Marketing By Brian Tracy

These are my book notes on Marketing by the author Brian Tracy.

Let’s dive in.

Facts

  • Title: Marketing
  • Subtitle: -
  • Author: Brian Tracy
  • Author’s website: briantracy.com
  • First published: 2010
  • Type: non fiction
  • Genre: marketing / sales
  • Rating: 4/5
  • Recommended: Yes

The Primary reason for the success or failure of a business is determined by the success or failure of the marketing effort.
- Brian Tracy

Table Of Contents Of The Book

  • Introduction
    1. The Purpose of a Business
    2. Four Approaches to Successful Marketing
    3. Three Key Questions in Marketing
    4. Market Research and Market Intelligence
    5. Customer-Focused Marketing
    6. Why People Buy
    7. Competitive Analysis
    8. Achieving Competitive Advantage
    9. The Marketing Mix
    10. Positioning Strategies
    11. Four Principles of Marketing Strategy
    12. Choosing the Battlefield
    13. Military Principles of Marketing Strategy
    14. Marketing Tactics of Diversion and Dissuasion
    15. Practice the “Firstest with the Mostest” Strategy
    16. Use the “Hit ‘Em Where They Ain’t” Strategy
    17. Dominate a Market Niche
    18. Creative Marketing Growth Strategies
    19. Utilize Other Ways to Sell
    20. The Bundle of Resources Concept
    21. Four Ways to Change Your Business
  • Summary and Conclusion
  • Index
  • About the Author

Key Concepts & Ideas

According to Dun & Bradstreet, 48 percent of all business failures can be attributed to a slowing down or ineffectiveness in the area of marketing and sales.

In our dynamic, competitive economy, marketing is the core function of every successful enterprise.

No Matter What Business You Are In, You Are In The Marketing Business

Strategic marketing is the art and science of determining what your customers and future customers really want and need - and can use and afford - and then helping them to get it by creating and structuring your products and services in such a way that they satisfy the specific needs of the customers you have identified.

The starting point of successful marketing is for you to remember that customers are always right.

They buy for their reasons, not yours.

Your ability to appeal to their real desires, and to satisfy their wants and needs as they perceive them, will largely determine your success in business.

Profits are the result of creating and keeping customers in a cost-effective way over time.

The cost of creating customers initially is very high.

The cost of keeping them is far lower than the cost of creating them in the first place.

If you study the companies that are the most efficient at marketing, you will find that their strategies are all aimed at creating customers and then holding on to them.

Quality is the most powerful and effective of all marketing strategies.

It is not only the product itself, but the way that you treat your customers, from the first contact through their entire time with you using your product or service.

People will always come back to a quality supplier of goods and services, no matter what the price.

There is another critical factor in marketing success, and it has to do with relationships.

More and more today we are finding that it is the quality of our business relationships that determines whether we create and keep a substantial number of customers.

Brian Tracy On Buying Customers

Each company is in the business of “buying customers.”

All companies have a specific “cost of acquisition,” whether they know what it is or not.

This is perhaps the single most important cost factor in the success of any business.

Your cost of acquisition is composed of all the monies that you pay to any person, and in any way, to buy a customer for the first time.

A company stays in business if it can buy customers at a lower amount than the net profit that the customer will yield to the company in the course of the customer’s buying lifetime.

If your company can buy customers at a lower cost than the profit you can earn from that customer, you can spend almost any amount to buy more and more customers.

This is one of the great secrets of business success, and it is a core requirement for effective marketing.

Successful Market Research

Successful market research is based on careful analysis and accurate answers to the right questions.

There are four important questions, described here, that you need to cover.

  1. WHO is your customer?
  2. WHERE is your customer?
  3. HOW does your customer buy?
  4. WHAT does it (your product) do?

Why People Buy

Customers do not buy products or services themselves.

They buy the benefit, change, improvement, or outcome that they anticipate enjoying as a result of making the purchase decision.

You must be crystal clear about how and why your customers will be better off buying and using your product or service than they would be if they did not buy it from you, or if they bought it from a competitor.

Never attempt to violate human nature and win.
- Napoleon Hill

Brian Tracy On Customer-Focused Marketing

Successful marketing places the customer at the center of all planning and decision making.

Everybody in the company is focused on the customer at all times.

The company develops an obsession with customer service.

Employees communicate, interact, and stay close to their customers.

Continual customer contact and market research are essential to ongoing customer satisfaction.

Your company will be successful to the degree to which each person in your company thinks about the customers all the time.

This even includes the people who sweep the floors, drive the trucks, or answer the telephones.

People Buy Products And Services To Satisfy Their Needs

In economics, they say that every action that you or I take is because of what is called a “felt dissatisfaction.”

We feel dissatisfied in our current condition for some reason.

Because of this dissatisfaction, we are internally motivated or driven to take an action of some kind to relieve this dissatisfaction.

People In Business Buy Products And Services To Save Or Gain Time Or Money

Time and money are almost interchangeable in terms of business results.

Every appeal aimed at saving time or money, or gaining time or money, is a strong emotional motivator to people in business who are dependent for their success and security on personal and financial results.

Brian Tracy On Achieving Competitive Advantage

As we said before, the purpose of marketing is to create perceptions of “unique added value” in the minds of your customers.

To survive and grow, every product and service offering must have some clear, distinct competitive advantage over its competitors in the marketplace.

Competitive advantage is the key to sales success and high profitability.

It is absolutely essential that you are excellent in some specific area that customers value.

You have to be able to say to your customers:

“We offer the very best for you in this critical area.”

Everyone in your organization should know exactly where, why, and how your company and product or service is superior to every other competitor in the market.

All Marketing And Sales Strategy Is Based On Differentiation

It is based on showing your customers exactly how your products and services are different from and better than any other competitive products or services offered in the marketplace.

  • What is your competitive advantage?
  • What do you do or offer that makes your products or services superior to that of your competitors?
  • What is your area of excellence?

Closing Thoughts

My book notes only cover small parts of the book.

So if you like what you read, please consider buying the book from the author.

Thank you for reading and stay awesome,

Tim for Online Business Dude

PS: Start And Grow Your Own, Profitable Online Business From Scratch, Step-by-Step, Today!

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