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Here is Marketing Minds' list of the top 20 Marketing Gurus and the books and articles they have written.
These people are the most influential contributors to the field of marketing, sales and related strategy. Reflecting marketing's importance in business strategy, the list includes many of the greatest management thinkers of any type.
The Marketing Minds Top 20 Marketing Gurus list includes links to other websites which will help you to research these marketing thought-leaders a little further.
Where possible, we have also linked to the Marketing Guru's own websites and other contact information - in case your business might be interested in consulting
with them.
Philip Kotler
Philip Kotler is Professor of Marketing at J.L.Kellog Graduate School
of Management, Northwestern University, Illinois.
Marketing thought leader for over three decades.
Popularised the "4 Ps of marketing". Author
of Marketing Management, The New Competition,
Marketing Models,The Marketing of Nations ,
and Kotler on Marketing.
Biography: www.kellogg.northwestern.edu/faculty/bio/Kotler.htm
Kotler's Homepage: www.kotlermarketing.com
David Ogilvy
David Ogilvy is the man who virtually invented advertising as we know it today. His book Ogilvy on Advertising is pretty much a "how to" book on print advertising
copy writing and is an absolute "must read" by anyone
who wants to learn the art of advertising.
See reviews and read a couple of chapters
of the book on Amazon.com.
www.marketers-hall-of-fame.com/1-david-ogilvy-marketing.html
www.ogilvy.com/history
Michael Porter
A highly esteemed Professor at Harvard Business
School, Michael Porter is a leading authority on
competitive strategy and the competitiveness and
economic development of nations, states, and regions.
Author of Competitive Strategy: Techniques for
Analyzing Industries and Competitors, Competitive
Advantage: Creating and Sustaining Superior Performance,
and The Competitive Advantage of Nations
(which developed a new theory of how nations, states,
and regions compete and their sources of economic
prosperity).
Also author of numerous articles and papers, including:
Strategy and the Internet, The Competitive Advantage of Corporate Philanthropy, Industry Transformation, What is Strategy?, From Competitive Advantage to Corporate Strategy, End Game Strategies for Declining Industries (with Kathryn Harrigan), How Competitive Forces Shape Strategy, and Note on the Structure of Industries
Overviews of some of Porter's work:
Many
Worlds knowledge
network
Fast Company
Harvard Business School's Institute for Strategy and Competitiveness,
led by Porter: http://www.isc.hbs.edu/
Harvard
Business School's Profile of Michael Porter
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Derek F Abell
Derek Abell is founding President of European School of Management
and Technology (ESMT) in Berlin. Not so well known,
but an HBS contemporary/precursor of Michael Porter.
Established leading insights into the business fundamentals
driving marketing strategy.
Great analysis of how to answer the very basic question
of "what business are we in?" in his book Defining the Business - the Starting Point of Strategic Planning,
and the techniques described here which has been
widely adopted. Also wrote Strategic Market Planning - problems and analytical approaches (with John
Hammond).
ESMT
Profile of Derek F Abell
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James (Jim) Collins
If you believe a company's mission is intimately
correlated with the company's marketing strategy,
then Jim Collins has had a huge impact on the way corporations approach the marketing big picture.
Author of Good to be Great, and of the earlier
book Built to Last - Successful Habits of Visionary Companies (with Jerry Porras). Built to Last,
based on 6 years research, argued that long lasting
companies share a common trait: an almost cult-like
devotion to a "core ideology" or identity, and active
indoctrination of employees into "ideological commitment"
to the company. The emergence of senior management
roles with titles such as "Director of People
and Brand" and "Director of Organisational
Renewal" has resulted from this work. Good
to Be Great continues this idea, and mixes it with
insights about how existing and aspiring executive
managers sometimes evolve into becoming great leaders.
Links to many other publications and ideas on his
website:
www.jimcollins.com
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Gary Hamel
Gary Hamel is an influential business strategist and a visiting Professor
of Strategic and International Management at the
London Business School. Author of Competing for
the Future, Leading the Revolution, and Competence Based Competition (with Aimé Heene).
His company Strategos consults on business innovation. Gary Hamel currently writes the Wall Street Journal blog: Gary Hamel’s Management 2.0
www.garyhamel.com
www.strategos.com
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Regis McKenna
Considered the marketing guru of Silicon Valley,
Regis McKenna is a well-known technology marketing
consultant, advisor to entrepreneurs, venture capitalist
and author. Over the past 30 years, he advised and
consulted many of the leading Silicon Valley entrepreneurs
helping them develop their marketing infrastructures.
