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I was just passing by my local bookstore the other day and FAQs on Marketing caught my eye. I recognized the name of the author (Philip Kotler) immediately because I used to study his books on marketing when I was in college. As you might have expected, I bought the book shortly after browsing through the content.

As a broad overview, FAQs on Marketing covers Kotler’s views on Markets and Marketing (Trends, New Ideas, Major Challenges), Marketing Strategy (Segmentation, Targeting, Positioning, Differentiation, Innovation), Marketing Tools (the 4Ps, Advertising, PR, Sales Promotion, Management and Selling, Sponsorships, Buzz Marketing, Media), Marketing Planning, Marketing Organization, Marketing Control, Marketing Areas of Application (Retail Marketing, Direct Marketing, Internet Marketing, Personal Marketing) and Marketing Excellence.

Kotler covers more breadth than depth in this book. What I found most interesting wasn’t so much the actual bulk of the content itself but the way Kotler carried out his up-selling, cross-selling and personal marketing when answering the frequently asked questions. He constantly referenced many of his other books and papers and established himself as an authority, who helped pioneer many of the marketing ideas and concepts we know today.

The following are the main points Kotler emphasized in FAQs on Marketing:

1. It has become increasingly important for marketing professionals to speak the language of the CFO. A financial background allows marketers to better quantify the anticipated impact of any campaign, which in turn aids in greater buy-in.
2. Too much of today’s marketing is 1P marketing. Companies mainly concentrate on promotion and sales and disregard product, price and place (distribution). This results in ineffective marketing.
3. “A Business has two… and only two basic functions: marketing and innovation. Marketing and innovation produce results: all the rest are costs.” - Peter Drucker
4. We are living in a world that is no longer facing a shortage of goods, but a shortage of customers.
5. With the advent of the internet, customers are able to compare prices easily and this has raised the importance of pricing among the 4Ps. That being said, branding is still crucial. Customers will not necessarily go for the cheapest brand. However, they are more than likely to buy their preferred brand from the retailer offering the lowest price.

For more in-depth coverage of the marketing concepts Kotler talks about in FAQs on Marketing, you can refer to the following resources:

• Principles of Marketing by Philip Kotler and Gary Armstrong
• Marketing Management by Philip Kotler and Kevin Lane Keller
• Strategic Brand Management by Kevin Lane Keller
• The Loyalty Effect: The Hidden Force Behind Growth, Profits, and Lasting Value by Frederick F. Reichheld and Thomas Teal
• Discovering the Soul of Service: The Nine Drivers of Sustainable Business Success by Leonard L. Berry
• Kellogg on Marketing by Dawn Iacobucci
• Driving Customer Equity : How Customer Lifetime Value is Reshaping Corporate Strategy by Roland Rust, Valarie Zeithaml, and Katherine Lemon
• The One to One Future by Don Peppers and Martha Rogers