The Old Rules of Marketing are Dead: 6 New Rules to Reinvent Your Brand and Reignite Your Business [Paperback]

Timothy R. Pearson (Author)

Book Description

Release date: August 15, 2011

The New York Times and USA Today Bestseller!

Reinvent your marketing to keep up with an ever-changing marketplace

“A must-read for any business leader or marketer. It explains how brands must be true to their essence and be reinvented to remain relevant in this radically changed, information-rich, and Internet-oriented world.”
—Robert Hanson, President, Global Levi’s® Brand, Levis Strauss & Co.

“Pearson makes the clearest statement yet about the new world of marketing, as he makes the difficult and complex concepts of brands and reinvention understandable to everyone.”
—Bob Jeffrey, CEO, JWT

“When it comes to global brands, Pearson has no peers. His understanding of how companies and enterprises that breakaway from their competitors and reinvent their businesses will inherit the next era of global commerce is revolutionary.”
—Michel Recalt, Director of Marketing and Brand Strategy, LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton

“The Old Rules of Marketing are Dead presents a new reality: marketing must be reinvented if it is to remain relevant by placing a premium on business acumen, strategy and communications.”
—MaryLee Sachs, Chairman U.S., Hill & Knowlton

“Pearson has distilled 27 years of business experience into a book that shows the old ways of marketing have been replaced by new more up-to-date approaches and concepts to reinvent businesses and brands—and drive profitable sales.”
—Stephen G. Butler, retired Chairman / CEO, KPMG International / KPMG LLP

“Tim Pearson’s name is synonymous with strategy, value-proposition development, and marketing. From now on, it will be synonymous with reinvention and the new ‘do or die’ rules of business.”
—Mark A. Emkes, retired Chairman, CEO and President, Bridgestone Americas

“Every leader and company director must learn the fundamental rules and principles of reinvention that will bring marketing into the 21st century. Reinvention must be the byword for this post-Great Recession era and the changes it requires that will make companies and businesses of all sizes great.”
—R. David Hoover, Chairman, President and CEO, Ball Corporation

About the Book:

Revolutionary new technologies developed over the past decade have completely changed the way humans communicate and transact business. Not exactly late-breaking news for most people of the world . . . except for those who are supposed to be marketing to them. While consumers, customers, and marketplaces have adapted to these new realities, most marketers have not.

Renowned marketing expert Tim Pearson explains why you need to sever your ties to the comfortable old ways of marketing—and bring your company’s marketing into the twenty-first century.

Too many marketers still operate as if strategy necessarily depends upon predetermined budgets; advertising is the catch-all to every problem; and marketing results can’t be measured. It all adds up to the age-old belief that marketing is an art, not a science—which couldn’t be further from the truth.

The Old Rules of Marketing Are Dead is a road map for breaking out of old, established—and increasingly ineffective—routines and reinventing your organization’s marketing by:

• Positioning marketing as a business partner—not as a tool for meeting a strategic objective
• Holding marketing accountable for results with the application of hard data— not vague qualitative measurements
• Providing leadership within your organization—not following the direction of everyone else

From research frameworks and concept development to planning, budgeting, media placement, and program implementation, marketers have not kept up—to the detriment of themselves and their companies. Completely revamping old-school marketing is the only way to drive profitable sales, create growing brands, and increase market share in today’s post–Great Recession business landscape.

Pearson calls for nothing short of a marketing revolution. You must throw out almost everything you hold dear and embrace technology, a new role in business, and real accountability. The Old Rules of Marketing Are Dead has what you need to reinvent your products, your services—and your future.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Timothy R. Pearson was president and CEO of Zyman Group, a leading international management consulting firm serving the Global 1,000. He has also served as Vice Chair, Global Managing Partner, Marketing and Communications (and first Chief Marketing Officer) for KPMG, the global Big 4 accounting, tax, and consulting firm; and has been president of several advertising agencies. He has served on the Advisory Board of the Nobel Peace Center, Oslo, Norway, and on the Harvard Business School’s Dean’s Research Society. Pearson has received numerous honors in the marketing arena, including but not limited to Advertising Age’s Best, The Wall Street Journal’s Best, and multiple Belding, Cable, Clio, Echo, Golden Phone, Lulu, Proto, PRSA, and Sunny awards.

Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill; 1 edition (August 15, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0071788220
• ISBN-13: 978-0071788229
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (42 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #358,336 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Timothy R. Pearson is founder and president of Pearson Advisors || Partners, a marketing management consulting firm serving Fortune 1000 and brand-driven clients requiring business strategy and planning, mergers and acquisitions analysis, brand strategy and value proposition development, go-to-market activation, and business and brand analytics.

