The Web has changed the game for your customers-- and, therefore, for you. Now, "CustomerCentric" Selling, already recognized as one of the premier methodologies for managing the buyer-seller relationship, helps you level the playing field so you can reach clients when they are ready to buy and create a superior customer experience.

Your business and its people need to be "CustomerCentric"--willing and able to identify and serve customers' needs in a world where competition waits just a mouse-click away. Traditional wisdom has long held that selling means convincing and persuading buyers. But today's buyers no longer want or need to be sold in traditional ways.

"CustomerCentric Selling" gives you mastery of the crucial eight aspects of communicating with today's clients to achieve optimal results: Having conversations instead of making presentations Asking relevant questions instead of offering opinions Focusing on solutions and not only relationships Targeting businesspeople instead of gravitating toward users Relating product usage instead of relying on features Competing to win--not just to stay busy Closing on the buyer's timeline (instead of yours) Empowering buyers instead of trying to "sell" them

What's more, "CustomerCentric Selling" teaches and reinforces key tactics that will make the most of your organization's resources. Perhaps you feel you don't have the smartest internal systems in place to ensure an ideal workflow. (Perhaps, as is all too common, you lack identifiable systems almost entirely.) From the basics--and beyond--of strategic budgeting and negotiation to assessing and developing the skills of your sales force, you'll learn how to make sure that each step your business takes is the right one.

"The Place Branding Yearbook 2010" examines the case for applying brand and marketing strategies and tactics to the economic, social, political and cultural development of places such as communities, villages, towns, cities, regions, countries, academic institutions and other locations to help them compete in the global, national and local markets.

Metaphors are widely used within marketing literature, yet so far have remained unacknowledged. This book aims to redress that omission. Such widely known topics such as globalization of markets, viral marketing and many others are in fact metaphors; moreover, marketing itself may be a metaphor, underlying many exchanges and relationships.

National and international salespeople experience a variety of difficulties in the course of their profession, but they don't get much understanding from the public.

In this personal account, Marvin Rubinstein looks back at a career traveling from city to city and country to country trying to make a buck in this eye-opening account of what it's reallylike to be in the sales business. Even if you're a salesperson sitting in a comfortable chair and calling people on the phone, you can find entertainment and valuable lessons in this instructive narrative. You'll discover

tips on converting prospects into customers;

guidance on avoiding cultural missteps;

advice on making air travel cheaper and more comfortable; and

ground rules for meeting friendly members of the opposite sex (if you're in that market).

Part memoir, part travelogue, and part sales guide, Rubinstein's story recalls the wide range of trials, tribulations, opportunities, and disappointments that he experienced during his lifetime of sales adventure.

An increasing number of products and services are not differentiated by inherent features, but by the vendors, particularly their reputation and marketing commu- cation. Consequently, a positive reputation provides competing vendors with a virtually inimitable competitive advantage. Contemporary research concerning antecedents and consequences of reputation in the domain of marketing is dominated by branding and line extension issues. Organizations' communication efforts and the relation of reputation and the c- munication media are not fully understood; nor have they been challenged up to now. Moreover, customers' perception of reputation is clearly embedded in their cultural context. However, contemporary marketing research restricts both conceptual and empirical considerations to Western-type cultures. Frequently, even the differences in Western-type cultures are neglected. Considering these shortcomings in contemporary marketing research, Dr. Christine Falkenreck investigates the opportunities and limits, and also the potential bene?ts and dangers of transferring a vendor's positive reputation to product categories never produced or offered by the considered vendor. Embedding the empirical investigation of both reputation management and reputation transfer in a coherent theoretical framework, which is grounded in the Commitment-Trust theory, is her merit. She derives and validates an integrated model that appears to be valid in all cultures considered in her study. The results of this analysis contribute substantially to our understanding of reputation measuring and managing. These results are not restricted to academic interests and they provided practitioners with a variety of new insights. Thus, this thesis will ho- fully be widely discussed in both academia and management practice.

