The Marketing Mavens by Noel Capon

Publisher: Crown Business, 2007    ISBN: 0307354091, 9780307354099

The way far too many people at far too many companies think about and execute marketing was born in an era when suppliers-the companies generating products and services-were in the catbird seat. That world is long dead, and customers now occupy that position. In this relentlessly globalizing economy, we live in a world of oversupply and underdemand, with too many suppliers chasing too few customers, offering more goods and services than the market can absorb.

Noel Capon set out to discover what differentiates people who know how to succeed in this changed world-people who are able to create customers for the products and services of their business.

The Marketing Mavens is based on a four-year-long research program that spanned twenty-five industries, identifying long-term winners and what they do differently. Put simply, Marketing Mavens place customers at the center of their business and make marketing everyone’s job. Using a wide variety of intriguing, in-depth examples, from ESPN to the Mayo Clinic, Dr. Capon shows how the mavens create customers. How by placing the sports fan at the center of its business, ESPN creates programming that meets the needs of fans that were never given a second thought by the networks; or how physicians at the Mayo Clinic, being both technical experts and skilled at creating a patient-centric ambience, motivate people to pay the extra travel and lodging expenses not covered by insurance.

Marketing Mavens, though a rare breed, can be found up and down an organization-from the CEO to chief marketing officers to business unit managers. Noel Capon has talked to mavens from across the global economy and brings forth their uncanny insights behind the five imperatives of the true Marketing Maven:

¥ Picking markets that matter
¥ Selecting segments to dominate and finding the sweet spot in that segment
¥ Designing the offer to create customer value and secure differential advantage
¥ Integrating to serve the customer
¥ And measuring what matters

Noel Capon in The Marketing Mavens redefines marketing, moving it from a focus on selling and communication into a discipline that guides all the key decisions of a business. By seeing marketing as everyone’s business-not the domain of a few specialists-you’ll get your business in step with the way the world really works . . . and start creating customers. Next year’s profits don’t depend on next year’s numbers but on next year’s customers. The Marketing Mavens points the way to those customers, profits, and an increased stock price.

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