Keywords
Citation
Melchinger, J.H. (2000), "Radical Marketing: From Harvard to Harley, Lessons from Ten that Broke the Rules and Made It Big (1st edition)", Journal of Consumer Marketing, Vol. 17 No. 7, pp. 627-637. https://doi.org/10.1108/jcm.2000.17.7.627.5
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Some of us learned in the 1960s that the unorthodox (radical) methodologies can be as good and productive as they are different. To this day, some people refuse to acknowledge this because of the 1960s. Today is no different. Traditional marketing methodologies that remain illogically rigid or are simply inappropriate to begin with can devastate. Radical Marketing proves this and offers a sometimes useful alternative (not a panacea), citing in detail ten specific cases of radically successful marketing; demonstrating how methodically traditional but inappropriate marketing techniques brought some previously radical successes to their knees; and showing clearly the reasons why each methodology succeeded or failed.
If you are a radical marketer, this work (Radical Marketing is more than a mere book) will provide the evidence with which you can vindicate yourself to your detractors. If you are a traditional marketer with professional curiosity and an open mind, Radical Marketing will give you plenty of cause and food for both reflective and creative thinking. If you are a rigidly traditional marketer, Radical Marketing is a curve ball you should learn how to read, if not hit.
Radical Marketing is more than an easy read. Sam Hill and Glenn Rifkin are quite comfortable making their presentations – as revolutionary as they will seem to many. They make the reader comfortable “listening” and thinking through the many ideas they offer, explain and demonstrate in detail. As unorthodox as they know Radical Marketing seems to many, Hill and Rifkin avoid sounding the shrill wails of timorous authors trying to defend their thesis while presenting it. No preemptory defensiveness by the authors spoils this creative, extremely observant work.
The authors present their case artfully for systematically untraditional marketing in 13 fast‐moving chapters. Their first question demands immediate attention, and they give it its due answering “What is radical marketing?” Their definition is clearly stated and easy to understand. Acceptance, as the authors point out, is another thing altogether.
The introduction and first two chapters lay out how the authors’ enlightenment and excitement to explore and define Radical Marketing germinated over time; examining evidence, interviewing many very successfully radical marketers and marketing experts who observed them, and noodling over the whole unorthodox concept before formally acknowledging its legitimacy as a viable marketing method.
Chapter 1 makes the case for radical marketing and contrasts it with traditional marketing. It argues that radical marketers: have very strong visceral ties with a specific target audience; tend to focus on growth and expansion rather than on profit taking; and tend to be very resource‐constrained and are forced to make do with marketing budgets that are far smaller than average.
Chapter 2 presents ten rules of radical marketing – “the charter that our radical marketers have followed and made their own” (p. xvi):
- (1)
The CEO must own the marketing function.
- 2.
(2) Make sure the marketing department starts small and flat and stays small and flat.
- 3.
(3) Get out of the head office and face‐to‐face with the people who matter most – the customers.
- 4.
(4) Use market research cautiously.
- 5.
(5) Hire only passionate missionaries.
- 6.
(6) Love and respect your customers.
- 7.
(7) Create a community of customers.
- 8.
(8) Rethink the marketing mix.
- 9.
(9) Celebrate uncommon sense.
- 10.
(10) Be true to the brand.
If radical marketing was a hypothesis, we would search out companies and products to corroborate it. Hill and Rifkin, however, go to impressive depth to present ten of the many real success stories that brought radical marketing to life for them unequivocally. Several exist.
Chapters 3 through 12 present the selected examples of companies that succeeded and thrived because of their radical marketing methods. Step by step, Hill and Rifkin explain how each radical marketing company meets the ten conditions and show that is largely why they are so successful. The companies they investigate include: The Grateful Dead; Providian Financial; Harley‐Davidson; The Iams Company; The National Basketball Association; Snap‐on Tools; Virgin Atlantic Airways; EMC Corporation; Harvard Business School; and Boston Beer Company.
Although these cases each fascinate and their factual data compel, Hill and Rifkin point out that many other successful companies rose to their greatness when they adopted radical marketing techniques. They chose these ten to demonstrate where their observations originated.
Hill and Rifkin cannot avoid addressing the naysayers’ issues. They discuss, with no sign of hand‐wringing over it, the issues of non‐acceptance by traditional marketers that deny radical marketing the rightful place Hill and Rifkin believe it deserves:
A few years ago “lightbulb” jokes became popular. “How many psychiatrists,” went one, “does it take to change a lightbulb?” The answer, of course, was: “One. But the lightbulb really has to want to change.” The same may be true of traditional marketers. It takes only one, but they really have to want to change. Unfortunately, the track record of acceptance of radical marketing techniques by traditional marketers is not good. For every successful trad/rad such as Budweiser or Nike, there are many others who don’t want to try to understand radical marketing (p. 249).
Chapter 13, “Applying the lessons of radical marketing to traditional marketing”, walks the line between traditional and radical marketing. Its many examples, such as Nike, Budweiser, the Quaker Oats’ debacle with Snapple, GE’s success and struggle with Saturn, and Nestlé’s Casa Buitoni Clubs, highlight cases where traditional marketers might try to glibly deny radical marketing as sensible marketing. It draws the several lessons to be learned from the successful, albeit unorthodox, radical marketers.
Radical Marketing represents one winning methodology in marketing that begs for understanding, acceptance and application when it is appropriate. This is a must read for marketers of all persuasions. Just as the ideas for inventions often spring from observing nature (e.g. the idea for Velcro derived from how burrs cling to fabric), Radical Marketing derives from observing dramatic marketing successes that embrace the non‐traditional and unorthodox in ten key aspects of their marketing. It represents the codification of those successes that systematically broke the binds of traditional marketing … hence, Radical Marketing.