Selling the Invisible : A Field Guide to Modern Marketing

by Beckwith, Harry

• ISBN13: 9780446520942
• ISBN10: 0446520942
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1997-03-01
• Publisher: Grand Central Publishing

Summary

The transformation from a manufacturing-based economy to one that's all about service has been well documented. Today it's estimated that nearly 75 percent of Americans work in the service sector. Instead of producing tangibles--automobiles, clothes, and tools--more and more of us are in the business of providing intangibles--health care, entertainment, tourism, legal services, and so on. However, according to Harry Beckwith, most of these intangibles are still being marketed like products were 20 years ago.In Selling the Invisible, Beckwith argues that what consumers are primarily interested in today are not features, but relationships. Even companies who think that they sell only tangible products should rethink their approach to product development and marketing and sales. For example, when a customer buys a Saturn automobile, what they're really buying is not the car, but the way that Saturn does business. Beckwith provides an excellent forum for thinking differently about the nature of services and how they can be effectively marketed. If you're at all involved in marketing or sales, then Selling the Invisible is definitely worth a look.

Table of Contents

Preface	xiii	(2)
Introduction	xv
GETTING STARTED	1	(20)
The Greatest Misconception about Service Marketing	3	(1)
A World on Hold	4	(1)
The Lake Wobegon Effect: Overestimating Yourself	5	(1)
Those Cartoons Aren't Funny	6	(1)
Let Your Clients Set Your Standards	7	(1)
Bad News: You Are Competing with Walt Disney	8	(1)
The Butterfly Effect	9	(1)
A Butterfly Named Roger	10	(2)
To Err Is an Opportunity	12	(1)
The Ad-Wriiting Acid Test	13	(1)
The Crash of Delta Flight 1985-95	14	(1)
Getting Better vs. Getting Different	15	(3)
The First Rule of Marketing Planning	18	(1)
The Possible Service	19	(2)
SURVEYING AND RESEARCH: EVEN YOUR BEST FRIENDS WON'T TELL YOU	21	(12)
Even Your Best Friends Won't Tell You	23	(1)
But They Will Talk behind Your Back	24	(1)
Why Survery?	25	(1)
The Letterman Principle	26	(2)
Frankly Speaking: Survey by Phone	28	(2)
The One Question You Should Never Ask	30	(1)
Focus Groups Don't	31	(2)
MARKETING IS NOT A DEPARTMENT	33	(22)
Marketing Is Not a Department	35	(1)
Marketing Myopia	36	(1)
Tunnel Vision	37	(1)
Start with You and Your Employees	38	(1)
What Color Is Your Company's Parachute?	38	(3)
What Are Your Really Selling?	41	(1)
One Thing Most Experts Don't Know	42	(1)
Who Is Your Client?	42	(1)
With Whom Are You Really Competing?	43	(2)
Hit' Em Where They Ain't	45	(2)
The Adapter's Edge	47	(3)
Study Your Points of Contact	50	(1)
Life Is Like High School	51	(2)
Voted Best Personality	53	(2)
PLANNING: THE EIGHTEEN FALLACIES	55	(30)
Fallacy: You Can Know What's Ahead	57	(3)
Fallacy: You Can Know What You Want	60	(1)
Fallacy: Strategy Is King	61	(2)
Fallacy: Build a Better Mousetrap	63	(1)
Fallacy: There'll Be a Perfect Time (The Bbedrock Fallcy)	64	(1)
Fallacy: Patience Is a Virtue (The Shark Rule)	65	(1)
Fallacy: Think Smart (The Crab Concept)	66	(1)
The Fallacy of Science and Data	67	(3)
The Fallacy of Focus Groups	70	(1)
The Fallacy of Memory	71	(1)
The Fallacy of Experience	72	(1)
The Fallacy of Confidence	73	(2)
Fallacy: Perfection Is Perfection	75	(2)
Fallacy: Failure Is Failure	77	(1)
The Fallacy Of Expertise	78	(1)
The Fallacy of Authority	79	(1)
The Fallacy of Common Sense	80	(2)
The Fallacy of Fate	82	(3)
ANCHORS, WARTS, AND AMERICAN EXPRESS:
HOW PROSPECTS THINK	85	(16)
Yeah, but I Like It	87	(2)
How Prospects Decide: Choosing the Familiar	89	(1)
How Prospects decide: Using the Most Recent Data	90	(2)
How Prospects Decide: Choosing "Good Enough"	92	(2)
The Anchoring Principle	94	(1)
Last Impressions Last	95	(2)
Risky Business	97	(1)
You Have Nothing to Fear but Your Client's Fear Itself	98	(1)
Show Your Warts	99	(1)
Business Is in the Details	100	(1)
THE MORE YOU SAY, THE LESS PEOPLE HEAR: POSITIONING AND FOCUS	101	(28)
