While there may not have been any breakthrough marketing books in 2008 like a Long Tail or Tipping Point, there were some good thought provoking reads. Here are ten of the best marketing books from 2008 from a post I wrote for The Executive Marketing Blog.
10. Buying In: The Secret Dialogue Between What We Buy and Who We Are by Rob Walker
9. Impact: How to Get Noticed, Motivate Millions, and Make a Difference in a Noisy World by Ken McArthur
8. Reality Check: The Irreverent Guide to Outsmarting, Outmanaging, and Outmarketing Your Competition by Guy Kawasaki
7. Sway: The Irresistible Pull of Irrational Behavior by Ori Brafman and Rom Brafman7.
6. Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies by Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff
5. The Brand Bubble: The Looming Crisis in Brand Value and How to Avoid It by John Gerzema, Edward Lebar, and Peter Stringham
4. Answering the Ultimate Question: How Net Promoter Can Transform Your Business by Richard Owen and Laura L., PhD Brooks
3. Buyology: Truth and Lies About Why We Buy by Martin Lindstrom
2. Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us by Seth Godin
1. Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions by Dan Ariely
Here are some more intriguing marketing titles you may not have heard of but may be worth checking out.
Always On: Advertising, Marketing, and Media in an Era of Consumer Control by Naomi S. Baron
The Customer Loyalty Solution by Arthur Middleton Hughes
Brand Storming: Managing Brands in the Era of Complexity by Garry Titterton and Michele Fioroni
Pain Killer Marketing: How to Turn Customer Pain into Market Gain by Henry Devries, Chris Stiehll
Obsessive Branding Disorder: The Illusion of Business and the Business of Illusion by Lucas Conley
33 Million People in the Room: How to Create, Influence, and Run a Successful Business with Social Networking by Juliette Powell
The Four Pillars of Profit-Driven Marketing: How to Maximize Creativity, Accountability, and ROI by Leslie Moeller and Edward Landry
Beyond Price by Mary Kay Plantes and Robert D. Finfrock
Accidental Branding: How Ordinary People Build Extraordinary Brands by David Vinjamuri
Prove It before You Promote It: How to Take the Guesswork Out of Marketing by Steve Cuno and Michael, PhD Shermer
Secrets of Social Media Marketing: How to Use Online Conversations and Customer Communities to Turbo-Charge Your Business! by Paul Gillin
Are there any 2008 marketing books that you recommend or think were left off the list?
Photo by zsita
Thanks for the list- I will have to check out some of these books.
As a co-author of one of the “intriguing” books, Pain Killer Marketing, I am glad to be mentioned here. Our book is as much a book about how to do market research and how to use it, as it is about marketing. There are several key lessons learned here over the last 35 years, many of them at great pain. The idea is that we should market to the customer’s pain, not promote the benefits of our product.
I am glad that you have recognized “Always On” as one of the best business books of 2008. The magazine Strategy + Business has done so as well. Ad Age also had it listed too.
However, you have identified the wrong author. Christopher Vollmer is the author, not Naomi S. Baron who is listed on your site.
Please correct this as soon as you can. It would be much appreciated.
Thank you,
Christopher Vollmer
I would like to suggest the book Cunningly Clever Marketing by Andrew Wood. It was released in January of 2009 and it a great read. You can check it out at http://www.cunninglyclevermarketing.com .