The general purpose of marketing is to promote and present a product to customers, as well as to further control the relationship that is being built with them. In fact, this is a market activity to meet the actual needs and demands of consumers. The main mission of marketing is to create successful market offers, viable markets and companies. It implies constant processing and interpretation of information.
Books are a great tool for self-study and self-development in this sphere. The main thing is to read the right ones, those that can give answers to your questions and contain many interesting ideas. Below we list the world’s best-selling books on marketing and business, which every entrepreneur and marketing specialist should read.
1. Thinkertoys: A Handbook of Creative-Thinking Techniques by Michael Michalko (under $15)
The book contains about 30 exercises for the development of thinking. Some of the techniques teach how to transform information in various ways in order to find new ways to solve problems. Other mind games help connect your subconscious mind to work. To get results, get ready to train each technique from several hours to several days.
2. Customers for Life: How to Turn That One-Time Buyer Into a Lifetime Customer by Carl Sewell (under $15)
The story of the book should start with the fact that Sewell is an active successful businessman. On the pages of his work, he willingly shares advice and recommendations, talks about how he developed a network of dealerships from scratch. Key message: repeat sales are essential. It may seem that many of the author’s thoughts are obvious. However, knowing does not mean doing. The book contains many examples and right words that help to feel and accept the principles of customer focus. The book changes the attitude towards customers and encourages to take a big step towards them.
3. No Thanks, I'm Just Looking: Professional Retail Sales Techniques for Turning Shoppers into Buyers by Harry J. Friedman (under $30)
The book is suitable for marketers specializing in sales. Probably the main book of any salesman. It tells about how to turn even the “coldest” client into an interested buyer. Someone complains about the abundance of “water”, but it only immerses the reader deeper into the atmosphere of sales, helps to understand that there is no objection that could not be closed. The main message: always show empathy, the human factor is of enormous importance.
4. Purple Cow: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable by Seth Godin (under $20)
Most of the book is about the fact that traditional advertising does not work and we no longer notice it. Seth argues that selling at a time when people have advertising blindness means standing out from the rest. You need to create unique products so that customers come for them themselves. The purple cow is not just a product that meets the needs, it is something outstanding. The main task of marketing by Godin is not to describe, but to invent a product. It is important to come up with a clear and digestible idea that distinguishes the product from the rest. Further – to constantly analyze and adjust the product in order to give customers an effective solution to problems. It is important to be attentive to customers, to look for your own strategy, to differ from the industry leaders (if they are far ahead) and competitors in general, to take risks, and not follow the leaders. Focus on customers who can tell others about you. They are excited about new products, and as a rule, they can talk loudly about them. These are those who are usually called trendsetters.
5. Contagious: Why Things Catch On by Jonah Berger (under $15)
A real godsend for content marketing and brand advertising campaigns. The book has several techniques for how to create viral products – messages that you want to share. The book is interesting even outside the marketing context. It is filled with examples about human psychology, which are interesting to read. It’s as if you’ve been sharing the secret of how the human mind works. After reading it, entrepreneurs, bloggers, marketers, and all those involved in retaining customer attention will begin to understand a little more about the psychology of people.
6. Ogilvy on Advertising by David Ogilvy (under $15)
This is a book about advertising. And probably the best one. And the best book about creating advertising messages. That’s why David Ogilvy was the best copywriter in the world and the founder of the cult agency Ogilvy&Mather. So, probably, it just needs to be read by everyone who is connected with advertising, marketing, promotion. The book describes the rules and laws of the advertising business, there are sketches and examples of works. One of the few works about advertising written almost forty years ago, but still relevant. The problem of the book, in our opinion, is only that you want to pull it apart entirely for quotations.
7. Marketing essentials by Philip Kotler (under $15)
Kotler is the dad of traditional marketing. He has written an incredible number of books, scientific articles on marketing. He is also a professor and one of the few who has been relevant for a long time (also like Ogilvy) and is still being republished. Not the easiest book, if you compare it with the rest of the books on the list. But it is quite affordable when compared with other marketing textbooks. The book contains interesting tasks and practice questions that make the brain think. Marketing will become clear for you, you will know what and how to do.
8. Marketing Outrageously Redux: How to Increase Your Revenue by Staggering Amounts by Jon Spoelstra (under $20)
Easy reading, but it sets you up for a fighting mood. The book has an interesting focus on the combination of sales and marketing. It is an attempt to write your own “Marketing. Management”, focusing on his own special style of work. The author shares stories from his practice. He worked in sports marketing and had to promote teams of losers – but he was able to make them bring in more money than the leaders. The author shares the secrets of how to increase your income by dealing with costs.
