How to Avoid the Seven Common Mistakes of Marketers

Every day, without knowing it, marketers of all kinds make the same common mistakes – and end up destroying their brands. So says the author of a forthcoming book, Brand Busters: Seven Common Mistakes Marketers Make. In it, Chris Wirthwein, CEO of 5MetaCom shares keys to identifying and avoiding these seven basic errors, commonly made when marketing technical and scientific products:

1. Taking “needs” instead of wants
2. Falling in love with your product, instead of your customer
3. Believing that marketing is a Science or an Art
4. Trying to please everyone
5. Forgetting that people forget
6. Believing your price is too high – without proof
7. Believing you must sell your product on an economic basis

Brand Busters helps readers learn from the slip-ups of others and instructs them on how to avoid mistakes and get on with efficient marketing. A quick and easy read, the book provides sound, yet surprisingly simple to apply advice. No matter what kind of product or service they offer, marketers will discover in Brand Busters new ideas for making marketing more efficient and effective.

Just how important is avoiding pitfalls? The author explains: “In the best case, mistakes go unnoticed,” says Wirthwein. “The marketing fails to connect, so the audience ignores you and moves on. But in the worst case,” he adds, “a mistake can destroy a product or financially ruin an entire industry for decades to come.” Wirthwein says readers will discover a true-life example of just this type of marketing disaster in chapter six.

With wit and wisdom – plus dozens of pertinent examples – Wirthwein shares insights based on his 20+ years of experience running an ad agency that specializes in technical and scientific products. In that time, he has advised some of the world’s best known, most successful brands on how to market their innovations in the U.S. and across the globe. “To be truthful, it’s stuff that’s really hard to market,” says the author. “And the secrets of how to do it have never been written…until now.”

A List of Favorites from a Marketing Prof

From time to time we ask our customers and friends in marketing and market research the titles of their all-time favorite marketing books--the ones that stay on their shelves and that they consult. With the plethora of new marketing books available, it is surprising how many of their favorite books are "oldies." This is a list from Mark L. Renaghan, a retired associate dean and marketing professor at the Statler School of Hotel Administration at Cornell University. If you'd like to submit your list of "favorites," send an email to doris@paramountbooks.com. Please make sure to tell us how you would like to be identified.

Most of these books are available from amazon.com.


1. Future Perfect by Stan Davis
2. Multivariate Data Analysis by Joseph Hair et al
3. Discovering the Soul of Service by Leonard Berry
4. Delivering Profitable Value by David Lanning
5. Marketing Research: Methodological Foundations by Gilbert Churchill

Tween and cell phone use

According to a new MediaPost article, pre-teens are more connected than ever before, thanks to a rise in mobile phone use.

The Nielsen Company released the findings of an in-depth study on the mobile media and cross-media behavior of U.S. tweens (ages 8-12). The report estimates that 35% of tweens own a mobile phone, 20% of tweens have used text messaging, and 21% of tweens have used ring & answer tones, the article said.

The "godfathers" of the tween market are Dave Siegel, Greg Livingston, and Tim Coffey of The Wonder Group whose groundbreaking book, The Great Tween Buying Machine, came out in 2001 and for the first time defined what it means to be a "tween" consumer. You can still buy copies of the original hardcover of this book from Paramount Market Publishing.

Based on their on-going research on kids and markets, the three co-founders of WonderGroup wrote The New SuperConsumer, Mom+Kid in 2006, defining the new relationship between moms and their kids and the growing influence of kids on family purchases.

One point that The New Super Consumer makes is how much more proficient tweens and teens are at multi-tasking than their parents are. With the rise of cell phone use and text messaging, this multitasking is increasing exponentially. Even walking down the street now is usually accompanied by some other activity, especially the use of the cell phone.