The Marketing Gurus: Lessons from the Best Marketing Books of All Time (Hardcover)

~ (Author), Soundview Executive Summaries (Author) "In a series of Advertising Age articles published in 1972, two marketing consultants, Jack Trout and Al Ries, introduced a new P to marketing: positioning..." (more)
Key Phrases: lateral marketing process, operationally excellent companies, vigilante consumer, Soundview Executive Book Summaries, New York, Guy Kawasaki (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

As the editor of Soundview Executive Book Summaries, which distills business books into 5,000-word recaps, Murray offers 17 such summaries of marketing books published in the last 15 years. It's arguably a narrow range for the best "of all time"—even with big names like Regis McKenna and Sergio Zyman on board. Each book summary begins with a quick summation, often making redundant the introductions written especially for the collection. And though the condensed versions manage to extract the key ideas from each text, some authors fare better than others. Faith Popcorn's unique voice survives compression, for example, much better than Seth Godin's does. The selected books are sequenced to suggest a broader argument that runs from connecting with customers to marketing in the 21st century, but the actual connections between the various works are largely unstated. Unless you're completely new to marketing research, chances are you've come across at least one of these books already, but Soundview's summaries are a good introduction for those with no background. (June)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Product Description

Since 1978, Soundview Executive Book Summaries has offered its subscribers condensed versions of the best business books published each year. Soundview’s summaries have won it acclaim as the definitive selection service for sophisticated business book readers.

For the first time ever, Soundview is bringing together summaries of seventeen essential marketing classics in a single volume. The Marketing Gurus includes a new, previously unpublished summary of Crossing the Chasm by Geoffrey Moore. Other featured books include:

• Positioning by Jack Trout and Al Ries
• Kotler on Marketing by Philip Kotler
• The Popcorn Report by Faith Popcorn
• The Anatomy of Buzz by Emanuel Rosen
• Purple Cow by Seth Godin
• Relationship Marketing by Regis McKenna
• And more

The Marketing Gurus distills thousands of pages into fewer than three hundred, making it ideal for busy professionals, students, and anyone curious about how marketing has evolved.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Portfolio Hardcover (July 20, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1591841054
• ISBN-13: 978-1591841050
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 5.8 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #58,705 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Guru Review....excellent, August 29, 2006

By	M. Van Der Meulen - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I had to pick a book and write a review as part of an assignment of for may graduate marketing class. Having no marketing experience I took a shot in the dark and picked this book.

I am so glad I did. Although the authors of the original full-text versions would disagree, Mr. Murray "readers digest" summaries of the book were terrific. This book allowed me a great overview of 17 marketing books in one.

For someone new to marketing it was so quick and excellent reading to get me up to speed. You'll have to wait for a experienced marketing major for their judgment.

I felt it should be required reading for anyone who wants to know more about marketing but don't have the time to read all the full-text versions.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not a bad book; a bit dated, August 26, 2008

By	Brian Martin (Houston, TX United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Marketing Gurus: Lessons from the Best Marketing Books of All Time (Hardcover)

I'm about 75% done with this book, and while it has some good tidbits of info, it has one major problem: It's dated. Some of the summaries go as far back as 1980, I think there's one even from the 70's. If I would have known that half the summaries were so old, I definetly wouldn't have purchased it. While you can glean some nuggets of information from some of these summaries, most are just too dated to have much bearing on todays marketing aspects.

Some of the preditions, like the internet as an emerging technology and social aspects of marketing are interesting to be able to see how they came to fruition. I wouldn't have minded a few summaries from marketing past, but over half the book is devoted to summaries from the 90's while less than 25% is devoted to just early 2000. I think the latest article they have is from freaking 2004 - light years past when it comes to the internet and other marketing media.

I definetly would not purchase this book at it's full retail price. As an ancillary purchase to a more recent book,at 7$ that wouldn't be a bad deal. It's got some interesting information on different tactics and comes from the perspective of several high profile figures who bring different things to the table. As a bargain purchase, it's not a bad deal, but it seems like they just could have included some more recent books, especially with internet marketing being such a huge part of todays marketing.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Cliff Notes Version to Great Marketing, February 10, 2007

By	Roger Bauer "http://smbconsultinginc.com" (Louisville, KY) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

A "Cliff Notes" version of some of the top marketing books published. If you can't read all of the titles individually, this summary compilation makes for a good thought provoking start.