Fighting the Banana Wars and Other Fairtrade Battles

Coca-Cola. Harley-Davidson. Nike. Budweiser. Valued by customers more for what they symbolize than for what they do, products like these are more than brands–they are cultural icons. How do managers create brands that resonate so powerfully with consumers? Based on extensive historical analyses of some of America’s most successful iconic brands, including ESPN, Mountain Dew, Volkswagen, Budweiser, and Harley-Davidson, this book presents the first systematic model to explain how brands become icons. Douglas B. Holt shows how iconic brands create “identity myths” that, through powerful symbolism, soothe collective anxieties resulting from acute social change. Holt warns that icons can’t be built through conventional branding strategies, which focus on benefits, brand personalities, and emotional relationships. Instead, he calls for a deeper cultural perspective on traditional marketing themes like targeting, positioning, brand equity, and brand loyalty–and outlines a distinctive set of “cultural branding” principles that will radically alter how companies approach everything from marketing strategy to market research to hiring and training managers. Until now, Holt shows, even the most successful iconic brands have emerged more by intuition and serendipity than by design. With How Brands Become Icons, managers can leverage the principles behind some of the most successful brands of the last half-century to build their own iconic brands. Douglas B. Holt is associate professor of Marketing at Harvard Business School.

A rigorous two-year study of the top 800 value-creating public companies found that growth generated internally through a commitment to customer satisfaction, employee engagement, and profitability resulted in consistent employee retention, stock value improvements, and better returns on investment.

In The Road to Organic Growth, Edward Hess shares the full results of his breakthrough study, providing fresh, and often-surprising perspectives on what it really takes to foster organic growth. Using instructive examples from leading companies such as SYSCO, Best Buy,Tiffany & Company, Outback Steakhouse, and Stryker Corporation, Hess reveals the strategies these trailblazers used to achieve long-term growth from within.

Drawing upon original research, interviews, and in-depth corporate studies, Hess identifies the six keys to achieving organic growth and-most important-explains how to seamlessly and consistently incorporate them into a formula for sustainability and competitive advantage to

• Develop a simple, easy-to-understand business model and growth strategy
• Be entrepreneurial at the point of customer contact
• Measure everything-from finances to operations to behaviors
• Build an engaged, loyal, and multi-talented people pipeline
• Find humble, internally-focused operators to lead your company
• Be an execution and technology champion

  The Road to Organic Growth proves that you can build a sustainable, successful business without the expense of acquisitions, financial manipulations, or devaluing your employees. By exceeding customer expectations, building an employee-centric organization, and focusing intensely on measurement and performance, your company will achieve consistent, solid growth from within.

You lost your job six months ago. You’ve emailed 90 resumes. You’ve scoured the job boards and the help wanted ads. You’ve called recruiters, old bosses, former coworkers…but nothing. You’re scared. You’re beginning to think there are no jobs out there. But there ARE jobs. And you can get one of them–if you’re willing to try the job search technique that most people are too timid to try.

If you’re one of 9 million Americans looking for a job, you don’t want to go 12 to 24 months without a job offer (as many do). The trick is to tap into the hidden job market–where 90 percent of the jobs really are!

Get Hired FAST! shows you how to use a direct-calling strategy that will generate at least three interviews in three weeks. It gives you a 15-day Action Plan, complete with charts, scripts, and other tools that will enable you to use the direct-calling technique like a professional.

This no-holds-barred book also includes insider advice on how to ace the interview once your calling strategy pays off, negotiate the best offer, and keep the job once you get it.

Get Hired FAST! shows you where and how to identify key contacts in target companies, how to uncover crucial data about target companies, how to script calls to hiring managers in advance–and handle any scenario, from voicemail to conversations with contacts’ staffers.

The sales culture of the twenty-first century is one where decisions are often made on the fly, calls are not thought out, and communication is based on onscreen ramblings, hitting Òsend,Ó and seeing what happens next. While e-mail has made it easier for salespeople to communicate than ever before, itÕs crucial to your success that your message is clear, concise, and to the point.

Renowned sales guru Stephan Schiffman understands the unique benefits and challenges of using e-mail as a sales tool. E-mail Selling Techniques delivers dependable strategies to help you understand when and how to use e-mail to communicate with a client or prospect.

E-mail Selling Techniques offers essential guidelines for:

• The proper length and format of sales e-mails
• Advice on tone and content
• Tips for writing attention-grabbing subject lines
• Identifying when a phone call might be more appropriate If you rely on computers and portable e-mail devices to do business, Stephan Schiffman will show you how to use technology to your advantage and get the deal done.