There is no such thing as a growth industry, declares Theodore Levitt in Marketing Myopia ( www.tatamcgrawhill.com). There are only companies organised and operated to create and capitali se on growth opportunities, he adds.

Levitt sees in the history of every dead and dying ‘growth’ industry a self-deceiving cycle of bountiful expansion and undetected decay, characterised by four conditions.

One, the belief that growth is assured by an expanding and more affluent population, the author explains. The second myth is that there is no competitive substitute for the industry’s major product.

The next pitfall is putting “too much faith in mass production and in the advantages of rapidly declining unit costs as output rises.” And the final trap can be the “preoccupation with a product that lends itself to carefully controlled scientific experimentation, improvement, and manufacturing cost reduction.”

A classic of lasting value.

Differentiate or Die: Survival in Our Era of Killer Competition
Jack Trout

To those who put creativity on a pedestal it should be sobering to hear Jack Trout say that creativity is not a differentiating idea. “A large amount of today’s advertising has gotten so creative or entertaining that it’s sometimeshard to tell what companies are even advertising,” he observes in Differentiate or Die: Survival in Our Era of Killer Competition, second edition (Westland).

Since minds are limited as to how much information they will take in and store, the author advises on the need to overcome the natural stinginess of minds by working hard at presenting the message as important news.

If people think you’ve got an important message to convey, generally they’ll open their eyes or ears long enough to absorb what you’ve got to say, assures Trout. The trick, he says, is not to bury that information in what some call ‘creativity.’

An unputdownable read.

Branding Your Business
James Hammond

What should you do to promote your business, attract customers and stand out in the marketplace? “You need to cut away all the parts that don’t look like your brand. And replace them with a ‘Brand Halo’ that not only looks lik e your brand but sounds like it, tastes and smells like it, and feels like it, too,” answers James Hammond in Branding Your Business ( www.vivagroupindia.com). If you don’t want to drown in a commodity pit, influence is really all you have to build a brand, he urges.

Brand Halo is a phrase that the author uses for the ‘overall dialogue with the customer’ that includes logos, mission statements, slogans and more. It fits right around your company and displays what you have to offer in the best possible light, he describes.

The book speaks of four core components for building the ‘halo,’ and these are captured in EPIC – an acronym for emotion, perception, innovation, and communication.

Well-presented insights.

D. Murali

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