This book offers an overview of haptic sensation and its influence on consumers' behaviour, especially in dual and mediated environments where products are accessible through an interface. After almost three decades, marketers have reached a critical understanding of the importance of consumers' senses to the processing of brands, products and advertising information. Since the development of the internet, however, there have been questions as to how markets and consumers can reach out to products in different environments. Recent advances in technologies allow sensations to render or stimulate physical sensations similar to the handling of the same product. These emerging possibilities question the way consumers are and will be able to feel a product according to the reality it relies on. The book begins by defining and discussing haptic consumption, before introducing the challenge of appealing to consumers' senses in the digital age and examining how marketing managers have overcome this tangible barrier to date. The authors go on to further investigate the role of interfaces in rendering tactile sensations, with a particular focus on technological innovations. Finally, the book presents the authors' original research in the field and offers a prospective vision of consumption for the coming years.

A colourful history of advertising. The process of producing goods and services is relatively easy to recognize as socially beneficial. But television ads? Telemarketers? Jingles? Junk mail? It is popular to view these commercial activities as inherently wasteful or manipulative, marginally informative or entertaining, at best. The most vociferous critics marshal economic and sociological data to argue that advertising dilutes culture and moral values, encourages conspicuous consumption, defrauds the public, and promotes dangerous products and behaviours. In Selling the Dream, John Hood takes the provocative stand that advertising images and sales pitches are actually part of the goods and services themselves, delivering an essential component of the consumer's experience. As such, they are inextricably linked to the basic tenets of the free-market system, and, in the boldest of terms, Hood argues that commercial communication is morally consistent with the principles of a democratic society, including freedom of choice, competition, and innovation. Tracing the history of advertising from Ancient Roman times to the present, through the first American newspaper ad in 1704, P.T. the modern consumer society, Hood offers a colourful account of advertising in its cultural context. Moreover, he addresses such controversial issues as the promotion of harmful and immoral products (such as tobacco and alcohol), marketing to children, the role of advertising in service industries such as health care and education, and the impact of the Internet and other new media on the conduct of commerce. In the process, he offers a compelling perspective on advertising and its essential role in business, communication, and popular culture. Advertising is a ubiquitous part of our consumer culture. It draws from business, economics, politics, and history to present a colourful picture of advertising in context and argues that advertising is an essential ingredient of competition, innovation, and free-market economic growth. Deals with controversial issues, such as advertising immoral products and advertising to children.

Building brands in emerging markets is akin to navigating a minefield. One misstep and the entire enterprise may blow up in your face with your brand consigned to the grave yard of marketing casualties How is branding in an emerging economy different from the same exercise in a mature economy? What are the peculiar challenges brand managers face when they find themselves in socially complex and rapidly changing emerging markets? The Seven Dimensions of Branding articulates the fundamental elements of the branding process, with specific reference to Africa's largest emerging market, Nigeria. Drawing on the author's more than two decades of helping local and international brands, the book gives you an insight into the peculiar challenges of creating and building successful brands in Africa and explains why global brands are not emerging from this vibrant continent. The Seven Dimensions shows how the universal principles of branding may be successfully applied in emerging economies.

Many firms enter new markets each year in search of growth, but only a handful succeed. A major reason for failure is underestimation of market entry barriers and competitors' reactions to market entry. Thus the objective of this book is to help marketers make more informed market entry decisions. To that end, the authors provide a comprehensive discussion of market entry barriers in both domestic and international markets, as well as strategies for overcoming them.

Chapter 1 provides an overview of the origins and nature of barriers, as well as a review of the existing literature on the subject. Chapter 2 concentrates on the differences between barriers in consumer and industrial markets in both early and late market entry situations. Barriers to entry in international markets are explained in Chapter 3. The timing of market entry is discussed in Chapter 4, where it is demonstrated that the nature of barriers changes in response to different stages of the product life cycle. Chapter 5 explores the relationship between exit and entry barriers and makes the case that the fear that market exit might be costly often plays an important role in market entry decisions. Chapter 6 examines the vital role of managerial consensus regarding market entry decisions. Chapter 7 explores profitability and other factors involved in early versus late market entry decisions. Strategies for overcoming barriers are covered in Chapter 8, and the book concludes with two Appendices that provide detailed market entry simulation exercises for domestic and international market.

