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12.18.08 Book Review: Outsmart The MBA Clones  By Wayne HurlbertWhen you have an unfair advantage, you are very successful, and at the same time, immune to competition, writes marketing expert Dan Herman in his provocative and insightful book Outsmart the MBA Clones: The Alternative Guide to Competitive Strategy, Marketing and Branding.  Outsmart the MBA Clones The Alternative Guide to Competitive Strategy, Marketing and Branding By: Dan Herman Publishing date: January 7, 2008 Format: Hardcover 200 pages ISBN-10: 0978660285 ISBN-13: 978-0978660284 Publisher: Paramount Market Publishing, Inc. The author describes, in vivid and paradigm challenging detail, how any why it's crucial for marketers to move beyond conventional thought. This change in thinking, will result in a new strategy, that can build what amounts to a private monopoly for a product or service. Dan Herman turns conventional marketing thought upside down, and along the way, shakes up a few sacred marketing icons. The author contends that the established marketing gurus, as quoted by almost every MBA graduate, are outdated in their ideas. The author even recognizes his own concepts may be obsolete in five years, as he understands that marketing and products are changing at an accelerating pace. What worked for marketers yesterday, might not work today, and those ideas definitely will be outmoded tomorrow. In a world where even recognized brand names are becoming indistinguishable from their competitors, the danger of well known products becoming little more than mere commodities, is increasing rapidly.
Dan Herman builds a strategic system based on marketing innovation with the goal of building what he calls an unfair advantage. This potential monopoly can't be established on the basis of price, but rather on sharp differentiation from the competition, and a sense that the brand can't be replaced. The brand loyalty, the author writes, must be so powerful that customers literally crave the product and its unique characteristics. The standing out from the crowded marketplace is not about developing niche markets, as the author rejects the niche market concept. Instead, the strength lies in the brand being so powerful that it simply has no competitors at all. For me, the power of the book is the understanding of the powerful role played by consumer behavior in brand marketing. As a result, successful strategies may not work for long, and constant innovation in the brand strategy is essential to success. The author recognizes the need for a deeper recognition of the role played by consumer psychology in the marketplace. The book provides many new tools, that go beyond the standard techniques used by MBA marketers, for building an unfair market advantage. I highly recommend Outsmart the MBA Clones: The Alternative Guide to Competitive Strategy, Marketing and Branding by Dan Herman, to any business people who are serious about understanding marketing in the post-brand loyalty world. Instead of lagging behind the needs and desires of the consumer, the book provides the necessary tools to differentiate your brand from the competition, and create a virtual monopoly. Read Outsmart the MBA Clones: The Alternative Guide to Competitive Strategy, Marketing and Branding by Dan Herman, and you will never look at MBA programs and traditional brand and marketing techniques in the same way again. Instead of going with the flow, your company can stand out and control the market with an unbeatable competitive brand advantage. Comments About the Author: Wayne Hurlbert provides insigtful information about marketing, promotions, search engine optimization and public relations for websites and business blogs on the popular Blog Business World. |
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