Suggested reading November 2016: A digest of new marketing literature

‘The analytical marketer: How to transform your marketing organisation’

Adele Sweetwood, Harvard Business Review Press

Aimed at marketing directors and CMOs, this book looks at how marketers can nurture an analytical culture by realigning their siloed departmental structure to foster closer relationships between marketers and their colleagues in sales, finance and IT.

Sweetwood advises marketers to adapt to an analytical mindset, which is proactive, promoting an ‘agile leadership’ style. She encourages marketers to use data to drive towards personalised customer interactions and develop key skills such as an understanding of analytics and social media, without losing the ability for storytelling and creativity.

‘The 12 powers of a marketing leader: How to succeed by building customer and company value’

Thomas Barta and Patrick Barwise, McGraw Hill Education

Barta and Barwise encourage marketers who want to become leaders to mobilise their boss, colleagues, team and, importantly, themselves in this marketing leadership book. The authors suggest that a leader’s power lies in the space where customer and company needs intersect – the ‘V’ zone. To have influence, marketers must tackle the big issues that matter to both customers and the C-suite, and keep the reporting of their activities simple.

‘Brand desire: How to create consumer involvement and inspiration’

Nicholas Ind and Oriol Iglesias, Bloomsbury

Ind and Iglesias invite marketers to consider the foundations of brand desire, namely sensuality, surprise, authenticity, meaningfulness, social identity and extreme desire (when desire exceeds rational behaviour).

The authors draw a connection between brand desire and brand equity, characterising different companies according to how they build desirability among customers. There are ‘laggards’, brands fighting for survival; ‘pressure leaders’, brands that achieve large market share through aggressive strategies; and ‘niche players’, which despite high levels of brand desire are unable to convert this into a leading position.

Brands should strive to be ‘desire leaders’, who not only inspire desire among consumers but are unafraid to invest in ambitious strategies to maximise brand equity.