Though many still think that we live in an information economy, Ernest Sternberg asserts that the driving force in 21st-century capitalism is not information, but image. Through studies of food processing, real estate development, tourism, movies, and labor performances, he examines how businesses endow products with evocative meaning.

It has become common wisdom that we live in a postindustrial information society in which data and calculation underlie wealth. But now that information is as routinely produced as industrial or agricultural goods, businesses are discovering that they best achieve competitive advantage by producing what consumers most dearly seek--personal meaning. The 21st-century economy produces just that: not merely information, but evocative images; not just commodities, but meaning-laden icons. As Sternberg shows, foods now appeal through their sensuality and nostalgia; houses and stores draw customers through their exoticism; people sell their labor through the deliberate performance of the self for the market; and tourist destinations offer up carefully crafted thematic experiences. Whereas farms, factories, and information processors once stood at the core of the economy, now movie studios do, producing the product valued above all, meaningful content, from which downstream firms acquire the themes that animate desire.

Now that meaning pervades production, Sternberg argues, modes of inquiry once reserved for the humanities make sense in the study of the economy. Drawing on art history and aesthetics, he introduces iconography as a mode of cultural analysis adapted to the study of commercial production. Through comparative studies of diverse economic sectors, ranging from food processing to tourism, Sternberg carries out an iconographic analysis of the new economy. This is a provocative study for scholars, students, and professionals dealing with marketing and consumer research, culture and media studies, socio-economics, and economic geography.

This textbook provides students with comprehensive insights on the classical and contemporary marketing theories and their practical implications. A fourth, revised edition of Marketing Management, the text features new classical and contemporary cases, new interdisciplinary and cross-functional implications of business management theories, contemporary marketing management principles and. futuristic application of marketing management theories and concepts. The core and complex issues are presented in a simplified manner providing students with a stimulating learning experience that enables critical thinking, understanding and future application. Each chapter features a chapter summary, key terms, review and discussion questions and a practice quiz. Throughout the text there are also specific teaching features to provide students and instructors with an enhanced pedagogical experience. These features include: The Manager's Corner: These sections provide real-world examples that instructors may highlight to exemplify theory or as mini-cases for discussion. Marketing in Action: These sections ask students to apply concepts and theories to actual business situations. Web Exercises: These mini sections provide students with real world issues and suggest websites for more information. In addition, the authors provide ancillary lecture notes and Solution/Instructors manual online to aid instructors in their teaching activities.

Women buy the weekly shopping, home insurance, household appliances, soft furnishings, holidays and more. CEO's and Marketers need to acknowledge that women really are the Boss when it comes to buying. They also need to understand the many psychological and behavioral characteristics of women that affect their relationships with brands. This book identifies the key biological and brain differences between women and men, then defines more effective marketing approaches based on these insights.

The ability to sell yourself and your ideas may be the most essential skill for achieving business success. Even so, society demeans selling and salespeople, perpetuating stereotypes that make us cringe. In "Selling with Soul," author Sharon V. Parker attacks those attitudes head-on and explodes the myths about salespeople being unprofessional and driven by self-interest.

"Selling with Soul" counters many of the negative notions of selling by explaining why it is an honorable profession that creates value for all when it is done with empathy for the customer and a firm commitment to principles. Parker helps you learn the skills and attitudes that result in successful sales careers, and she shares the lessons that can result in a successful, balanced life-lessons she learned during a twenty-six-year career in sales.

In this, the second version of "Selling with Soul," Parker includes a review of sales basics, updated with how people buy today. She also shares ideas for finding and keeping new business, and she presents lessons in the soft skills so essential to selling with integrity and empathy: listening, conflict resolution, understanding personal styles, dealing with temptations and compromise, and creating a life consistent with your values.

"Selling with Soul" helps heal the split between job and spirit. It shows how problem-solving, creating value, and treating others with empathy and integrity are the keys to selling-and living-with soul.

