The Marketing Mavens [Hardcover]

Noel Capon (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0307354091 | ISBN-13: 978-0307354099 | Publication Date: June 12, 2007 | Edition: 1

The way far too many people at far too many companies think about and execute marketing was born in an era when suppliers-the companies generating products and services-were in the catbird seat. That world is long dead, and customers now occupy that position. In this relentlessly globalizing economy, we live in a world of oversupply and underdemand, with too many suppliers chasing too few customers, offering more goods and services than the market can absorb.

Noel Capon set out to discover what differentiates people who know how to succeed in this changed world-people who are able to create customers for the products and services of their business.

The Marketing Mavens is based on a four-year-long research program that spanned twenty-five industries, identifying long-term winners and what they do differently. Put simply, Marketing Mavens place customers at the center of their business and make marketing everyone’s job. Using a wide variety of intriguing, in-depth examples, from ESPN to the Mayo Clinic, Dr. Capon shows how the mavens create customers. How by placing the sports fan at the center of its business, ESPN creates programming that meets the needs of fans that were never given a second thought by the networks; or how physicians at the Mayo Clinic, being both technical experts and skilled at creating a patient-centric ambience, motivate people to pay the extra travel and lodging expenses not covered by insurance.

Marketing Mavens, though a rare breed, can be found up and down an organization-from the CEO to chief marketing officers to business unit managers. Noel Capon has talked to mavens from across the global economy and brings forth their uncanny insights behind the five imperatives of the true Marketing Maven:

¥ Picking markets that matter
¥ Selecting segments to dominate and finding the sweet spot in that segment
¥ Designing the offer to create customer value and secure differential advantage
¥ Integrating to serve the customer
¥ And measuring what matters

Noel Capon in The Marketing Mavens redefines marketing, moving it from a focus on selling and communication into a discipline that guides all the key decisions of a business. By seeing marketing as everyone’s business-not the domain of a few specialists-you’ll get your business in step with the way the world really works . . . and start creating customers. Next year’s profits don’t depend on next year’s numbers but on next year’s customers. The Marketing Mavens points the way to those customers, profits, and an increased stock price.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Capon's well-researched and sophisticated foray into the best marketing practices might be relegated to the ho-hum category. After all, one could argue, the central theme—customers don't have to do business with you; everyone is responsible for helping to create and retain customers—is a given today. On the other hand, many corporations seem to lose their way and insight in the welter of mergers, acquisitions, and just plain internal and external change. Capon comes to the rescue, although he is quick to admit there are no silver bullets; even those companies featured, from Dell and UPS to Alcoa and Prudential Financial, stumble on occasion. Yet most have conquered his five challenges: picking markets that matter, selecting segments to dominate, designing the market offer to create customer value and secure differential advantage, integrating to serve the customer, and measuring what matters. Details are prolific, one indicator of painstaking research. Jacobs, Barbara
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review

"Mr. Capon ultimately aims to write a guide to help any company become a top marketer. He sticks to the five imperatives like commandments, making The Marketing Mavens a straightforward read.

"While Mr. Capon painstakingly supports each of his imperatives with company examples, he smartly acknowledges that even long-term winners aren't perfect. Describing personal-computer giant Dell's rise to the top in the 1980s and 1990s and its decline in recent years, he says that he panicked, late in his book-writing effort, wondering whether he should include Dell, as he had first planned. 'But then, as I looked across the business landscape, I saw that all companies, good and bad, have their stumbles and missteps. What distinguishes the good companies from the bad is their ability to limit mistakes and minimize recovery time.'Let's call that the sixth imperative."
—The Wall Street Journal, August 1, 2007

"A fascinating book with a much-needed, different point of view: One I have personally held for a very long time. This is big picture marketing about companies whose entire orientation is ‘to the market’. It’s about people at vibrant and successful companies who orient themselves to the outside world of consumers, customers and users. Everything marketing mavens think of and everything they do is in the context of the people who are actually buying the product and experiencing the brand. The Marketing Mavens is excellent. It’s the right book at the right time."
—Shelly Lazarus, chairman & CEO, Ogilvy & Mather

