In Search of the Obvious: The Antidote for Today's Marketing Mess (Hardcover)

~ (Author)
Key Phrases: powerful differentiator, brand schizophrenia, differentiating idea, General Motors, Some Observations, Some Help (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

This is the first book that states the obvious: Marketing is a mess. Marketing guru Jack Trout intends to make a lot of people, who made the mess, very uncomfortable:

Advertisers are criticized as people who look for the creative and edgy, not the obvious. They will not be happy.

Marketing people are criticized for getting hopelessly entangled in corporate egos and complicated projects. They will not be happy.

Research people are criticized for generating more confusion than clarity. They will not be happy.

Some big companies are criticized for their ill-fated marketing programs or lack of proper strategy. They will not be happy.

Wall Street is criticized for putting too much emphasis on growth that is unnecessary and can be destructive to a brand. They will just ignore this criticism and continue trying to make as much money as they can.

But this is a book not written to make people happy but to explain to marketers what their real problem is. Only then will they begin to look for the obvious solutions that will separate their products from their competitors -- in a way that is equally obvious to customers. All this comes with no jargon, no numbers, no complexity, and a great deal of common sense.

From the Inside Flap

The search for any marketing strategy is the search for the obvious.

We are in an era of killer competition. Category after category is perceived as a commodity. This fact is the central reason the critically important function of marketing is such a mess. It's also why the average chief marketing officer barely lasts beyond two years in the job.

In this book, marketing guru Jack Trout clears up the confusion that surrounds the marketing profession. Instead of focusing on segmentation or customer retention or search engine optimization or data mining, marketers should be searching for that simple, obvious differentiating idea. Marketers not looking for the obvious had better have a very low price.

This search should begin with what Trout considers the best book ever written on marketing—even though it was published in 1916 and isn't about marketing. Entitled Obvious Adams: The Story of a Successful Business Man, it lays out the five tests of an obvious idea that will lead you to the right marketing strategy for any product.

But In Search of the Obvious goes beyond the obvious by laying out what gets in the way of this search. Things like the Internet, advertising people, marketing people, Wall Street, research, even the future. These are all huge distractions that keep marketers from their most important task: differentiating their products.

To bring these principles for finding the obvious to life, Trout finds obvious solutions to today's troubles for the likes of GM, Coke, Wal-Mart, newspapers, and the bewildering beer business. The fundamental problem is that effective marketing is both complicated and extremely simple—so simple that professional marketers overlook the most obvious and effective ideas entirely, in an attempt to be clever or creative. But if an idea is obvious to you, it will be obvious to your customers—which is why it will work.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: Wiley (October 13, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0470288590
• ISBN-13: 978-0470288597
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #201,267 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Really pathetic business book, June 4, 2009

By	Toby (New Jersey, USA) - See all my reviews

I have never read a business book that had a more elementary thesis or flawed reasoning.

If Budweiser's sales have remained flat while they have spent money on advertising, then advertising must be a bad idea. This guy must have missed his logic classes before he graduated from 5th grade.

"Try to sneak up on your competitors and don't confront them until you are big enough to really challenge them." Really?

And is there really a difference between data and information? I think i actually felt my brain cells contract and shudder as I read this.

The question asked should be is there a difference between a book and a quasi-random collection of trite marketing cliches and hackneyed business observations?

I admittedly did not finish this book, but I read more than I wanted to because a co-worker encouraged me to read it.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Warmed Over, April 9, 2009

By	Thomas Oliver (Boca Grande, FL) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Unfortunately, author Trout has just warmed over his older books, and pitches them relentlessly. This is a clear case of "if you've seen (read) one, you've seen (read) them all..." It is too bad, because there certainly are enough situations in today's marketplace to allow a fresh treatment of a very valuable subject for managements, but this isn't it. On the other hand, if you've never read any of his earlier books, then this one will give you an understanding of all his points.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Ignore this book at your own risk., November 7, 2008

By	Dick Maggiore (Canton, OH) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

If a CEO were to read only one book on marketing, "In Search of the Obvious" is it. The pages fly fast with easy-to-understand counsel, everything you need to know to successfully manage the marketing function of your company.

But this book is more than initially meets the eye. Don't be misled by the subtitle -- "The Antidote for Today's Marketing Mess". Trout's thinking applies to any and all of the messes in which we find ourselves today. With all the obfuscation taking place in business, and certainly in marketing, this book helps you to keep your eye on the ball -- the simple obvious differentiating idea. This from the man, Jack Trout, who coined the term "positioning".


Trout writes about real-life brand examples to bring the positioning principles to life for marketers. But you don't need to be in marketing to appreciate his invaluably obvious thinking. His book is all about that good, old-fashioned virtue we call "common sense." We all have it, but we learn to shy from it because we are conditioned to make things so darn complicated.

Trout's book inspires us to be confident that common sense indeed facilitates the development of the obvious -- and thus the best -- ideas. And he brings the search back around to his original set of immutable laws of marketing. They are tried-and-true guidelines in your own search for the obvious. As Trout counsels, ignore them at your own risk!