Tim is a highly sought advisor to senior management and a frequent keynote speaker at industry conferences, at leadership meetings, and on the lecture circuit. He has served as president and CEO of Zyman Group, a leading international management consulting firm, and as Vice Chair, Global Managing Partner, Marketing and Communications (and first Chief Marketing Officer) for KPMG, the global Big 4 accounting, tax, and consulting firm. Earlier in his career he was President of several award-winning advertising agencies, where he led initiatives for and within a number of the world's leading companies.

Pearson is often quoted by newspapers and commentators. He has written articles for Brandweek magazine, and lectured before numerous audiences and members of the American Marketing Association on topics ranging from "Do or Die: The Reinvention of Marketing," "Out of the Blue: A Global Brand Defined," "The Value of Leadership and Business Ethics," "The M&M Factor," "Machiavelli on Global Branding," "Top of Mind: Product or Service," "Focus Must Be Clear," and "Competitive Positioning by Cable Television Against the Networks."
Tim Pearson has served on the Advisory Board of the Nobel Peace Center, Oslo, Norway, and on the Harvard Business School's Dean's Research Society. He has received numerous honors in the marketing arena, including but not limited to Advertising Age's Best, The Wall Street Journal's Best, and multiple Belding, Cable, Clio, Echo, Golden Phone, Lulu, Proto, PRSA, and Sunny awards.

Pearson is also the cocreator of numerous interactive games and was issued U.S. Patent #5,018,736, "Interactive Game System and Method," U.S. Patent #5,263,723, "Interactive Contest System," and Canada Patent #2,044,266, "Interactive Game System and Method".

Tim received his B.A. in English Literature from DePauw University where he was a Maxwell Scholar. He currently resides in Atlanta, Georgia, and Saddle River, New Jersey.

At the author's Web site, www.pearsonadvisorsandpartners.com, you can access additional material on the subject of the new rules of marketing, read recent articles he has written, and learn more about emerging technologies and trends. For speaking engagements, please contact Peter Jacobs at CAA Speakers at 424-288-2898 or [e-mail]. Please contact the author with comments or queries at [e-mail].

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

62 of 64 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Reigniting Business? Here's An App For That. April 11, 2011

By BazG

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

In an age when the unexpected can be reliably expected to occur without notice, it's imperative for companies to be prepared to reinvent at a moment's notice. While "reinvention" may sound like an unnecessarily drastic overhaul for many brands and businesses, it may be more easily viewed as the full spectrum equivalent of hitting the digital `refresh' key, one that companies must be prepared to strike today to keep brands relevant, responsive and competitive.

That's the premise of "The Old Rules of Marketing Are Dead: Six New Rules To Reinvent Your Brand And Reignite Your Business" by Timothy R. Pearson, an insightful and respected leader in global marketing and management consulting.

Every once in a while, a book comes along that dazzles readers with the writer's perspicacity and ingenious observations on current business or consumer behavior. But more often than not, such books don't fully deliver on actionable steps that businesses can take to leverage the value of these pithy insights. This isn't one of those books. "The Old Rules of Marketing Are Dead" is filled with carefully calibrated action steps that can make each of its observations, principles and rules come to life in your company.

It doesn't accomplish this by dancing around the tough questions or more sweeping challenges confronting business today. What's required to achieve brand loyalty in times affected by recession, ongoing economic uncertainty, pervasive ADD, brand choice proliferation and price war conflagration? How can thought leadership invigorate an organization from top to bottom? And just how exactly does a company successfully navigate through cycles of deep recessions, seismic shocks to marketplaces and the continually morphing tastes of oftentimes irascible and increasingly demanding consumers?

There's a carefully constructed roadmap to be found here, one that's convincingly balanced on the need to continually reaffirm a brand's fundamentals and the necessity of responding vigorously to evolving consumer and marketplace dynamics.

Along the way, Pearson redefines some of the traditional tenets taught at every business school and contrasts management and leadership, providing reality-check questions on leadership that may prompt many business leaders to reevaluate their own management style. He examines how companies often hunker down in tough times, sticking to the familiar path rather than reassessing, rethinking and reinventing in response to altered conditions, and the price that's paid for such behavior. He re-elevates the critical role of brand essence, detailing disastrous outcomes that occur when companies act on the mistaken belief that a brand's essence is chained to its brand legacy, demonstrating that the manner in which a brand essence is expressed and brought to life is something that must be continually refreshed, rejuvenated and reinvented to ensure a brand's continued vitality.

