Jagdish Sheth, Rajendra Sisodia

The authors present a powerful and tested approach that helps managers see a business's every action through the eyes of its customers. This approach is organized around the values that matter most to customers: Acceptability, Affordability, Accessibility and Awareness. Taken together, these attributes are called the "4A's." The 4A framework derives from a customer-value perspective based on the four distinct roles that customers play in the market: seekers, selectors, payers and users. For a marketing campaign to succeed, it must achieve high marks on all four A's, using a blend of marketing and non-marketing resources.The 4A framework helps companies create value for customers by identifying exactly what they want and need, as well as by uncovering new wants and needs. (For example, none of us knew we "needed" an iPad until Apple created it.) That means not only ensuring that customers are aware of the product, but also ensuring that the product is affordable, accessible and acceptable to them. Throughout this book, the authors demonstrate how looking at the world through the 4A lens helps companies avoid marketing myopia (an excessive focus on the product) as well as managerial myopia (an excessive focus on process). In fact, it is a powerful way to operationalize the marketing concept; it enables managers to look at the world through the customer's eyes. This ability has become an absolute necessity for success in today's hyper-competitive marketplace.

Wired to Care: How Companies Prosper When They Create Widespread Empathy , first edition, explains how companies can challenge themselves to meet their customers more than halfway. The authors original approach walks helps readers shift their thinking and their companies thinking beyond the borders of the organization. The author begins by having the reader explore their own mental models and maps; explores how size and distance have disconnected companies from their true customers; shows how we are wired to care in our brains; and provides a way for companies to drive growth by understanding this truth about their customers: We are them, and they are us. Today's best companies get it. From retail to finance and industries in between, the organizations who recognize that doing good is good business are becoming the ultimate value creators. They're changing their culture and generating every form of value that matters: emotional, experiential, social, and financial. And they're doing it for all their stakeholders. Not because it's simply politically correct, because it's the only path to long-term competitive advantage. These are the Firms of Endearment . Companies people love doing business with, working for and collaborating with as partners. Since the publication of the First Edition, the concept of corporate social responsibility has become embraced as a valid, important, and profitable business model. It is a trend that has transformed the workplace and corporate world. This Second Edition updates the examples, cases, and applications from the original edition, giving readers insight into how this hallmark of the modern organization is practiced today.

Today's best companies get it. From retail to finance and industries in between, the organizations who recognize that doing good is good business are becoming the ultimate value creators. They're changing their culture and generating every form of value that matters: emotional, experiential, social, and financial. And they're doing it for all their stakeholders. Not because it's simply politically correct, because it's the only path to long-term competitive advantage.  These are the firms of endearment. Companies people love doing business with, working for and collaborating with as partners. Since the publication of the First Edition, the concept of corporate social responsibility has become embraced as a valid, important, and profitable business model. It is a trend that has transformed the workplace and corporate world.  This Second Edition updates the examples, cases, and applications from the original edition, giving readers insight into how this hallmark of the modern organization is practiced today.

Today's best companies get it. From Costco(R) to Commerce Bank, Wegmans to Whole Foods(R): they're becoming the ultimate value creators. They're generating every form of value that matters: emotional, experiential, social, and financial. And they're doing it for all their stakeholders. Not because it's "politically correct": because it's the only path to long-term competitive advantage. These are the Firms of Endearment. Companies people love doing business with. Love partnering with. Love working for. Love investing in. Companies for whom "loyalty" isn't just real: it's palpable, and driving unbeatable advantages in everything from marketing to recruitment. You need to become one of those companies. This book will show you how. You'll find specific, practical guidance on transforming every relationship you have: with customers, associates, partners, investors, and society. If you want to be great-truly great-this is your blueprint.   We're entering an Age of Transcendence, as people increasingly search for higher meaning in their lives, not just more possessions. This is transforming the marketplace, the workplace, the very soul of capitalism. Increasingly, today's most successful companies are bringing love, joy, authenticity, empathy, and soulfulness into their businesses: they are delivering emotional, experiential, and social value-not just profits. Firms of Endearment illuminates this, the most fundamental transformation in capitalism since Adam Smith. It's not about "corporate social responsibility": it's about building companies that can sustain success in a radically new era. It's about great companies like IDEO and IKEA(R), Commerce Bank and Costco(R), Wegmans and Whole Foods(R): how they earn the powerful loyalty and affection that enables truly breathtaking performance.   This book is about gaining "share of heart," not just share of wallet. It's about aligning stakeholders' interests, not just juggling them. It's about building companies that leave the world a better place. Most of all, it's about why you must do all this, or risk being left in the dust... and how to get there from wherever you are now.

Many marketers fear that the field's time-worn principles are losing touch with today's realities. "Does Marketing Need Reform?" collects the insights of a select group of leading marketing thinkers and practitioners who are committed to restoring marketing's timeless values. The book sets the agenda for a new generation of marketing principles. As the editors note in their introduction; "Marketing is a powerful force backed up by huge resources. It must be entrusted only to those with the wisdom to use it well." The contributors seek to understand and explain how and why marketing has veered significantly off course in order to steer it back in the right direction. The concepts and perspectives presented in this book will inspire a renewed commitment to the highest ideals of marketing - serving customers individually and society as a whole by synergistically aligning company, customer, and social interests.

The authors present a powerful and tested approach that helps managers see a business's every action through the eyes of its customers. This approach is organized around the values that matter most to customers: Acceptability, Affordability, Accessibility and Awareness. Taken together, these attributes are called the "4A's." The 4A framework derives from a customer-value perspective based on the four distinct roles that customers play in the market: seekers, selectors, payers and users. For a marketing campaign to succeed, it must achieve high marks on all four A's, using a blend of marketing and non-marketing resources.The 4A framework helps companies create value for customers by identifying exactly what they want and need, as well as by uncovering new wants and needs. (For example, none of us knew we "needed" an iPad until Apple created it.) That means not only ensuring that customers are aware of the product, but also ensuring that the product is affordable, accessible and acceptable to them. Throughout this book, the authors demonstrate how looking at the world through the 4A lens helps companies avoid marketing myopia (an excessive focus on the product) as well as managerial myopia (an excessive focus on process). In fact, it is a powerful way to operationalize the marketing concept; it enables managers to look at the world through the customer's eyes. This ability has become an absolute necessity for success in today's hyper-competitive marketplace.

Many marketers fear that the field's time-worn principles are losing touch with today's realities. "Does Marketing Need Reform?" collects the insights of a select group of leading marketing thinkers and practitioners who are committed to restoring marketing's timeless values. The book sets the agenda for a new generation of marketing principles. As the editors note in their introduction; "Marketing is a powerful force backed up by huge resources. It must be entrusted only to those with the wisdom to use it well." The contributors seek to understand and explain how and why marketing has veered significantly off course in order to steer it back in the right direction. The concepts and perspectives presented in this book will inspire a renewed commitment to the highest ideals of marketing - serving customers individually and society as a whole by synergistically aligning company, customer, and social interests.