The Distribution Trap: Keeping Your Innovations from Becoming Commodities

WINNER OF THE BERRY-AMERICAN MARKETING ASSOCIATION PRIZE FOR THE BEST MARKETING BOOK OF 2010.

It is time for U.S. companies to wake up to the destructive mass-marketing theories that have cut their profits, diminished their reputations, and sent American jobs overseas. The Distribution Trap: Keeping Your Innovations from Becoming Commodities is the eye-opener that can help turn things around. Current marketing and distribution notions, the authors contend, have wrongly convinced thousands of U.S. innovators that the sale and distribution of their products and services is better left in the hands of outside forces. By catering to the mass market, innovators are allowing mega-distributors to dilute the value of their products and services, imposing costs and changes in strategic direction and operational control.

Fortunately, there are practical steps innovators can take to control--and retain--the value of their products and services. The first section of the book explains the distribution trap, detailing how it hurts companies by forcing them to reduce costs, often by chasing cheap labor overseas. The second section details how to avoid the trap, it's a lesson U.S. companies ignore at their own peril.

Andrew R. Thomas' books have sold widely around the world, been translated into more than a dozen languages, been short-listed for several literary prizes, and won several awards.
A successful entrepreneur, he has traveled to and conducted business in more than 120 countries on all seven continents. Andrew is contributing editor to Industry Week magazine; and, is Founding-Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Transportation Security. He is a regularly featured commentator for media outlets such as FOX NEWS, CNBC, BBC, and the Wall Street Journal. He is currently Associate Professor of Marketing & International Business at the University of Akron.