“I learn from the managers I teach. They tell me what is wrong, what is true, and what is new…. I am mostly a middleman between business people who are educating each other.”
So begins the Foreword to Marketing Revealed: Challenging the Myths (Palgrave Macmillan, 2008) by CEIBS Professor of Marketing Willem Burgers, newly released in 
Mandarin in July (in addition to Russian, Korean, Polish, and Spanish translations). Prof Burgers continues with a bold promise to readers: “Read this book carefully and your life and career will be better, your company will be more profitable, your spouse will love you more, your stock market performance will improve - everything will be better. This is so because marketing at its core is about exchange of one thing for another thing. Marketing is about everything.”
With that pledge taken, Prof Burgers, who is also Bayer Chair Professor of Marking and Strategy, has crafted an easily accessible book full of the street knowledge, provocative statements, fresh ideas and dry humour which are trademarks of his lectures. Throughout the book, he provides readers with clear proof of the many tangible business benefits of simply understanding and serving your customer well. A sample: “One way or another, making your customer’s life easier saves you money.” Smart marketing executives look for ways to make customers fully satisfied or even grateful - such as providing auto repair services in the middle of the night, or fixing a broken laptop in days instead of months. The cost of providing such service is probably low considering that the company can win a customer for life - an achievement that few expensive ad campaigns can promise.
Prof Willem Burgers
Examples of the book’s easy wisdom include the bluntly practical, such as his advice for price setting: “Use numbers for discounts. Talk percentage for charges.” (The reason: Numbers seem larger; percentages seem smaller.) Other words of wisdom are more philosophical, including:
- “Identify the world’s most successful companies, study their marketing, modify to suit you.”
- “Remember to suffer like you make your customers suffer.”
- “Here is a simple standard of customer service: would you do this to your mother?”
The goal, Prof Burgers writes, is that readers finish Marketing Revealed not only informed and entertained, but bursting with ideas for building their businesses through marketing. Good news for readers of the Mandarin translation: the new book includes an additional 20th chapter based on articles written following the release of the English version. According to Prof Burgers, the proper title for this chapter should be: "Important thoughts I thought of only after I finished the original book."
