Customer Reviews

The Marketing Plan: How to Prepare and Implement It

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Here in a single volume is an abundance of basic information and sound counsel which will be especially helpful to those involved in business development for small-to-midsize organizations. (I use the word "organizations" because non-profits as well as for-profits obviously need to increase revenue while strengthening relations with various constituencies.) Don't expect to find any cutting-edge thinking here. Because the material is basic, however, don't think that Luther has little of value to offer to marketing, sales, and other customer service professionals with many years of experience. He organizes the material within five Parts:

The Role of Marketing Within a Business

Decisions to Be Made Before Developing Your Marketing Plan

Developing Your Brand Personality

Developing Your Marketing Plan

Feedback: Using Controls and Market Research to Complete the Loop

Luther then provides three excellent appendices: A Marketing Plan Outline, Thirty-Eight Market Characteristics, and Explanation of the What-If Sales Model. I highly recommend this book to owners/managers of chain franchises (e.g. dry cleaners, quick-print shops, and even fast food restaurants) as well as to independent insurance agents, sole practicioner attorneys, and others selling goods or services who generally neglect business development among their clientele within their local community. Presumably Luther understands that much of his material will not be directly relevant to a given reader. To his credit, he provides more material than most readers need. It remains for each reader to determine which ideas and initiatives are most appropriate. I think all readers will benefit from the disciplined thinking which Luther advocates throughout the planning, implementation, evaluation, and modification process. Those who wish to explore additional resources are urged to check out Theodore Levitt's The Marketing Imagination (a "classic"), Al Ries and Jack Trout's Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind (another" classic"), Neil Rackham's SPIN Selling (another "classic", especially for those selling big ticket items), Jacques Werth's High Probability Selling: Re-Invents the Selling Process, Dan Seidman's The Death of 20th Century Selling: 50 Hilarious Sales Blunders and How You Can Profit from Them, and Carl Sewell's Customers for Life: How to Turn That One-Time Buyer into a Lifetime Customer...

I liked this book because it got straight to the point. He provides a through plan for your marketing plan. It interrelates all the departments that are affected by what marketing is doing. Ultimately, if you were going to present this plan to C-level management you would get their support. It shows that Marketing has worked with other departments to make a plan that the whole company can buy into.

I highly recommend it to someone that knows marketing but needs guidelines for putting together an effective plan.

Of course this is a professional book. Just look at who is the publisher - AMACOM. I also got it from library in the beginning. After I read it, I decided to buy it from Amazon. However this book is NOT designed for beginners - they might feel difficult in understanding some indicators and concepts. But in a fast-moving world, basics usually can NOT survive very long. Eventually you have to upgrade yourself.

This book is about Marketing, not really about advertising or PR which is fine.....but its so bad. There is a ton of spreadsheets you have to fill in but you need to know very specific information to do so, and then the information you get is only relevant to a larger cooperation. Also, and this is the kicker, the author made a reference to an exciting new ad technology coming out, Google Whisper, and he was serious. He was not kidding, he actually thought Goole Whisper was real, its an ONION STORY, you know "The Onion" the fake news site that makes up funny fake stories, the author thought one of them was real, and put it in his book.

I have no idea what the author is talking about - it's just the way the book is written. It seems to just start from nowhere. It's either the author is assuming the reader already knows a huge amount about marketing planning or just seems to put down thoughts as they come to mind. I reached Chapter 7 (with skipping some material in between) but can go no further. I read a lot books on management and marketing - this book has just confounded me. Luckily I got it from the library and didn't buy it. I just finished reading one excellent book The New Rules of Marketing and PR: How to Use Social Media, Blogs, News Releases, Online Video, and Viral Marketing to Reach Buyers Directly, 2nd Edition & this book was quite a let down after that.