Total Access [Hardcover]

Regis McKenna (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 29, 2002

Marketing as we know it is disappearing, declares industry legend Regis McKenna. As marketers focus on advertising and promotion, the chief information officer is automating their core functions. As they obsess over brand, the chief strategy officer is dispersing their responsibilities throughout the organization. And as they squabble over whether marketing is an art or a science, McKenna argues that they're completely overlooking what marketing has become: a technology. What does this displacement mean for the future of marketing and its role in today's increasingly networked organizations? Who will manage the all-important customer relationship-and how? In this bold new book, McKenna marshals over forty years of experience as a marketing innovator, investor, and industry visionary to explore an emerging-and essentially different-marketing paradigm. In this unconventional model, says McKenna, computers and the network do most of the work, from data gathering to customer care and response. The marketing function disappears into a network of relationships and responsibilities between man and machine throughout the value chain. Total consumer access to-and interaction with-the marketplace replaces the archaic broadcast model. For marketers, the end goal changes from creating brand awareness to satisfying customers. And brand itself becomes a "persistent presence" which sustains the customer dialogue however and whenever the customer chooses. McKenna argues that marketers must shed their marginal role as image creators and take on the brave new role of managing this new infrastructure. They must learn to operate with one foot in marketing and one foot in information systems-integrating the people and technological tools necessary to deliver value and novelty to every customer anytime, all the time. Competitive advantage will come from engaging the entire business in this total access network-making marketing a mission-critical, enterprise-wide responsibility. A rousing manifesto by a renowned pioneer of high-tech marketing, Total Access will remake marketing and redefine success in our networked world. AUTHORBIO: Regis McKenna is Chairman of The McKenna Group in Palo Alto, California. He has worked with more than 300 start-ups, including Apple and Intel, and is the bestselling author of Real Time (HBS Press, 1997).

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

"All of us at Starbucks are responsible for our brand because everything we do adds up to satisfying our customers. McKenna's book represents a key perspective on this fundamental precept of customer-centered marketing and on what it takes to sustain customer loyalty in a world of overwhelming choice."

-Howard Schultz, Chairman, Starbucks Coffee Company

"In Total Access, Regis McKenna makes a compelling argument that marketing is vanishing; vanishing into a network of relationships and responsibilities so powerful as to redefine, if not eliminate, the traditional role of the marketer. If you practice marketing, or manage those who do, this book is a necessity on your 'must read' list."

-Peter Sealey, Ph.D., former Head of Global Marketing, The Coca-Cola Company, and Adjunct Professor of Marketing, Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley

"Based on a lifetime of unique experiences in both the technology and marketing fields, Regis McKenna provides a unique and prescient analysis of the new, networked society and its profound implications for future business success."

-Frederick W. Smith, Chairman and CEO, FedEx Corporation

About the Author

Regis McKenna is Chairman of The McKenna Group in Palo Alto, California. He has worked with more than 300 start-ups, including Apple and Intel, and is the bestselling author of Real Time. (HBS Press, 1997).

Product Details

• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: Harvard Business Review Press; First Edition edition (March 29, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1578512441
• ISBN-13: 978-1578512447
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.4 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #589,331 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Perspective Pays, March 14, 2002

By 

Darren Angus (Pleasanton, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Total Access (Hardcover)

While I'm not one for too many business books, I took the recommendation of a respected friend and read the book.

I wear two hats in a web development and multimedia production company; owner and sales. The content of Total Access satisfied both brains. We provide our clients with communication tools that are focused at internal and external audiences. I found myself head nodding and matching many of our company and client experiences to concepts discussed in the book. The book helped me recognize (and hopefully capitalize on) patterns that we see occurring with our clients.

Regis may not see the future (cause it's already happening), but he may be the first reporting on it. I'd recommend Total Access if you are able to "apply" valuable insight and knowledge to your business life. Stick with Tom Peters if you just like to read.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Too fluffy, October 25, 2002

By 

Patrick J Hunt (Seattle, WA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Total Access (Hardcover)

The most valuable part of this book is in chapter 7 in which he provides the checkpoints for the marketing architecture. McKenna used the first six chapters to create the foundation from which he postulates the need for the marketing architecture -- which is chapter 7.

I bought into his reasons in the first chapter and as a result, I could have, should have gone directly to chapter 7.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Has some great new ideas, bad news for traditional marketers, August 28, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Total Access (Hardcover)

While the book tends to go round and round a bit, its central theme (the evolution of branding to include all channels of access and the need for a new marketing discipline) is very thought provoking.

McKenna argues that many of the functions traditionally performed by marketers under the auspices of "brand" such as customer service, market intelligence, etc. are being performed by IT departments. He warns marketers that their jobs are being absorbed by the CTO and CIO.

His description of a new kind of "Marketing Architecture" is very interesting. The book manages to tie channels of access together with loyalty, brand awareness, globalization, and partnerships. I found that the book required me to wrench my brain to think about marketing and technology from a very different angle.

I suspect marketers will dislike its central premise. Nobody likes to hear that their job is going to be automated by the guys in the IT department!