This book examines emerging theories, frameworks, and applications of global marketing for the 21st century. It highlights how global marketing is changing in a globalized and digital economy that is fast increasing in complexity and uncertainty. The traditional approach to global marketing is no longer sufficient to address the emerging issues in global markets. Global companies need to challenge traditional assumptions in global marketing in an era of shifting political, cultural, economic, and technological changes. They need to take a fresh look at the contemporary threats and opportunities in markets, institutions, and technology and how they affect entry and expansion strategies through careful re-calibration of the marketing-mix. This book offers new insights for global marketing that addresses these issues. This book should be an ideal resource to both academic scholars and reflective practitioners globally such as CEOs and chief marketing officers as well as government officials and policy makers interested in formulating strategies/policies for global marketing activities in the face of a globalized and digitized economy. This well-crafted research volume is an excellent addition to the growing literature on new trends in international marketing. The authors present the latest insight on the impact of phenomena such as cross-border e-commerce and digital markets, and they discuss new tools for political risk assessment, international branding and more broadly the reconfiguring of marketing-mix strategies - A powerful reminder that the new global market remains a rugged landscape. - Alain Verbeke, McCaig Research Chair in Management and Editor-in-Chief Journal of International Business Studies, University of Calgary, Canada. Emerging trends in institutions, markets, and societies, along with new technological advances, are redefining the scope and strategy in global marketing. Professors Agarwal and Wu have assembled a remarkable collection of cutting-edge topics and issues that capture the shifting paradigm and contemporary developments in the global marketing field. This is an informative and timely resource that makes a valuable contribution, useful for both scholars and business practitioners of global marketing. - Constantine S. Katsikeas, Arnold Ziff Endowed Research Chair in Marketing & International Management, Editor-in-Chief Journal of International Marketing, University of Leeds, UK. This book presents new and cutting-edge thinking at a time when the traditional views of international marketing need to be scrapped. Convergence forces are creating new opportunities as well as threats on a daily basis, and marketing practitioners as well as scholars must be forewarned as well as forearmed on how to deal with these changes. The real growth is coming from the emerging nations, and the theories that provided sufficient insights ten years ago have been completely outmoded by the ever-accelerating rate of innovation and technological change as well as the pressures to address the needs of all of the firm's relevant stakeholders. The strategic insights provided here are absolutely invaluable. Don't miss an opportunity to read this book!! - John B. Ford, Professor of Marketing & International Business, Eminent Scholar & Haislip-Rohrer Fellow, Editor-in-Chief, Journal of Advertising Research, Old Dominion University, USA.

We are currently at the beginning of a great business phenomenon: The Hispanic Gold RushTM of the 21st century. Organizations are certainly trying to do all the right things to leverage the potential that the Hispanic market offers. However, in spite of their massive investments of effort and resources, many businesses experience only limited success and are not gaining the loyalty they expect from Hispanic consumers. How to Win The Hispanic Gold RushTM explains the reasons why many organizations have had little success in marketing to Hispanics in the U.S. Practical tools are conveyed to help businesses better direct their resources so they may succeed in this challenging marketplace. Demographic data about the Hispanic population is presented, together with valuable information about cultural and motivational traits that are unique to Hispanics--and that determine their purchasing decisions. In addition, it describes four potential steps organizations can take to effectively increase their penetration of this important ethnic group.

This book presents the most up-to-date account of research based on the Behavioural Perspective Model of consumer choice. The accumulated empirical results, which draw on behavioural economics, psychology, and marketing, are summarized, after which the philosophy of science that underpins the model is explored. Foxall's contribution to the debate about the explanation of consumer choice, intentional behaviourism, is both expounded and critiqued, and the resulting synthesis is explored in relation to its relevance to marketing management, public policy on environmental matters, the adoption and diffusion of innovations, and further research in consumer behaviour and marketing. This is a major contribution to consumer research and marketing theory.

This book brings together current innovative methods and approaches to segmentation and outlines why segmentation is needed to support more effective social marketing program design. It presents a variety of segmentation approaches alongside case studies of their application in various social marketing contexts. The book extends the use of segmentation in social marketing, which will ultimately lead to more effective and better-tailored programs that deliver change for the better. As such, it offers a detailed handbook on how to conduct state-of-the-art segmentation, and provides a valuable resource for academics, social marketers, educators, and advanced students alike.