Marketing Mistakes & Successes: Robert F. Hartley & Cindy Claycomb (12th Edition)

From the 1st Edition, originally written in 1976, the 12th Edition has been edited to include even more examples of marketing successes and mistakes. The book's target audience is graduate and undergraduate classes, so this Edition is a modern and helpful resource for marketing insights. The marketing achievements and mishaps provided within the text are from various industries and firms. This Edition analyzes specific businesses and their overall health as a company. The book also dives in-depth into what it means to be successful in the marketing world and what to avoid in order not to encounter classic/common mistakes. The book is divided into six main parts, each containing at least three unique chapters. Each chapter highlights an example of a brand that has either succeeded or failed in a certain aspect. The first sect is about Marketing Wars and talks about the plights of Coke vs Pepsi, PC Wars, and Boeing vs. Airbus. The authors highlight how brands selling a similar or, in some cases, near identical product have to stand out amongst the herd to fully market their brand successfully. Many examples of how brands either succeed or fail come up again and again, such as New Coke, when Coca-Cola attempted to create its new popular soda different from the original, which nearly everyone either shrugged off or openly disliked, which made a big opportunity for Pepsi to sell more of their original/classic product. I used this example in one of my blog posts, as it provided a parameter for myself. After all, if something is not broken, there is no reason to fix it. Section two is focused on a company’s coming back into the spotlight, more specifically, the plights of McDonald’s, Harley Davidson, and Chrysler, respectively. Of the three chapters, I found the McDonald’s chapter to be the most interesting, as it’s insane to think that the largest restaurant and relator company in the world came so close to financial extinction at a certain point. Comebacks are something not every brand can achieve and require elite marketing, strategizing, and a bit of luck to pull off. The third and largest section of the book consists of marketing management mistakes. This portion has many different examples of brands blundering for various reasons.

One example is from Chapter 14, United Way of America: Damage Control for a Nonprofit’s Image. UWA suffered greatly due to white-collar theft occurring within the company from executives. UWA’s Board of Directors also did little to control the company, which furthered the company into a tailspin. Examples from the third section highlight how companies can make massive mistakes if the right management is not in charge. The next two sections highlight Entrepreneurial Adventures and Ethical Mistakes. I mainly focused on ethical mistakes, due to the fact that I mentioned the ethical mistakes made by Chegg shortly after my third internship ended. Ethical mistakes hurt a brand immensely, which was certainly the case for Chegg. The final section of the book is about Notable Marketing Successes and how certain brands have thrived through various means. From advertising heavily (Nike) to hardly advertising (Vanguard), this section provides three examples of successful strategies from three very different companies. In conclusion, Marketing Mistakes & Successes offers great insight into how companies can either thrive or blunder and provide dozens of unique examples of various business phenomena and scenarios. I would highly recommend this book to anyone trying to learn about how companies operate and what creates success and or failure within a business.