The Entrepreneur's Guide to Marketing

by Robert F. Everett

Overview

Marketing often scares entrepreneurs. They've sweat buckets coming up with a valuable product or service, and now they have to sell it? Won't it sell itself? No. But, as marketing expert Bob Everett shows, marketing is just not that hard. At some level, entrepreneurs know that. They know what appeals to them and what leaves them cold. They know when a person or marketing claim is trustworthy, and they know when claims are exaggerated. Yet when it comes to marketing their own products and services to others, entrepreneurs often find it difficult to apply that same judgment and common sense. Everett to the rescue! He helps entrepreneurs position products in the market, then sell them effectively and ethically.

Everett first destroys marketing myths:
• Marketing is difficult and needs to be done by professionals.
• Good marketing has to be expensive.
• Marketing skills require extensive training
• Marketing requires a great deal of creativity

These myths have spawned a multi-billion dollar industry consisting of advertising agencies, public relations firms, marketing consultants, and academic marketing programs in business schools. But as this book shows, marketing is a simple process that anyone can master—and that entrepreneurs must master if they are to succeed. Fortunately, the most effective marketing programs are usually the most honest, simple, and inexpensive. The Entrepreneur's Guide to Marketing is designed to help the entrepreneur, business owner, manager, or marketing professional harness his or her own inner wisdom and personal experience to develop powerful and efficient marketing programs. Both a how-to and a how to think about it book, it takes readers through a step-by-step process of figuring things out for themselves. The result? A successful marketing program that will help entrepreneurs harvest new customers, more dollars, and overall success.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780313350481
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	11/30/2008
Series:	The Entrepreneur's Guide
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	200
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.40(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Robert F. Everett, PhD, teaches marketing at Kutztown University in Pennsylvania. He has also taught at Johns Hopkins University and the University of Maryland, College Park. Besides working as an independent business consultant, Dr. Everett has been Regional Director for the American Management Association, Vice President at software developer The Orcutt Group, Director of Business Development for the high-tech consultancy Selbre Associates, and a principal in an advertising agency.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Introduction: You Are Much Smarter than You Think
1 Marketing Demystified
2. Marketing Applied: A Strategic Overview of Marketing
3 What Do I Want?
4. Your Market and What Iit Needs
5. Your Operational Environment
6. Assessing Your Own Capabilities
7. Identifying and Evaluating Your Competitors
8. Positioning Your Product or Service
9. Pricing Your Products and Services
10. Deciding on Your Marketing Strategy
11. Developing and Delivering Your Message
12. Getting Your Message oOut There
13. Selling Effectively and Ethically
14. Standing by Your Word
15. Calling in the Pros
16. The Final ChapterConclusion
Index
About the Author