination is not a how-to book like the various Guerilla Marketing tomes. Levitt gives you frameworks for thinking about things and making sound decisions.
I have a couple of decades of marketing under my belt, and this is the only marketing book I ever reread. Do yourself a favor. Join me
Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Prescient Marketing Philosopher
Ted Levitt, along with Peter Drucker and John McKittrick, conceived of the marketing concept: In short, that the purpose of business is to create and keep satisfied customers--... Read more
Published on May 1, 2009 by Dan Wallace
5.0 out of 5 stars
A great book
A great book with all the topics still relevant to today's practice after so many years of publication.
Published on December 5, 2008 by Z. Yixin
2.0 out of 5 stars
Too Out-of-date to Be Useful
This book may have been useful when it first came out 25 years ago but it is too dated to be applicable today. Read more
Published on July 28, 2007 by Hawkeye Richardson
5.0 out of 5 stars
A timeless classic
Though it was first released in 1983, I still do not believe there is a better book on marketing that The Marketing Imagination. Read more
Published on June 18, 2004 by Chris
2.0 out of 5 stars
Outdated, lacks substance, dwells on marketing basics
I bought this book based one some of the reviews on this site. Unfortunately, this time they failed me. Read more
Published on July 4, 2003 by R. J. Elble
4.0 out of 5 stars
The Marketing Intangible Products!
I first learnt the ¡§Intangible¡¨ when I was in secondary school. Then, I have learnt more about ¡§Tangible Product¡¨ and ¡§Intangible... Read more
Published on March 25, 2002 by On Ki, Lau
5.0 out of 5 stars
A classic example of educated league
It has an introduction, which is more or less easy to follow. The author tends to use intensified and complex language in his arguments which although tends to mislead the reader... Read more
Published on July 2, 2000 by Ayman IRSHAID
5.0 out of 5 stars
A classic example of educated league
It has an introduction, which is more or less easy to follow. The author tends to use intensified and complex language in his arguments which although tends to mislead the reader... Read more
Published on July 2, 2000 by Ayman IRSHAID
5.0 out of 5 stars
Classic text all marketers should own and highlight
This is a collection of classic Ted Levitt articles from "Harvard Business Review." This is where you go to understand the concept of `total product' or `whole product'... Read more
Published on February 21, 2000 by J. G. Heiser
1.0 out of 5 stars
Levitt tries too hard to impress us with his big words.
The Marketing Imagination is a classic example of educated foolishness. I'll admit the book starts off easy to follow. Read more
Published on February 1, 1999
Citations (learn more)
100
books
cite this book:
See all 100 books citing this book
- Production of Culture/Cultures of Production (Culture, Media and Identities series) by Paul du Gay on 4 pages
- Marketing by David Mercer on 4 pages
- The Customer Loyalty Pyramid by Michael Lowenstein in Back Matter (1), Back Matter (2), and Back Matter (3)
- Spaces of Identity: Global Media, Electronic Landscapes and Cultural Boundaries (International Library of Sociology) by David Morley on page 15, page 110, and Back Matter
- TQM Simplified: A Practical Guide by James H. Saylor on page 57, page 95, and Back Matter
See all 100 books citing this book
Books on Related Topics
(learn more)
|
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
So You'd Like to...
|
|