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Crown Business; 1 edition (June 12, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0307354091
• ISBN-13: 978-0307354099
• Product Dimensions: 6.6 x 1.3 x 9.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #629,030 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Noel Capon is the R.C. Kopf Professor of International Marketing and former Chair of the Marketing Division at Columbia Business School in New York. He is one of the world's leading marketing educators and the global leader in key/strategic and global account management. He designs and directs numerous educational programs in marketing and account management for Columbia Business School, other educational institutions, and business organizations globally. Professor Capon formed Wessex Press for the express purpose of reducing the high price of college textbooks.

Professor Capon's early training was in chemistry; he holds B.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees from University College, London University. He also holds advanced degrees in business administration from Manchester (Dip. BA), Harvard (MBA), and Columbia Business Schools (Ph.D.). Prior to joining the Columbia faculty in 1979, Professor Capon was on the faculties of the UCLA Graduate School of Management and Harvard Business School. He has also served as a Visiting Professor at INSEAD (Fontainebleau France), The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, and the China Europe International Business School (CEIBS) (Shanghai). He also holds the position of Distinguished Visiting Professor at Manchester Business School (Great Britain).

Professor Capon's publications have appeared in many refereed journals and managerial outlets. He has also written several research and managerial books on marketing, sales, and account management. At Columbia, he is Director of the Managing Strategic Accounts and Global Account Manager Certification programs. He also teaches on Columbia's Executive MBA program and its partner programs with the University of California, Berkeley (Berkeley/Columbia EMBA) and London Business School (EMBA Global).

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fresh thinking. And good timing. Capon does a good job here., August 1, 2007

By 

D. Stuart "Researcher at Kudos" (Auckland NZ) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Marketing Mavens (Hardcover)

Noel Capon enters a thoroughly ploughed field of business writing and surprised this reader by digging up many fresh treasures. He achieves this through his savvy research project (this book is way more than the standard round-up of usual suspects,) and through choosing some left of field businesses to examine: The Mayo Clinic? The result is fresh writing, fresh thinking and recommendations that aren't necessarily all new, but are re-phrased and re-expressed for today's times.

I'm beginning to find marketing gurus like Aaker (Example: Building the Brand-Driven Business: Operationalize Your Brand to Drive Profitable Growth,) somewhat tired these days, and slipping behind the game in terms of what the age of the internet has done to personalise and redefine the relationships between organisations and their customers. Mass marketing, as it became defined in the post-war years up to the 1990s, is over and done with: everything is coming down to a one on one encounter, but on a large scale.

Capon clearly gets this, and communicates this. I particularly appreciate his writing on how organisations need to better integrate (break down those silos,) in order to serve the customer, and how organisations must measure what matters. For many marketers, as they'll see here, 'what matters' may be quite different from what they've been measuring to date. Well recommended. $18? Spend your money.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Another valuable text from Crown Business, August 20, 2007

By 

Reg Nordman "(K)nights on the Road" (Vancouver, BC Canada) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Marketing Mavens (Hardcover)

Another valuable text from Crown Business. I was prepared for yet another academic view of "the old regular big companies." Yet Capon really does deliver an easy to read and very useful marketing analysis book. It is fascinating and useful to read how the very large companies like Samsung, Amazon, Vodaphone , Dell and Toyota made dramatic shifts in their market approach and learned from their customers. I was particularly interested in the steps SAP took to recover from the MySAP and E-City initiatives which resulted in their corporate messaging move away from the technology and toward customer benefits. Did you know Dell is now no. 2 in PC sales in China and is hurting Lenovo on their home turf? How about Oracle using the Oracle Technology network as their primary marketing channel, resulting in significant uptick in sales and a decrease in marketing expense? The author has done us all a great favor through his depth of research.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Multiple Insights on Every Page, August 13, 2007

By 

John W. Pearson "John Pearson Associates" (San Clemente, CA, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Marketing Mavens (Hardcover)

When you read the first nine pages of a book, and you've underlined multiple insights on every page, you know you've made a good investment in a book and in your future.