marketing and sales

This is a great book, however, author's use of "difficult" language makes it a hard reading for students. The point of this book should entirely be to emphasize on facts, rather than to showcase author's verbal capabilities.

I took a few technology marketing courses in grad school, and became moderately interested in the process. When I saw "Marketing Mistakes" (1976) for sale at a thrift shop, I snapped it up.

This is actually interesting stuff for anyone interested in the growth and death of businesses, not just for marketing majors.

The eleven case studies describe how a retailer (e.g., Montgomery Ward, which finally augered in last year, and Korvette, a discount chain I barely recollect), product (Du Pont's Corfam, an artificial leather), or grand old toy company (A.C. Gilbert) became moribund or outright crashed and burned.

There was a lot of nostalgia value in these for me. The names and histories evoked memories of advertising campaigns and jingles. Particularly poignant: The terrible last years of A.C. Gilbert, the august maker of chemistry sets and erector sets. They diluted the company name and ruined its reputation by expanding into girl's toys, infant's toys, and cheap discount-market items. Their decline was amazingly swift.

There are lots of lessons here for budding business folk, and for others an opportunity to understand why your favorite stores and products sometimes disappear.