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Marketing, Branding and Sales

Three decisions carry most of the weight here: which customers to serve, what claim to own in their minds, and how that claim reaches them and converts. Ries and Trout argue for defining yourself against an existing competitor rather than describing your own features, and for narrowing the claim until it fits in one word. Cialdini catalogues the six mechanisms that make people say yes, Heath and Berger explain why some messages get repeated and most do not, and Moore describes the gap where technology products stall between enthusiasts and the mainstream market. Ogilvy supplies the copywriting craft and the discipline of measuring response, Ross and Tyler turn the sales side into a repeatable process with specialised roles, and Packard's older polemic is where the argument about manipulating consumers started.

13 books · 6 people behind it

Start here

  1. Positioning: The Battle for Your MindAl Ries, Jack Trout, 1981
  2. Influence: The Psychology of PersuasionRobert B. Cialdini, 1984
  3. Ogilvy on AdvertisingDavid Ogilvy, 1983

The people behind it 6

Each person holds a book in this entry or names it in their own tags.

Academics 1

RB
Robert B. Cialdini1 book here

Strategists 3

AR
Al Ries3 books here
GA
Geoffrey A. Moore1 book here
SG
Seth Godin1 book here

Journalists 2

AR
Al Ries3 books here
SG
Seth Godin1 book here

Books 13

Vance Packard · 1957 · Motivational research and the first popular backlash against it.
Al Ries, Jack Trout · 1981 · The original argument that the category slot is the asset.
David Ogilvy · 1983 · The craft, and the agency economics behind it.
Geoffrey A. Moore · 1991 · Why technology products stall between early adopters and the mainstream.