Regis McKenna helped launch some of the most important technological
innovations of the last thirty years including the
first microprocessor (Intel Corporation), the first
personal computer (Apple Computer), the first recombinant
DNA genetically engineered product (Genentech, Inc.),
and the first retail computer store (The Byte Shop).
His book, Relationship Marketing, was a pioneering
work in the concept of one-to-one marketing. Regis McKenna was the author of the Apple Macintosh Product Introduction Plan in 1983.
His most recent book, TOTAL ACCESS, Giving Customers What They Want in an Anytime, Anywhere World,
published by Harvard Business School Press in March
2002, addresses the future of marketing as computers
and the network do most of the work, from data gathering
to customer care and response. The marketing function
disappears into a network of relationships and responsibilities
between man and machine throughout the value chain.
Total consumer access to-and interaction with-the
marketplace replaces the archaic broadcast model.
www.regis.com
Clayton Christensen
Clayton Christensen is a thought-leader for his work on innovation and its
ability to disrupt successful business strategies
or create competitive advantage, particularly in
mature markets. The themes of his original work are the impact of disruptive technologies
and innovation waves. Professor of Business Administration
at Harvard Business School and principal of consulting
firm Innosite. Author of: The Innovator's Dilemma,
The Innovator's Solution, Innovation and the General Manager, and Seeing What's Next (with Scott Anthony & Erik
Roth). Disruptive innovation principles are summarized
at: www.innosight.com/template.php?page=basics
Christensen page at Harvard Business School Publishing website
www.claytonchristensen.com
www.innosight.com
Theodore Levitt
Theodore Levitt was Professor of Business Administration Emeritus at
the Harvard Business School and former editor of
the Harvard Business Review. Most recently an "ally"
at consulting firm Hamilton Co. Professor Levitt was at his most prolific
20 years ago, but is still vastly influential.
Author of The Marketing Imagination, and numerous thought-leading Harvard Business School articles including The Globalization of Markets (link
to recent seminar), Marketing Myopia , Marketing Intangible Products and Product Intangibles ("Brand" starts here,
if you think about it), Marketing Success Through Differentiation - Of Anything , Exploit the Product Life Cycle. Credited with coining the phrase "globalization", in his
The Globalization of Markets article.
Theodore Levitt's obituary in Business Week June 2006
Theodore Levitt's obituary and profile at Harvard Business School
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Geoffrey Moore
Geoffrey More is the author of Crossing the Chasm, Inside the Tornado, The Gorilla Game, and Dealing with Darwin: How Great Companies Innovate at Every Phase of Their Evolution. He is the leading thinker and practitioner on marketing and selling
technology products, currently consulting to many
absolute industry leaders. Articles include Darwin and the Demon: Innovating Within Established Enterprises
and
Bridging the Chasm Between Volume and Complexity.
Geoffrey Moore's biography
www.tcg-advisors.com
www.chasminstitute.com
www.chasmgroup.com
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Al Ries
Al Ries is the author of Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind
(with Jack Trout), Marketing Warfare (with
Jack Trout), Bottom Up Marketing (with Jack
Trout), The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing
(with Jack Trout), Focus, The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding, and The Fall of Advertising and the Rise of PR. With Jack Trout, Al Reis
is commonly thought of as the father of "Positioning".
Both are thought leaders in marketing strategy.
www.ries.com
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Jack Trout
With Al Reis, Jack Trout is commonly thought of
as the father of "positioning". Both are thought
leaders in marketing strategy. Came up with original
concept of "positioning" in 1969. Books includeThe New Positioning, Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind (with Al Ries), Differentiate or Die – Survival in Our Era of Killer Competition, Marketing Warfare
(with Al Ries), Bottom Up Marketing (with
Al Ries), The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing
(with Al Ries), Big Brands Big Trouble.
www.troutandpartners.com
Neil Rackham
Neil Rackham is widely credited with bringing research and analytical
methods to the field of sales force management.
Founder and CEO of Huthwaite, Inc, a leading sales
consulting, training and research firm. Author of:Spin Selling, Major Account Sales Strategy,
Managing Major Sales, Getting Partnering Right (with Larry Friedman and Richard Ruff),
Psychology of Negotiating, and Rethinking
the Sales Force (with John De Vincentis).
http://gtmpartners.com
www.huthwaite.com
www.neilrackham.com
Larry Friedman
Larry Friedman is widely credited with establishing go-to-market strategy
as a corporate focus. He is a pioneer in multi-channel
integration, and an expert on sales channel strategy.
