Shoemaker: Reebok and the Untold Story of a Lancashire Family Who Changed the World


Joe Foster - 2020
    Since the late 19th century, the Foster family had been hand-making running shoes, supplying the likes of Eric Liddell and Harold Abrahams - later immortalised in the film Chariots of Fire - as well as providing boots to most Football League clubs. But a family feud between Foster's father and uncle about the direction of their business led to Joe and his brother Jeff setting up a new company, inspired by the success of Adidas and Puma, and so Reebok was born. At first, money was so short that Joe and his wife had to live in their rundown factory, while the machinery that made the shoes was placed around the edge of the floor, because it was so weak it could have collapsed if they'd been positioned in the middle. But, from this inauspicious start, a major new player in the sports equipment field began to emerge, inspired by Joe's marketing vision. By the 1980s, Reebok had become a global phenomenon, when they were the first to latch onto the potential of the aerobics craze inspired by Jane Fonda. Soon, Reeboks were being seen on Hollywood red carpets and even in the film Aliens , where Sigourney Weaver wore a pair of Reebok Alien Stompers.  Like the international bestseller Shoe Dog, by Nike's Phil Knight, Shoemaker is a powerful tale of triumph against all the odds, revealing the challenges and sacrifices that go into creating a world-beating brand; it is also the story of how a small local business can transform itself, with the right products and the right vision, into something much, much bigger.

Beyond Booked Solid


Michael Port - 2008
    Port's Book Yourself Solid was a huge hit among professional service providers and small business owners who learned to master the art of attracting clients and keeping them happy. In this book, he helps your business keep growing by taking the next step, beyond booked solid. That means maximizing your business while working less and earning more. This is the ultimate guide for your growing business.

The Whuffie Factor: The 5 Keys for Maxing Social Capital and Winning with Online Communities


Tara Hunt - 2008
    Everyone knows about blogs and social networks such as Facebook and Twitter, and has heard about someone who has used them to grow a huge customer base. Everyone wants to be hands-on, grassroots, and interactive, but what does this mean? And more to the point, how do you do it?As one who has actually launched a company using the power of online communities, and who now advises large and small companies, Tara Hunt (named by the San Francisco Chronicle, along with luminaries Jimmy Wales and Tim O’Reilly, as a digital Utopian) is the perfect person to do this book.While The Whuffie Factor will traverse the landscape of Web 2.0 and show how to become a player, it is not just another book about online marketing. People see the huge business potential of the online world and the first impulse is: Let’s throw a bunch of money at it. To which Tara Hunt says: “Stop! Money isn’t the capital of choice in online communities, it is whuffie–social capital–and how to raise it is at the heart of this book.” In the Web 2.0 world, market capital flows from having high social capital. Without whuffie you lose your connections and any recommendations you make will be seen as spam–met with negative reactions and a loss of social capital.The Whuffie Factor provides businesspeople with a strategic map and specific tactics for the constantly evolving, elusive, and, to some, strange world of on­line communities. By connecting with your customers through community interaction, you’ll raise your social capital, create demand, and sell more product. Consumer loyalty is a direct result of whuffie. With great stories of online business successes and cautionary tales of major missteps–recording industry, anyone?–Tara Hunt reveals how social networking has more influence over buying decisions than any other marketing tool and how your business can tap into the vast world of Web 2.0 to build an unshakable foundation for twenty-first-century-style online success.For those without millions–even thousands–to throw around, here is a fresh perspective for using social networks to help build a business whether you are a start-up or a Fortune 500 giant. Even those in big rich companies need to learn how to be effective and not waste their money. For them–as well as the entrepreneur–The Whuffie Factor is an eye-opening guide to a world they probably don’t understand all that well.

Strategic Marketing


David W. Cravens - 1982
    The new edition of "Strategic Marketing" uses a decision-making process to examine the key concepts and issues involved in analyzing and selecting strategies. Marketing strategy is considered from a total business perspective, examining marketing strategy beyond the traditional emphasis on marketing functions. The length and design of the book offer flexibility in the use of the text material and cases. New features and updated cases have made this text the most relevant text in the market today.

Platform: The Art and Science of Personal Branding


Cynthia Johnson - 2019
    Platform is the why-to, how-to handbook by top expert Cynthia Johnson for everyone who wants to develop and manage a personal brand. In Platform, Johnson explains the process of going from unknown to influencer by achieving personal proof, social proof, recognition, and association. Johnson herself went from an on-staff social media manager to social media influencer, entrepreneur, and marketing thought-leader in just three years using her process of accelerated brand development, continuous brand management, and strategic growth. Fans of #GirlBoss and #AskGaryVee, who wonder how their favorite influencers found their voices and built their audiences, will find the answers here and discover that the process is technical, creative, tactical, and much easier than they might have expected.

