Product Description

Trump University Marketing 101 combines the biggest name in business with the 40-year teaching experience of one of the most well-known marketing thinkers in academia. Without an MBA in marketing, how can today’s entrepreneurs and business owners stay on top of what’s happening in marketing? How can they find the best new ideas and avoid those tactics that don’t work or just lead to trouble?

Trump University Marketing 101 presents all the basics of a marketing MBA. Each chapter focuses on one key marketing idea and explores it in a straightforward, non-academic manner with exercises and examples that show the idea in action. But more than basic instruction, Sexton also includes his own methodologies for making vital marketing decisions–the same methodologies major corporations pay top-dollar to have him teach their employees.

Don Sexton is Professor of Business at Columbia University and principle of The Arrow Group, Ltd.®, a marketing consulting and training firm whose clients have included GE, Citigroup, IBM, and Pfizer, among many others. He has taught at Columbia for more than 35 years, is a recipient of the Business School’s Distinguished Teaching Award, and has written numerous articles on marketing and branding issues. He is often quoted in prominent media such as The New York Times, Business Week, and Beijing’s China Economic Daily.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #489938 in Books
• Published on: 2006-06-23
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 336 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780471916901
• Condition: USED - VERY GOOD
• Notes:
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

Review
"…contains practical business tips…straightforward, matter-of-fact tone when explaining ideas and tactics with step-by-step instructions that are easy to grasp…" (Business Traveller, October 2006)

From the Inside Flap
For entrepreneurs, business leaders, and managers who don't have an MBA, Trump University Marketing 101 provides an up-to-date explanation of the best ideas and most effective tactics in marketing. Combining the biggest name in business with lessons from a top marketing professor, this practical guide covers all the basics of a marketing MBA—without the commitment of so much time and money.

Author Don Sexton has taught marketing at Columbia University for more than thirty-five years and now shares his lifetime of invaluable experience with you. Each short chapter focuses on one key marketing idea and explores it in a straightforward, nonacademic way with exercises and examples that show the idea in action. Professor Sexton also includes practical guidelines for making key marketing decisions—using the same formulas major corporations pay top-dollar to have him teach their employees.

With step-by-step instructions and handy worksheets, this one-of-a-kind guide offers practical marketing help for anyone who wants to increase their sales, profits, cash flow, or ROI. You'll discover which tactics work and which don't, and—with real-world guidance from Sexton—you'll be able to implement the right tactics in your own business. You'll master the best tactics in marketing to increase your sales and profits, build your brand, or increase your customer base.

Designed for use as either a standalone primer or as a companion text for Trump University marketing courses, Trump University Marketing 101 provides all the information and strategy you need to successfully market your products and services. No matter what you sell or how you sell it—whether you're running a small business or a major corporation—this comprehensive guide explains everything you need to know about modern marketing.

For more information visit: www.trumpuniversity.com

From the Back Cover
Trump University books are practical, straightforward primers on the basics of doing business the Trump way—successfully. Each book is written by a leading expert in the field and includes an inspiring Foreword by Trump himself. Key ideas throughout are illustrated by real-life examples from Trump and other senior executives in the Trump organization. Perfect for anyone who wants to get ahead in business without the MBA, these streetwise books provide real-world business advice based on the one thing readers can't get in any business school—experience.

In Trump University Marketing 101, you'll learn how to:

• Master the basics of great marketing
• Understand customers, competitors, and market conditions
• Find your target market
• Position your product or service against the competition
• Create a great brand
• Develop a marketing plan
• Grow your business
• Increase customer satisfaction
• Price your products effectively
• Advertise and promote your business
• Use the Internet to reach new customers
• Employ guerrilla marketing techniques
• Forecast sales and profits
• And much more!

Customer Reviews

An excellent textbook and resource, especially for non-students
So you're managing your own business or organization, and you need to figure out how to reach potential customers and generate sales. You don't hold an MBA, and you don't have the time or money to take a college or continuing ed marketing course. What do you do? Well, this book is sure to give you a solid foundation from which to launch a campaign. Author Don Sexton, a business professor at Columbia University as well as Trump University, has compiled a definitive text that not only is readable and understandable, but also offers a practical approach to what could be considered a complex and daunting task: getting your product in the hands of your customers.

Boiled down to its basics, marketing can be illustrated by the following scenario, told on pages 166-167:

"Ralph Waldo Emerson said, 'Build a better mousetrap, and the world will beat a path to your door.'
The marketing version of that quotation is: If you build a better mousetrap, then customers will buy it only if:
They know they have mice.
They want to get rid of the mice.
They believe a mousetrap is the best way to get rid of the mice.
They believe your mousetrap is better.
They believe your price is reasonable given the competitors' mousetraps and prices.
They know where to buy your mousetrap."

This book shows you how to achieve that kind of marketing success.