Fanatical Focus	103	(1)
The Fear of Positioning	104	(1)
Lesser Logic	105	(3)
Halo Effects	108	(1)
No Two Services Are the Same	109	(2)
Position Is a Passive Noun, Not an Active Verb	111	(2)
Creating Your Positioning Statement	113	(1)
Creating Your Position Statement	114	(2)
How to Narrow the Gap Between Your Position and Your Positioning Statement	116	(1)
If That Isn't our Positioning Statement, What Is It?	117	(1)
Repositioning Your Competitors	118	(2)
Positioning a Small Service	120	(1)
Focus: What Sears May have Learned	121	(2)
Focus and the Clinton Campaign	123	(1)
When the Banker's Eyes Blurred: Citicorp's Slip	124	(2)
What Else Positions and Focus Can Do for You	126	(3)
UGLY CATS, BOAT SHOES, AND OVERPRICED JEWELRY: PRICING	129	(12)
Ugly Cats, Boat Shoes, and Overpriced Jewelry: The Sheer Illogic of Pricing	131	(1)
Pricing: The Resistance Principle	132	(1)
Avoiding the Deadly Middle	133	(1)
The Low-Cost Trap	134	(3)
Pricing: A Lesson from Picasso	137	(1)
The Carpenter Corollary to the Picasso Principle	138	(1)
Value Is Not a Position	139	(2)
MONOGRAM YOUR SHIRTS, NOT YOUR COMPANY: NAMING AND BRANDING	141	(26)
Monogram Your Shirts, Not Your Company	143	(1)
Don't Make Me Laugh	144	(1)
To Stand Out, Stand Out	144	(1)
Tell Me Something I Don't Know	145	(1)
Distinctive Position, Distinctive Name	146	(1)
What's in a Name?	147	(1)
Names: The Information-per-Inch Test	147	(2)
The Cleverness of Federal Express	149	(1)
The Brand Rush	150	(2)
Aren't Brands Dying?	152	(1)
The Warranty of a Brand	153	(1)
The Heart of a Brand	154	(1)
What Brands Do for Sales	155	(2)
Stand by Your Brand	157	(1)
The Four-Hundred-Grand Brand	158	(2)
Brands in a Microwave World	160	(1)
Brands and the Power of the Unusual	161	(2)
Brands and the Baby-sitter	163	(4)
HOW TO SAVE $500,000: COMMUNICATING AND SELLING	167	(48)
Communicating: A Preface	169	(1)
Fran Lebowitz and Your Greatest Competitor	170	(1)
The Cocktail party phenomenon	171	(1)
The Grocery List Problem	172	(1)
Give Me One Good Reason	173	(1)
Your Favorite Songs	174	(1)
One Story Beats a Dozen Adjectives	175	(1)
Attack the Stereotype	176	(1)
Don't Say It, Prove It	177	(1)
Build Your Case	178	(1)
Tricks Are for Kids	179	(1)
The Joke's on You	179	(1)
Being Great vs. Being Good	180	(2)
Superiority	182	(2)
The Clout of Reverse Hype	184	(1)
The First Banks Lesson: People Hear What They See	185	(1)
Make the Invisible Visible	186	(2)
The Orange Test	188	(1)
Our Eyes Have It: The Lessons of Chicago's Restaurants	189	(2)
How to Save Half a Million	191	(1)
The Hearsay Rule	192	(1)
Metaphorically Speaking: The Black Hole Phenomenon	193	(1)
The Generative Power of Words: The Gettysburg Address	194	(2)
A Robe Is Nota Robe	196	(1)
Balderdash	197	(1)
Improve the Silence	198	(1)
What's Your Point?	198	(1)
The Vividness Effect	199	(2)
Vivid Words	201	(1)
The Value of Publicity	202	(1)
Advertiising Is Publicity	202	(1)
Advertising Begets Publicity	203	(2)
The Essence of Publicity	205	(1)
Inspiration from William F. Buckley	206	(1)
Focus on Buying, Not Selling	207	(1)
The Most Compelling Selling Message	208	(1)
What Blank Eyes Mean	209	(1)
Presenting's First Rule: Imitate Dick	209	(2)
Mission Statements	211	(1)
What a Mission Statement Must Be-and Must Have	212	(1)
When to Can a Mission Statement	212	(1)
What Really Sells	213	(2)
HOLDING ON TO WHAT YOU'VE GOT: NURTURING AND KEEPING GLIENTS	215	(16)
Relationship Accounting	217	(2)
The Day After--Why Getting the Business Can Be the First Step in Losing It	219	(3)
Expectations, Satisfaction, and the Perils of Hype	221	(1)
Your Patrons Are Saints	222	(1)
Thanks	223
Where Have You Gone, Emily Post?	223	(2)
Poised for a Fall	225	(1)
Satisfaction and Services	226	(5)
QUICK FIXES	231	(10)
Manage the Tiny Things	233	(1)
One Ring	233	(1)
Speed	234	(1)
Say P.M., Deliver A.M.	235	(1)
Note to Myself	235	(1)
Shoot the Message, Not the Messenger: The Fastest Way to Improve Your Sales Force	236	(2)
Personal Investment	238	(1)
The Collision Principle	239	(2)
SUMMING UP	241	(10)
Recommended Reading for Service Marketers	246	(5)
Acknowledgements	251