The New MaxiMarketing

Citation

John, J. (2000), "The New MaxiMarketing", Journal of Consumer Marketing, Vol. 17 No. 7, pp. 627-637. https://doi.org/10.1108/jcm.2000.17.7.627.4

In this new edition, Rapp and Collins have “breathed new life” into their famous book touting their “MaxiMarketing” concept first published in 1987 with a quarter of a million books in print in over eight different languages. There is even a MaxiMarketing Insights newsletter, published every month. The authors assert that the basic principles still apply in the information economy, but, the examples are not relevant anymore. This new edition features examples from the information economy. Rapp and Collins have been able to garner a number of examples from the vast amounts of e‐mail and comments that they have received since they wrote the earlier version of MaxiMarketing.

MaxiMarketing is defined as a “way to maximize sales and profits by means of selective interaction and involvement with identified prospects an customers.” (p. xv). The essence of the MaxiMarketing model contains guidance in how to think about: selecting and finding the target, choosing from today’s overabundance of media, measuring results, maximizing the impact of advertising and sales promotion, and, building a bridge connecting advertising with the closing of the sale. The authors urge the reader to remember that “with rare exceptions, making a sale should not be the end of a relationship, but, the beginning or the continuation of one” (p. 249).

Chapters are typically about 30 pages, and each chapter is generally structured into five to ten small sections. There are plenty of examples within the chapters. The authors’ long years of experience in the fields of marketing and advertising have given them the benefit of an historical perspective, which they use to full advantage throughout the book. They quote well‐known personalities from the advertising business asserting various perspectives presented as first‐hand observations in the practice of marketing and advertising.

Chapter titles are self‐explanatory and reflect the nature and scope of the main topics and issues in the book. They are:

1.  (1)

   “Problems and challenges in today’s marketplace”.

2. 2.

    (2) “The essence of the MaxiMarketing solution”.

3. 3.

    (3) “Maximized target selection: finding your best prospects and customers”.

4. 4.

    (4) “Maximized media exploration: the new embarrassment of riches”.

5. 5.

    (5) “Maximized accountability: the search for making advertising truly accountable”.

6. 6.

    (6) “Maximized advertising impact: appealing to the whole brain to build a brand”.

7. 7.

    (7) “Maximized promotion results: finding a better way in the information age”.

8. 8.

    (8) “Maximized prospect involvement: building a bridge between the advertising and the sale”.

9. 9.

    (9) “‘Maximized customer cultivation: using your database to forge lasting, profitable relationships”.

10. 10.

    (10) “The MaxiMarketing of today and tomorrow”.

Chapter 2 is a key chapter, presenting the MaxiMarketing model as roughly three stages in the marketing process – reaching the prospect, making the sale and building the relationship. These stages, the authors point out, are common to marketing processes such as brand merchandising, store retailing, direct marketing and personal selling. A key point emphasized in several places in the book is that in their model each individually identified target elicits a measurable response. Thus, the power of databases is frequently referred to in the discussion.

Since the book has a 1996 copyright, the examples are more of traditional business models rather than from the newer business models in today’s economy. Indeed, the last chapter presents Internet examples as a view of the future – business practices and consumer behavior that is almost commonplace today.

The book is useful for anyone in the business world. It is especially useful for the self‐employed and entrepreneurs who do not have formal training in marketing and advertising. The model is robust in that the process of marketing in any context has certain common stages just as applicable today as they have been in the past. In fact, the companies that fail in the new business models are the ones that have ignored the fundamental questions of marketing – what and how does the customer want the solution!The content is thought provoking and has the depth of discussion to make the book attractive as a supplemental reading for a course on marketing strategy.