Wine Bar Theory


David Gilbertson - 2013
    It's not about cutting corners, it's about wanting the very best and not settling for less. It's a theory that can pave your road to success.Author David Gilbertson built a failing company into a successful multi-billion dollar business without getting up at 4:00am or working until midnight. He knows how to work better, and get brilliant results. Now in just 28 simple rules, he spells out the secret of his success; everyday accessible strategies for creative professionals, managers, students, entrepreneurs, and anyone who wants to get ahead in life. As one rule follows another, he builds a compelling narrative on paving the way to success (and getting that all-important time to go to a wine bar with friends, or just time to think).Covering workplace issues and business strategy, Wine Bar Theory shows you things you can do more easily, and things you don't need to do at all. It's about being effective and not just busy. This affordable, pocket-sized book is a business book like no other. Its creative illustrations are by Bill Butcher, whose work is seen in the pages of The Wall Street Journal, Fortune and the Economist.

Silent Sales Machine 9.0: Your Comprehensive Proven Guide to Multiple Streams of Online Income


Jim Cockrum - 2015
    Your purchase includes full audio (as ready by the author with bonus commentary & content) as well as Jim's top selling email marketing course which normally sells for $97! As one of the most read Internet business success authors of all time, Jim is committed to keeping his flagship book up to date and always full of the most cutting edge ideas. Multiple online business strategies are documented as the author advises everyone from "newbies" to seasoned professionals on what DOES and DOESN'T work in the world on online business and Internet marketing RIGHT NOW. The reader will learn to establish multiple automated income streams using proven, creative concepts with numerous examples of successful application given throughout the book. Topics covered include; Selling on Amazon.com, creative uses of eBay, finding and growing a loyal audience online, social marketing, automating your online efforts, effective email marketing and multiple real life success stories from his ever growing audience of creative and successful online entrepreneurs. BONUS: Buyers get full free access to Jim's $97 email marketing course (see chapter 3 for the link!) BONUS 2: Full audio of the book as read by the author!

Unconscious Branding: How Neuroscience Can Empower (and Inspire) Marketing


Douglas Van Praet - 2012
    If consumers make decisions unconsciously, why do we persist in asking them directly through traditional marketing research why they do what they do? They simply can't tell us because they don't really know. Before marketers develop strategies, they need to recognize that consumers have strategies too . . .human strategies, not consumer strategies. We need to go beyond asking why, and begin to ask how, behavior change occurs. Here, author DouglasVan Praet takes the most brilliant and revolutionary concepts from cognitive science and applies them to how we market, advertise, and consume in the modern digital age. Van Praet simplifies the most complex object in the known universe - the human brain - into seven codified actionable steps to behavior change. These steps are illustrated using real world examples from advertising, marketing, media and business to consciously unravel what brilliant marketers and ad practitioners have long done intuitively, deconstructing the real story behind some of the greatest marketing and business successes in recent history, such as Nike's "Just Do It" campaign; "Got Milk?"; Wendy's "Where's the Beef?";and the infamous Volkswagen "Punch Buggy" launch as well as their beloved "The Force" (Mini Darth Vader) Super Bowl commercial.

Optimize: How to Attract and Engage More Customers by Integrating SEO, Social Media, and Content Marketing


Lee Odden - 2012
    Companies, large and small, will benefit from the practical planning and creative content marketing tactics in this book that have been proven to increase online performance across marketing, public relations, and customer service. Learn to incorporate essential content optimization and social media engagement principles thereby increasing their ability to acquire and engage relevant customers online."Optimize" provides insights from Lee Odden, one of the leading authorities on Content and Online Marketing. This book explains how to: Create a blueprint for integrated search, social media and content marketing strategyDetermine which creative tactics will provide the best results for your companyImplement search and social optimization holistically in the organizationMeasure the business value of optimized and socialized content marketingDevelop guidelines, processes and training to scale online marketing success"Optimize" offers a tested approach for a customer-centric and adaptive online marketing strategy that incorporates the best of content, social media marketing, and search engine optimization tactics.

