Timely, smart, and stimulating; should provoke a re-evaluation of brand marketing strategy.
Horst, a Fortune 500 chief marketing officer, addresses the marketing challenges posed by a fractious political climate.
Horst’s on-target observations in this excellent debut speak to urgent, relatively recent issues for marketers. He begins with an overview of the new reality: “A perfect storm of forces has created an environment where brands can instantly become this week’s focus for indignant and increasingly activist consumers, energized social media influencers, and news media hungry for headlines.” The first part of the book covers the broader elements of tribalism, fear and mistrust, fake news, and the politicization of just about everything. The author makes a key point about the impact on companies: They cannot stand on the sidelines, because “their every word and action will be scrutinized and judged, as will every silence and inaction.” In the second section, the author concentrates on the “new rules” of marketing. Particularly intriguing is Horst’s “Brand Risk-Relevance Curve,” which ranges from “head in sand” to a brand’s values and purpose to the “polar position” it might adopt on current issues. Rather than discuss rules in isolation, Horst weaves in several examples. For instance, Patagonia’s decision to directly confront President Donald Trump on public land policy illustrates how one brand can pursue a bold position regardless of the potential consequences. He also takes aim at a number of assumptions that deserve to be challenged. For example: Does relying on such marketing technologies as big data and sophisticated analytics obscure the need for marketers to connect with consumers in an effort to gain qualitative insights? Such salient observations lend a richness to the guide. “Leading Under Fire,” the third part of this well-crafted work, is sure to be relevant to executives whose responsibilities extend well beyond brand marketing. Horst begins by examining many of the reasons leaders might not want to engage in a “social/political agenda.” In giving voice to these objections, the author demonstrates the polarization he has been discussing in the first two-thirds of the book while laying the groundwork for his closing argument. Horst suggests there is an inevitability to a storm of some sort hitting a brand and that it’s a leader’s responsibility to anticipate it. His advice with regard to responding under fire is smart, pragmatic, and thoughtful. The concluding chapter comprises commentary from several senior marketing executives at brands and agencies who speak openly about whether the new marketing reality is here to stay. This section, at times sobering, is remarkable for its consistency of message. Horst does not presuppose the action a marketer needs to take; rather, he counsels that the reader “learn how to navigate the new realities and, better yet, take control of them and of your destiny.”
Timely, smart, and stimulating; should provoke a re-evaluation of brand marketing strategy.Pub Date: June 1, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-59932-926-0
Page Count: 200
Publisher: Advantage Media Group
Review Posted Online: June 1, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
These are not hard and fast rules, but Meyer delivers important reading for those engaged in international business.
A helpful guide to working effectively with people from other cultures.
“The sad truth is that the vast majority of managers who conduct business internationally have little understanding about how culture is impacting their work,” writes Meyer, a professor at INSEAD, an international business school. Yet they face a wider array of work styles than ever before in dealing with clients, suppliers and colleagues from around the world. When is it best to speak or stay quiet? What is the role of the leader in the room? When working with foreign business people, failing to take cultural differences into account can lead to frustration, misunderstanding or worse. Based on research and her experiences teaching cross-cultural behaviors to executive students, the author examines a handful of key areas. Among others, they include communicating (Anglo-Saxons are explicit; Asians communicate implicitly, requiring listeners to read between the lines), developing a sense of trust (Brazilians do it over long lunches), and decision-making (Germans rely on consensus, Americans on one decider). In each area, the author provides a “culture map scale” that positions behaviors in more than 20 countries along a continuum, allowing readers to anticipate the preferences of individuals from a particular country: Do they like direct or indirect negative feedback? Are they rigid or flexible regarding deadlines? Do they favor verbal or written commitments? And so on. Meyer discusses managers who have faced perplexing situations, such as knowledgeable team members who fail to speak up in meetings or Indians who offer a puzzling half-shake, half-nod of the head. Cultural differences—not personality quirks—are the motivating factors behind many behavioral styles. Depending on our cultures, we understand the world in a particular way, find certain arguments persuasive or lacking merit, and consider some ways of making decisions or measuring time natural and others quite strange.
These are not hard and fast rules, but Meyer delivers important reading for those engaged in international business.Pub Date: May 27, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-61039-250-1
Page Count: 288
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Review Posted Online: April 15, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2014
Occasionally wonky but overall a good case for how the dismal science can make the world less—well, dismal.
“Quality of life means more than just consumption”: Two MIT economists urge that a smarter, more politically aware economics be brought to bear on social issues.
It’s no secret, write Banerjee and Duflo (co-authors: Poor Economics: A Radical Rethinking of the Way To Fight Global Poverty, 2011), that “we seem to have fallen on hard times.” Immigration, trade, inequality, and taxation problems present themselves daily, and they seem to be intractable. Economics can be put to use in figuring out these big-issue questions. Data can be adduced, for example, to answer the question of whether immigration tends to suppress wages. The answer: “There is no evidence low-skilled migration to rich countries drives wage and employment down for the natives.” In fact, it opens up opportunities for those natives by freeing them to look for better work. The problem becomes thornier when it comes to the matter of free trade; as the authors observe, “left-behind people live in left-behind places,” which explains why regional poverty descended on Appalachia when so many manufacturing jobs left for China in the age of globalism, leaving behind not just left-behind people but also people ripe for exploitation by nationalist politicians. The authors add, interestingly, that the same thing occurred in parts of Germany, Spain, and Norway that fell victim to the “China shock.” In what they call a “slightly technical aside,” they build a case for addressing trade issues not with trade wars but with consumption taxes: “It makes no sense to ask agricultural workers to lose their jobs just so steelworkers can keep theirs, which is what tariffs accomplish.” Policymakers might want to consider such counsel, especially when it is coupled with the observation that free trade benefits workers in poor countries but punishes workers in rich ones.
Occasionally wonky but overall a good case for how the dismal science can make the world less—well, dismal.Pub Date: Nov. 12, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-61039-950-0
Page Count: 432
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Review Posted Online: Aug. 28, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2019
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