"Marketing 101" moves step-by-step through all facets of the overall marketing plan, with chapters dedicated to understanding customers, understanding competitors, identifying markets, branding, advertising, promoting, Internet marketing, coordinating communications, and pricing. Sexton doesn't just spout theory about marketing, managing perceived value, developing a growth plan, or conducting market research. He also offers practical techniques that can be applied in real-life situations. For example: "Coupons should have a triangle shape so they can be cut easily from a page. Your contact information should be both on the coupon and the page so what remains after the coupon is gone still functions as your ad." (pages 248-9) Readers in small businesses or organizations will appreciate the "guerrilla marketing" chapter near the end of the book, which shows how all of the previous tasks can be scaled down to meet the needs of those with staff or financial constraints. The recommendations in this book can be used by anyone in any kind of business that deals with customers, services, and/or products. Each reader will find something useful here.

Many of the examples provided -- predictably -- feature the Trump brand. But they're not just from the real estate side of the Trump empire. Also represented are items from the Donald J. Trump Signature Collection: watches, dress shirts, ties, suits, eyewear, fragrance, and even cell-phone ringtones. And branding is emphasized as an important aspect of what your business or organization is all about. Who better to illustrate that truth than Trump?

Kudos to Donald Trump, Trump University, and author Don Sexton for providing blank worksheets and review questions for each chapter on the university web site. Having easy access to these documents proves quite handy for printing and studying, and the pages are invaluable for sharing with colleagues while going through the planning process. The review questions help you relate what you've read to your own situation. They force you to think about who your customers are, who your target market is, and who your competitors are. Without a strong focus, your marketing approach will inevitably fail.

Other titles in the Trump University series so far include "Real Estate 101" and "Entrepreneurship 101." If those other offerings have text of the same quality as found in "Marketing 101," then the Trump Organization has found yet another domain to dominate: business textbooks. After all, those Apprentices have to learn the ropes somehow, don't they?

Lack Experience or Practical Knowledge - and lacks Trump
I'm a feverent fan of Donald Trump and for that reason I wanted to like this book. So, I approached this book with very wide expectations. I was disappointed.

My first reaction upon reading this book was at how much it discusses theory over any actual practical knowledge. This book doesn't read like it was written by an experienced marketing executive has led proactive and aggressive marketing campaigns.. It reads like it was written by an academician that has never been bloodied or ever left his classroom.

For example - in this book, there is a detailed analysis of "Donald Trump, The Fragrance". It discusses how Estee Lauder sought to develop a fragrance with a smell that would communicate different aspects of Trump's personality, such as "confidence, success, and character". That sounds nice - except that it displays a profound ignorance of how the fragrance industry works. Any experienced marketing professional will tell you that when marketing colognes and perfumes, the smell of the fragrance is almost inconsequential. Colognes and perfumes are all about branding, branding, branding.. That's why 95% of a fragrance's success is the careful development of the print and television ads, which are ignored here.

As a testament to this, remember that Bill Gates made Windows 95 a popular brand by hiring a V.P. of Marketing from the perfume industry ("I know nothing about software. I know everything about branding").

Donald Trump is an experienced Marketeer, and I expected more than sweet theories on dominant buying propositions and the like. This is a book that lacks any real-world knowledge and looks like it was written by an academic such as the stuffy business school teacher in the Rodney Dangerfield movie "Back to School". It promotes conducting expensive surveys and focus groups to determine what your customers want, rather than studying the psychological buying motives of your target industry.

I'm not saying that this book is useless. If you know absolutely nothing about Marketing, this book can show you the raw theoretical basics. But there is little of practical real-world value.

Trump University is a fantastic concept, and if it was really run by Mr. Trump, and if the content was carefully administered by Mr. Trump, I have no doubt it would be creating multimillionaires every day. Unfortunately, Mr. Trump subcontracted out Trump U. to a small company that took old tapes and books on "How to Succeed in Real Estate" that never sold 15 years ago and pasted the Trump logo on it. It supplements this by sending subscribers to the Trump University mailing list spam for photo contests and drugs (diet drugs, pet medication, hoodia, etc). This book is about as useful as spam.

Trump is a household name
Trump is good at many things, but if I were to pick the one thing that he is the best at, it would be marketing himself and his businesses. How many business owners' names are household names? Not many, but someone with a similar brand name is Warren Buffett. I picked up this book because I realize that marketing is the most important aspect of any business. If you don't have any customers, you have no one to service, and it doesn't really matter how good you are.

Even though Trump did not write this book, I found it extremely valuable. The author demonstrated how Trump developed marketing plans for some of his businesses such as colognes, casinos, shirts, and real estate. I remember attending a real estate convention years ago. The speakers on the panel could not believe that Trump was getting around $800 per square foot for condos in downtown Chicago while other competing properties were selling for around $300 per square foot. Trump has something called a moat. This term was coined by Warren Buffett to describe a competitive advantage. People find value in anything associated with the name Trump. If you want to learn how to develop it for yourself, then you should read this book.

- Mariusz Skonieczny, author of Why Are We So Clueless about the Stock Market? Learn how to invest your money, how to pick stocks, and how to make money in the stock market