Grouped: How Small Groups of Friends Are the Key to Influence on the Social Web


Paul Adams - 2011
    It is moving away from its current structure of documents and pages linked together, and towards a new structure that is built around people. This is a profound change that will affect how we create business strategy, design, marketing, and advertising. The reason for this shift is simple. For tens of thousands of years we've been social animals. The web, which is only 20 years old, is simply catching up with offline life.From travel to news to commerce, smart businesses are reorienting their efforts around people-around the social behavior of their customers and potential customers. In order to be successful, businesses will need to understand how people are connected, how their social network influences them, how the people closest to them influence them the most, and how it's more important for marketers to focus on small, connected groups of friends rather than looking for overly influential individuals.This book pulls together the latest research from leading universities and technology companies to describe how people are connected, and how ideas and brand messages spread through social networks. It shows readers how to rebuild their business around social behavior, and create products that people tell their friends about.

Services Marketing: People, Technology, Strategy


Christopher Lovelock - 1991
    Organized around a strategic marketing framework"Services Marketing" guides readers into the consumer and competitive environments in services marketing. The marketing framework has been restructured for this edition to reflect what is happening in services marketing today.

The Hype Machine: How Social Media Disrupts Our Elections, Our Economy, and Our Health--And How We Must Adapt


Sinan Aral - 2020
    . . a lively, engaging masterpiece."--Erik Brynjolfsson, bestselling co-author of The Second Machine AgeMIT professor Sinan Aral isn't only one of the world's leading experts on social media--he's also an entrepreneur and investor, giving him an unparalleled 360-degree view of the technology's great promise as well as its outsize capacity to damage our politics, our economy, and even our personal health.Drawing on two decades of his own research and business experience, Aral goes under the hood of the biggest, most powerful social networks to tackle the critical question of just how much social media actually shapes our choices, for better or worse. Aral shows how the tech behind social media offers the same set of behavior-influencing levers to both Russian hackers and brand marketers--to everyone who hopes to change the way we think and act--which is why its consequences affect everything from elections to business, dating to health. Along the way, he covers a wide array of topics, including how network effects fuel Twitter's and Facebook's massive growth to the neuroscience of how social media affects our brains, the real consequences of fake news, the power of social ratings, and the impact of social media on our kids.In mapping out strategies for being more thoughtful consumers of social media, The Hype Machine offers the definitive guide to understanding and harnessing for good the technology that has redefined our world overnight.

The Dragonfly Effect: Quick, Effective, and Powerful Ways to Use Social Media to Drive Social Change


Jennifer Aaker - 2010
    But no book addresses how to harness the incredible power of social media to make a difference. "The Dragonfly Effect" shows you how to tap social media and consumer psychological insights to achieve a single, concrete goal. Named for the only insect that is able to move in any direction when its four wings are working in concert, this bookReveals the four "wings" of the Dragonfly Effect-and how they work together to produce colossal resultsFeatures original case studies of global organizations like the Gap, Starbucks, Kiva, Nike, eBay, Facebook; and start-ups like Groupon and COOKPAD, showing how they achieve social good and customer loyaltyLeverage the power of design thinking and psychological research with practical strategiesReveals how everyday people achieve unprecedented results-whether finding an almost impossible bone marrow match for a friend, raising millions for cancer research, or electing the current president of the United States"The Dragonfly Effect" shows that you don't need money or power to inspire seismic change.

Integrated Advertising, Promotion and Marketing Communications


Kenneth E. Clow - 2001
    The carefully integrated approach of this text blends advertising, promotions, and marketing communications together, providing readers with the information they need to understand the process and benefits of successful IMC campaigns. The fifth edition brings the material to life by incorporating professional perspectives and real-world campaign stories throughout the text.

The Mesh: Why the Future of Business Is Sharing


Lisa Gansky - 2010
     Most businesses follow the same basic formula: create a product or service, sell it, and collect money. What Lisa Gansky calls "Mesh" businesses throw this model out the window. Instead, these companies use social media, wireless networks, and data crunched from every available source to provide people with goods and services at the exact moment they need them, without the burden and expense of owning them outright. "The Mesh" gives companies a better understanding of what customers really want. Already, hundreds of successful Mesh companies are redefining how we interact with the people, goods, and services in our lives. These businesses are easier to start and spreading like wildfire, from bike sharing and home exchanges to peer-to-peer lending, energy cooperatives, and open source design. Consider: ZipCar profits from streamlined car sharing Kickstarter connects artists with funding from enthusiastic supporters Music Gym makes finding a recording studio as easy as joining a gym "The Mesh" reveals the next wave of information-enabled commerce, showing readers how to plug in and profit."