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2018 AXIOM BUSINESS BOOK AWARDS SILVER MEDALIST IN ADVERTISING & MARKETING You are looking at a must-have marketing book for CEOs. This is not a thousand-and-one clever ideas book. There are plenty of those already. This is a process book that carefully explains what marketing is and how to practice it in 6 easy steps. But it's also something else that's very important. It's a book that exposes a shocking and almost universal problem within the marketing industry. Let me explain.
As a CEO, you should be aware that your marketing team knows much less about marketing than they let on. The chances are slim to none that they know even the most basic marketing concepts or follow any sort of logical process. I have a question for you: If you found out your accounting team was confused about adding and subtracting or they didn't know what GAAP stands for, would you feel you hired professionals? I know it seems like a laughable example but that's what you will find if you evaluate your marketing team based on what you learn in this book.
How can I be so sure you have a problem? Because I have the same problem. Over the last 30+ years, my agency has averaged around 40 full-time employees and we simply can't find applicants who can pass even the most basic marketing quiz.
In addition to my personal experience, last year I ran an ad challenging marketers to take a simple 10-question multiple choice quiz. Of the 644 people who took the quiz, the average score was 7 wrong. That's the same score you would get if you had someone randomly picking answers.
A word of caution. Be careful how you approach your marketing team with this book. While CEOs and managers love it, some marketers hate it and even lash out. No one likes having their weaknesses exposed and that's understandable. But with a little finesse or heavy handedness if needed, this book can fix your problem just as it fixes the problem in my agency. I not only make every employee we hire read and study "The CEO's Guide to Marketing," I make everyone in the agency start every meeting every day by discussing key marketing concepts from the book as they relate to the projects they are working on. Everything in this book has become part of our agency's DNA and it can become part of your marketing team's DNA too.
The big challenge in writing this book wasn't connecting with CEOs. They are naturally avid readers who catch on quickly. The challenge was writing a book that would also appeal to creative people who are visual learners, not big readers, and often resistant to processes. So I designed this book to be a quick guide CEOs could use to evaluate the knowledge of their marketing team as well as a colorful easy read marketers would feel comfortable studying and adopting.
To sum it up, as a CEO you have a problem. Your marketing team likely knows a lot less about marketing than you think, and that lack of knowledge and process is having a negative impact on sales. The good news is that "The CEOs Guide to Marketing" is a do-it-yourself fix-it book you can use to evaluate your situation and put to work right away. Buy a copy, read it, and then quiz your staff. If you don't like what you find, you will be holding the solution in the palm of your hand.
Now in his 60s, Lonny Kocina has spent a lifetime in marketing.
In 1987, Lonny founded Media Relations Agency, which has served several hundred clients. Media Relations Agency's nationally trademarked Pay Per Interview PublicityŽ business model, which enables clients to purchase publicity by the story, is well known throughout the industry.
When the internet was in its infancy, Lonny had the business foresight to reserve available portal web addresses such as publicity.com, mediarelations.com and checkerboard.com, and advised hundreds of clients to do the same.
In the 30 years since launching Media Relations Agency, Lonny's greatest joy still comes from thinking about, talking about and writing about marketing.
