In Search of The Obvious:The Antidote for Today's Marketing Mess

We are in an era of killer competition.  Category after category is perceived as a commodity.  This is the central reason the critically important function of marketing is such a mess.  It's also why the average chief marketing officer barely lasts beyond two years in the job.

In our summary of In Search of the Obvious:  The Antidote for Today’s Marketing Mess, Jack Trout clears up the confusion that surrounds the marketing profession.  Instead of focusing on segmentation or customer retention or data mining, marketers should be searching for a simple, obvious differentiating idea.

Trout is President of Trout Partners, one of the most prestigious marketing firms in the U.S., with offices in 13 countries.  His client list includes Southwest Airlines, IBM, Merrill Lynch, Sears, and the U.S. State Department.  He is the author of several marketing classics, including Differentiate or Die and Jack Trout on Strategy. 

The fundamental problem is that effective marketing is both complicated and extremely simple -- so simple that professional marketers overlook the most obvious and effective ideas entirely, in an attempt to be clever or creative.  But if an idea is obvious to you, it will be obvious to your customers, which is why it will work.