Radical Marketing: From Harvard to Harley, Lessons From Ten that Broke the Rules and Made it Big

How did the Grateful Dead use its fanatical following to build a $100 millionbrand that still thrives today? How did upstart Boston Beer Company—makers of Sam Adams—prevail over rival Anheuser-Busch without an advertising budget? And how did lams create the premium pet food market and leap from $16 million to $600 million in sales in just fifteen years, while charging twice the price of competitor Ralston-Purina? The answer: radical marketing.

In this fresh, provocative book, Sam Hill and Glenn Rifkin identify the mar-keting strategies that have enabled ten innovative companies to emerge asindustry leaders. What do these organizations have in common? Each is intune emotionally with its customer base, allowing them to glean superior marketing insight without spending millions of dollars. Each is more focused on the big picture—growth and expansion—rather than short-term profits. And,despite their current success, each started out with little more than a passion for their product. Engrossing, informative, and invaluable, Radical Marketing demonstrates how any company, large or small, can achieve unprecedented success through inventive and revolutionary tactics.

How did the Grateful Dead use its fanatical following to build a $100 million band that still thrives today, despite the fact that the band split up in 1995? How did upstart Boston Beer Company--makers of Sam Adams--revolutionize the beer industry and prevail over lumbering incumbent Anheuser-Busch without an advertising budget? And how did lams create the premium pet food market and grow from $16 million to $600 million in sales in just fifteen years, while charging twice the price of competitor Ralston-Purina?

Through radical marketing.

In the tradition of such bestsellers as Thriving on Chaos and Built to Last, Radical Marketing is a fresh, provocative approach to marketing and strategy that has proven hugely successful for organizations ranging from Harley-Davidson to Harvard Business School. In this book, Sam Hill, cofounder of Helios Consulting and an oft-quotes expert on marketing, and Glenn Rifkin, a veteran business writer for the New York Times, identify the unconventional strategies that have enabled ten innovative companies to usurp valuable market share from traditional industry leaders.

Just what do these organizations have in common? Each is in tune emotionally with their customer base--allowing them to glean superior marketing insight without spending millions of dollars on advertising or employing huge marketing departments. Each is focused more on the big picture--growth and expansion--than on short term profits. And, despite their current success, each started out with little more than a passion for their products, forcing them to do things more cheaply and creatively.

How do these commonalties equal success? In Radical Marketing, you will learn how:

• by forging long-term strategic alliances and seeding the globe with enthusiastic missionaries, the NBA has become the most powerful global sports brand in the world, elevating ticket sales and TV rights to $2 billion;

• Harley-Davidson helped spur its regeneration by starting a club of owners--and, in so doing, re-established itself as an enduring brand, a darling of Wall Street, and nothing less than an American icon of freedom and individuality;

• little-known EMC became the dominant player in the computer storage market, eclipsing industry leader IBM--by aggressively courting IBM's customer base and creating a community of users around EMC's products;

• Snap-on Tools owns 60 percent market share and became a nearly $2 billion company, selling tools door-to-door to its core customer base of over one million auto mechanics;

• Providian Financial, whose CEO lacked any formal marketing training and expertise, cracked new markets and won an army of new customers without using focus groups or any traditional advertising;

• Harvard Business School created the market for graduate business schools and established itself as the gold standard of its industry not by resting on the laurels of the auspicious Harvard name--but by insisting on consistent quality and radically changing the rules of business education;

• and finally, how Virgin Atlantic Airways marketed fun and superior customer service, as defined by its iconoclastic chairman Richard Branson, into a powerful competitive advantage and become the second largest longhaul carrier in Britain.

Including a special chapter dedicated to applying the radical lessons to traditional firms like Quaker Oats and General Motors, Radical Marketing demonstrates how any company, large or small, can achieve unprecedented success by being radical.