Libraries and great marketing books

One of my passions is travelling. My travel bug has taken me to many countries and one of the places that I visited was USA. USA is a treasure cove for book lovers. The community (government) libraries are so well maintained that it is not right to compare them with our own poorly run government libraries in India.

Library Membership is free and members can borrow as many books as they like. It is very common to see book lovers come and load a suitcase full of books and take them away. If the books are returned within the stipulated time there is no late fee levied.

But there is a heavy penalty of one dollar per week for late returning of books. The issue and returning are all automatic. The member himself has to swipe the books for the issue and drop the returned books in a huge chute that carries the books automatically to the respective rooms.

The community library is a place for old books. Members drop their unwanted books, novels and journals. Other members can take any book that they fancy and pay whatever money that they feel the book is worth. The entire system works on a very transparent way and it so astonishing to note that no one tries to cheat and I am sure that this way the library gets more money in its cash box than if it were to mark the price and sell the same with lots of supervision.

Other libraries make it even more interesting by packing more than 20 popular paper backs, popular books and novels and sell them at a throw away price of 10 dollars. It is akin to playing the Russian roulette. You never know. One might draw duds all the time or end up with 20 classics at a throw away price of 10 dollars! The risk and the fun is in finding a rare book in such a transaction.

Book sellers like Barnes and Noble have taken marketing of books to the next level. Their stores are libraries in their own right. A reader can happily browse books and settle down on comfortable chairs and read at his/her heart’s content. One can read the entire book or read a part and buy the book.

Shoppers would always flock to a shop that appears crowded. The sight of people sitting and reading stimulate others to come in and they would either sit down and read or buy the book and take it away. Indian book sellers are also catching up. Indian book retailer Crosswords also encourages visitors to come in and sample their books before buying.

Libraries are a great place to relax and gain knowledge at the same time. Like the saying goes “there is no greater friend than a book” and no better place to find that a great friend than in a humble library.

Good Marketing books: A good marketing professional needs to be tuned into the present. He needs to understand the changing needs of the customer. He needs to converse with the customers. He needs to be in sync with his customers. Reading is the best way to be well informed and stay well informed. Let us examine five authors who have authored books whose books are compulsory read for any marketing professional.

1. Gerard Nierenberg- How to read a person like a book: One of the best books for marketing students. This book tells us how to be a good reader of non-verbal communication or body language. The customer in many cases gives off many non-verbal cues and indication of likes and dislikes. ‘Are we catching the cues that the customer is giving us?’.
Like the doctor in the English movie The Mask says “we all wear masks that hide our real feelings and emotions”.

It is imperative to understand the person behind the mask. Unveiling of the mask could be the first step in understanding the other person aka the customer. This book allowsone to understand body language and use it advantageously. (Many online versions are available in PDF format). I recommend buying of the book as the reader needs to practice the art and that can’t be done with an E-book).

2. The second set of books is not penned by a management expert. They are written by a zoologist namedDesmond Morris who has written a series of books all starting with the title “Watching”. His books like Man Watching, Naked Ape, The Human Animal, Gestures are all classic reads.

His astonishing observations and comparisons between human and animal behavior are very illuminative and startling. One needs to be very good is applied psychology to understand the consumer behaviour as most market related actions is actually buried deep in the realm of human psyche.

3. The third author who influenced me a lot is Vance Packard was an American journalist and a social critic. The must read books by Vance Packard include - The Hidden Persuaders a book on the advertising industry, The Status Seekers which describesthe American social stratification and behavior,The Waste Makers which criticizes planned obsolescence and its describing the impact of American productivity.

The Pyramid Climbers which describes the changing impact of American enterprise on managers, the structured lives of corporate executives and the conformity they need to advance in the hierarchy. TheNaked Society which details the threats to privacy posed by new technologies such as computerized filing, modern surveillance techniques and methods for influencing human behavior.

Fourth in my list are Al Ries and Jack Trout. The authors who gave the concept of ‘Positioning’ for the first time. The name of the book is positioning: The Battle for Your Mind. Their second bestselling book is titled Marketing Warfare. Their third book The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing, a book that outlines the basic reasons why marketing programs succeed or fail. All three books are marketing classics.

The final author who has impressed me is an author who writes fiction. But mark my words his fictional books are well researched and written. The books do have a fictional story line but details one sector or industry so graphically that a reader might be forgiven in thinking that it is a compulsory read for that particular sector. No prizes for guessing the right answer - Yes I am talking about Arthur Hailey: the master story teller.

The following is the list of books written by Arthur Hailey. Brackets indicate the sector or industry that it details. The Final Diagnosis (Hospitals), In high places (politics and governance), Hotel (Hospitality), Airport (Aviation), Wheels (automobiles), Strong Medicine ( Pharmaceuticals), The money changers (Banking and Finance), Overload (Electrical Utility), The evening news(Media), Detective (Crime, detection and Policing).