Managing Consultant at LGF Group. Author of Go To Market Strategy, The Channel Advantage, and of Getting Partnering Right (with Neil Rackham and Richard
Ruff).
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David A. Aaker
David Aaker is Vice-Chairman of Prophet, Professor Emeritus of
Marketing Strategy at the Haas School of Business,
University of California at Berkeley, Advisor to
Dentsu, Inc., and a recognized authority on brands
and brand management. Author of
Strategic Market Management ,
Building Strong Brands , The Lure of Global Branding , Building Brands Without Mass Media , Brand Leadership, and Managing Brand Equity .
Haas School of Business, UC Berkeley's profile
of David Aaker
www.davidaaker.com
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Jay Conrad Levinson
Jay Conrad Levinson is widely regarded as being the "inventor" of Guerrilla Marketing (or at least of putting a name to certain strategies and tactics). He has written a series of books on the subject, including
The Guerrilla Marketing Handbook (Guerrilla Marketing) ,
Guerrilla Marketing Excellence: The 50 Golden Rules for Small-Business Success (Guerrilla Marketing) ,
Guerrilla Marketing, 4th edition: Easy and Inexpensive Strategies for Making Big Profits from Your Small Business, and
Guerrilla Marketing for the Home-Based Business
www.gmarketing.com
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Edward de Bono
He of the six hats, Lateral Thinking: Creativity Step by Step  ,
valufacture and much more. Edward de Bono is included in this list because of his huge impact in the area of creative thinking - a key ingredient of marketing.
Edward de Bono main website: www.edwarddebono.com
De Bono Institute (Melbourne): www.debono.org
deBono Thinking Systems (his training business): www.debonothinkingsystems.com
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John Kenneth
Galbraith
J K Galbraith
was not a marketer, but his work as one of the world's
leading economists over many decades exemplified
absolute thought leadership in business areas that
impacted all marketplaces. Author (amongst many
other publications) of The Affluent Society
(1958), The New Industrial State (1967),
The Age of Uncertainty (1977), and The Culture of Contentment (1992).
Harvard University's profile of John
Kenneth Galbraith
John Kenneth Galbraith remembered at Harvard University's Nieman Foundation for Journalism
J K Galbraith's obituary in the New York Times
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Stafford Beer
Professor
Dr Stafford Beer created the field of managerial
cybernetics - the science of effective organisation.
Cybernetics can be applied to most situations where
an enduring viable enterprise is sought. It has
much to teach us about how businesses can survive
in an ever more complicated world, and how to economically
manage the complexity of delivering value to customers
in markets which seem to dissolve in to an increasing
variety of segments and customer needs.
Although
not on his CV, Stafford was one of the few people
ever to consult to McKinsey (on their organisational
design), as well as to governments and major corporations.
His best known books are Brain of the Firm , The Heart of Enterprise , Designing Freedom and Diagnosing the System for Organizations . Warning - nearly all of Stafford's work is hard reading.
A quote on the art of communication: "It isn't what is said, it isn't how it is transmitted. It isn't what is received, it is what is understood."
Quick
guide to the Viable Systems Model
The Cybernetics Society's profile of Stafford Beer's
work
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Hugh Mackay
Hugh Mackay is a very prominent Australian social researcher, and author of several books on the Australian psyche and current mood (most widely read is Reinventing Australia Hugh Mackay is author of
Generations: Baby Boomers, Their Parents and Their Children .
He published data (commercially for $$$) in The
Mackay Report for many years. Sold this business
to Ipsos, which still publishes
the The Mackay Report (Hugh Mackay retired to concentrate on writing books at the end of 2006, but Ipsos is continuing to produce reports following his methodology).
Profile of Hugh Mackay (& phone number) by the Whitlam Institute:
www.whitlam.org/people/mackay_hugh.html
Mackay Report at www.ipsos.com.au
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Accenture's List of The Top 50 Business Gurus
If you want another opinion, Accenture published their view on the top 50 business gurus. The Accenture list of the Top 50 Business Gurus was published in 2003. Only 4 names on the Accenture list overlap with
the list on this page, but it is fun to compare.
The Accenture list is of broader scope (anything
to do with business). Read their methodology too:
as the article explains, they have basically used
volumes of Google hits and mentions in a couple
of online databases to score candidates in the list.
Hence their list contains a number of "pop-management
gurus" who are good at publicity.
Marketing Mind's list is more subjective, but much
more inclusive of thought leaders on marketing.
If you have other suggestions, please use our contact form to let us know!
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