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Smart Books: In Search of the Obvious
Don't look for a fall guy, just fix your marketing strategy
Smart Business Cleveland | December 2008
Page 1 of 2
In Search of the
Obvious: The
Antidote for
Today’s Marketing
Mess By Jack Trout
John Wiley & Sons
Inc. ©2008, 208 pages,
$27.95
About the book: “In Search of the
Obvious” launches from Jack Trout’s realization
that marketing is turning into a complex science
of data mining, number slicing, niche segmenting and more, all of which translates into a confusing mess. Trout suggests marketers steer
clear of all the distractions and refocus on that
simple, obvious differentiating idea.
The author: Jack Trout started his business career in the advertising department of
General Electric. He was a divisional advertising
manager at Uniroyal before he joined Al Ries in
the advertising agency and marketing strategy
firm where they worked together for more than
26 years. He published his first best-selling
book in 1980 with Ries, “Positioning: The Battle
for Your Mind.” Trout, author of several marketing classics, is president of Trout & Partners, a
prestigious marketing firm headquartered in
Connecticut. For more information, visit
www.troutandpartners.com.
Why you should read it: Jack Trout
has been writing about this topic for years in his
books, articles and Forbes.com columns. As an
expert, he convincingly encourages readers to
get back to thinking in simple, commonsense
and obvious terms and also sets a path that
can lead to the right marketing strategy.
Why it’s different: “In Search of the
Obvious” offers some thoughts about what’s
wrong with marketing today and some thoughts
about how to approach it differently. It revisits
the importance of customer perception; why a
customer should prefer your product, how to
dramatize a strategy to better involve the
prospects and the need to get back to creating
ads that help clients get more business rather
than merely serve as entertainment.
Can’t miss: The first chapter outlines the
five tests of obviousness, which Trout credits
Robert Updegraff with writing in 1916. The rest of
the book supports that they are still meaningful.
To share or not to share: As soon
as we heard that Jack Trout had written another
book, we stalked it. Yes, share it because it’s a
Jack Trout book and though you may feel you
already know the things he’s talking about, it’s
not a bad idea to revisit them in today’s light.
