It is not that I was really worried about anything (…), but I felt I owed it to the master to read this book(let). According to Kotler, marketing theory is doing fine, but marketing in the real world has problems which need to be fixed. Marketing often has become 1P marketing: promotion only. Advertising plays only a minor part in a successful enterprise. And marketing should be right at the center of the firm’s strategy making process.
This book sums up ten sins/signal and gives suggestions what to do about them. I do wonder about the advice on how to understand your competition (hire their people in order to know how your competition thinks and acts). Delivering too many free services as also one of those sins. I think free is fine, as long as customers understand these services are part of a bigger package. And if they are not appreciated, they should not be delivered at all (as Kotler mentions). Great marketing helps to make great products bigger, but in the end you cannot outmarket lousy products (that is just my opinion).
Although some of the tips are no-brainers to me (marketing should work better with other departments, marketing and sales should visit customers together), the book is a good checklist for your marketing activities and very useful nonetheless. Great remark (from 2004): the use of the internet is hardly at 10% of its potential.
A lot of known names mentioned: Levitt, T. Peters, Christensen, Hamel, Treacy/Wiersema, Pine/Gilmore. And Naomi Klein (No Logo) which I should reread.
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