Some helpful information that I found from Anderson Analytics’s survey:

Good to Great remained the most widely read and most recommended book. However, several new books appeared on the reading list this year including: Groundswell, Hot Flat and Crowded, The Black Swan, Predictably Irrational, Mavericks at Work, The New Rules of Marketing and PR, The Art of the Start, Purple Cow, Go Put Your Strengths to Work, and Our Iceberg is Melting.

The number-one business Guru last year, Seth Godin, remained the favorite marketing guru for 2009, according to the survey. However, Warren Buffet and Malcolm Gladwell increased significantly in popularity and now occupy the #2 and #3 spots on the list, respectively. Jim Stengel also made the Marketing Guru list for the first time this year.

“This year we saw an increase in importance in several areas, not just ‘customer satisfaction’ and ‘retention,’” said Tom H.C. Anderson, managing partner of Anderson Analytics. “There were also significant increases in the importance of marketing concepts such as ‘CRM,’ ‘data mining’, and  ‘leading through analytics.’ That together with interest in books like The Black Swan and optimism on market research budgets signals marketing executives realize that in a down economy, it’s even more important to utilize information efficiently and keep the customers you have.”

About the survey: Anderson Analytics conducted the Marketing Trends 2009 Survey among 643 current MENG members between Nov. 15 and Dec. 2, 2008. Anderson Analytics used text-mining software to code open-ended/free form text answers to questions in order to understand what issues were top-of-mind.

Tags: books, marketing

One question posted on LinkedIn is: what is the future of marketing.

I posted my answer:

First, good question! My short answer is: user rules!

I agree with Neil Smith that 4 Ps are still the principles, but the components of each P are changing in the way how users will control most of them. In one word, I think that the future of marketing including 4 Ps will be redefined by users.

Users will be the one who drives all 4 Ps:
Promotion = Viral / WOM
Pricing = Customized price based on each user’s profile
Place = Offline, Web, Mobile, Virtual…
Product = Crowd sourcing based product design & development

User won’t be the traditional sense of “consumer” any more. They are the creator, promoter, marketer and buyer — all in one. Marketing will be the tools & concepts that facilitate users’ activities & behaviors.

Tags: marketing