There's an ample stream of business parables and checkmate ripostes to naysayers and excuse engines, those who perpetually blame poor performance on the economy, competition or someone else's department. There are fresh-in-our-memory examples of companies that suddenly fall off the rails and flail about even further as business erodes, all because they lost sight of their core, brand essence and brand promise to consumers. There are compelling examples of how the process of reinvention can uncover hidden business opportunities, how brand marketing is inextricably linked to reputation management and how a brand's value proposition is critical to achieving differentiation and preference.

And you'll find plenty of simple, riveting truisms- one being that any product or service today needs a good story, a compelling one to ensure that consumers understand it, what it does, and how it can enhance one's life, all of which leads to perceived value, brand preference and business success.

For those who still consider customer service to be nothing more than a money-pit cost center, Pearson convincingly demonstrates why customer satisfaction and service today define the core of brand experience, and how consumers' brand experiences convert brand perceptions into firm realities, and in doing so, define a brand's fate. He redefines knowledge management as a resource critical to the vitality and competitiveness of a company, something much more than the most brilliant ideas and best practices of a company, but also its accumulated understanding of consumers and customers. He goes on to demonstrate how capturing and more fully leveraging a company's intellectual capital can generate a continuing stream of thought leadership, which demonstrates competency and value creation that can, in turn, lead to differentiation, preference and success.

Indisputably, "The Old Rules of Marketing Are Dead" is an essential resource for marketers today. It's an even more urgently essential one for non-marketing executives (CEOs, CFOs et al), at least those who aim to make marketing a fully accountable discipline within their organizations and those who yearn for a resource that can elevate overall performance, efficiency and ability throughout an organization to successfully navigate through the turbulence and uncertainty that often define modern markets.

44 of 45 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars The Old-Rules Obituary April 21, 2011

By Bradley Bevers TOP 1000 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover

Timothy R. Pearson writes to companies and individuals who are fixated on the marketing rules of the past. He writes persuasively and effectively about how anyone can reinvent their brand for the new economy that we live in. It is addressed to larger companies mainly, but its useful for small businesses and individuals as well.

What are the 6 New Rules?

Rule One: The Core is Everything. The first part of the book helps to focus attention on what really matters, what the essence of the brand is. Very good advice here on how to emphasize points of differentiation in your field. Many businesses skip this crucial step, but without knowing your essence, you have nothing to build on.

Rule Two: You Have Nothing Without the Foundation. Guard your reputation carefully. Recognize that marketing should be defensive and offensive strategy, and use the tools for both. This section also has a great chapter on the power of a good logo design and why it is important (Principle #7).

Rule Three: There Are Many Choices but Only One Customer. This section focuses on your customer's perceptions of your strategy. It is the core of the book, and the most helpful section. The chapter on why you should measure all marketing choices, and how to do implement it, is worth the price of the book. Marketing without measurement is a waste of money. Too many people focus on marketing as an art rather than a science, but for a good business it is both.

Rule Four: Do the Right Things for the Right Reasons. Some good information here about social media's role in the new economy, but some of the other principles only apply to larger companies.

Rule Five: Infrastructure Is More than Just Pipes. Very good discussion on technology as the enabler of reinvention in the Principle #21 chapter.

Rule Six: Leadership Isn't a Noun, It's a Verb. Great conclusion. The author wraps up his thoughts on marketing and makes the case that marketing should be the leader for all areas of business, welcoming the changes and the accountability that is now crucial in today's marketplace.

I thought that some of the principles under each rule were forced and did not tie together well and that a few were only applicable to larger companies. I would have liked to see more hands-on advice as well, though the principles should point you in the right direction.

All in all, a good book, and a recommended read for any business (or individual) looking to reinvent their brand.

26 of 27 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars fun to read and helpful April 4, 2011

By kh

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

This is a book made for businesspeople. Each chapter has an executive summary in case you missed the point. But Pearson's big points are unmistakable: to market successfully know yourself and be real. In explaining how to use this insight to best advantage, he shares his experiences from the top of some of America's largest corporations, including chief marketing officer of KPMG. For example, he says if you are Walmart don't spend time advertising in Vogue. These days when big business and big business executives seem woefully out of touch with the plight the rest of us are going thru, Tim Pearson is a breath of fresh air. As much as we love Mad Men, today marketing must be honest as well as creative to succeed. This book is easy, fast and fun to read, and above all worthwhile.