š Boost your marketing with these 3 books for the summer
Looking for reading tips on marketing, strategies and sustainability? Here are my latest recommendations for your path to strategic and sustainable marketing success in 2024.
Hi š Iām Florian Schleicher. This is the FutureStrategies newsletter of FUTURES. Thank you so much for reading along š If you want to learn strategic marketing from me, then my Simple & Sustainable Marketing Academy is the perfect fit for you.
Life without books is possible, but pointless.
This saying could be my motto in life - and there are now around 400 books in my studio to prove it.
I am happy to share this passion for books, further education, and good stories. That's why, twice a year, you'll find my recommendations of books that I've found helpful on strategic and sustainable marketing.
You can find my previous recommendations here and here.
So here are my 3 reading tips for your summer.
1ļøā£ The Book of Beautiful Questions from Warren Berger
Perfect for:
Brand strategists who are looking for better questions.
As a strategist and coach, one of my main tasks is to ask good questions. I find that questions are the key to many solutions. Far too often we jump to the solution and the most important thing is to understand the problem first.
This book is full of really good questions about areas like decision-making, creativity, networking, and leadership, and also shows how we can all ask better questions. It's like a glossary of questions.
Here is an excerpt from a particularly exciting question Berger collected from Julia Galef, Co-Founder Center for Applied Rationality.
Are you a Soldier or a Scout?
A soldier's job is to protect and defend against the enemy, whereas the scout's job is to seek out and understand. These two distinct attitudes can also be applied to the ways in which all of us process information and ideas in our daily lives. Making good decisions is largely about which mindset you are in.
The mindset of a scout, or any type of explorer, is rooted in curiosity. Scouts are more likely to say they feel pleasure when they learn new information or solve a puzzle. They are more likely to feel intrigued by what they encounter, something that contradicts their expectations. And scouts are grounded. Their self-worth as a person isn't tied to how right or wrong they are about a particular topic.
This book has also inspired me to enrich my own list of questions. So, if you're looking for more good questions: here's my list of 31 strategic green marketing questions.
2ļøā£ The Solutionists: How Businesses Can Fix the Future from Solitaire Townsend
Perfect for:
Sustainability managers who want to understand how their company can be part of the green future.
When it comes to sustainability and sustainable business models, Solitaire Townsend is already a long-standing and sought-after expert. She has advised organizations such as IKEA, Formula 1, Google, and the UN on sustainable entrepreneurship.
So naturally she was at the top of my reading list.
In this book, she uses many examples to describe what it takes to join the new generation of entrepreneurs, CEOs, and leaders who are reshaping the economy to create a more sustainable society.
It shows steps, ways of thinking, and strategies that can bring companies to the top of the green league. A must for all sustainability managers.
They also focus on the fact that we need to take consumers, investors, and decision-makers with us on this journey. After all, every change is complicated and marketing has a key role to play.
āGo beyond guilt-busting feel-good offerings and tell your customer how sustainability has upgraded your product in more ways than one. This banishes the sustainability marketer's enemy: worthiness. And above all, it makes sure you've answered any consumer's biggest question: What's in it for me?'
Sell the benefits of change, and donāt give up.ā
Solitaire Townsend
3ļøā£ Decoded: The Science Behind Why We Buy from Phil Barden
Perfect for:
Marketing managers who want to understand why customers buy and which tricks can help us to convince them.
Anyone working in marketing needs to understand one thing above all else - how people think, act, and buy.
Behavioral psychology is one of the essential arts of good strategists and marketers. In his book, Barden shows what decision science explains about people's buying behavior and, in particular, demonstrates its value for marketing. He presents research findings using many illustrative examples.
This incredible practical relevance made the book a hit for me.
A short and very exciting excerpt on the topic of attention spans and the necessity of simple marketing messages:
The typical duration of an average contact with advertising media:
Advert in popular magazines: 1.7 seconds
Digital poster: 1.9 seconds
Mailing (first relevance check): 2 seconds
Desktop display ad: 1.7 seconds
Mobile display ad: 2 seconds
Social media feed ad: 1.3 seconds
Lumen and Decode Marketing
Our brains like to switch to autopilot and if marketing is to be successful, we have to use every psychological trick in the book to draw attention to ourselves.
Another example from the book about Apple and pricing:
Another approach to reduce perceived cost is a mechanism called āanchoringā. When Steve Jobs introduced the iPad, he showed off its features and then asked: 'What should we price it at? If you listen to the pundits, we're going to price it at under $1,000? A giant '$999' came up on his presentation screen. He left it there to sink in before saying, I am thrilled to announce to you that the iPad pricing starts not at $999 but at just $499?
Onscreen, the $999' price was then visibly crushed by a falling '$499'.
So, the final price point appeared to be a very good deal - it reduced the perceived cost. What Jobs deliberately did not do was to compare the iPad price with that of a notebook - he compared it with the expectation of its own price. In doing so he removed notebooks as a reference point for both pricing and performance/features, thereby maintaining the uniqueness of his product. The first price is the anchor and the next price is evaluated relative to this anchor.
š® Looking for more input?
If you like listening to podcasts, then I have a special recommendation for you and your summer: in my FutureStrategies podcast, I talk to international marketing experts about strategies and sustainability.
Companies such as Oatly, Greenpeace, followfood, refurbed, Frosch, tomorrow university, and many more are already on board. There are already over 30 interviews.
Here are the links to your favorite platform:
And if you're looking for more, how about three particularly popular newsletters from the past few months.
š LEGO: 4 secrets behind the brand - The strategy the toy brand has been using since 1932 to win the hearts of children and, more recently, adults. Including a look at the challenge of sustainability.
š Reward consumption in vogue - Why we are rewarding ourselves more and more often, what this has to do with Miley Cyrus' "Flowers" and how we can work with it in marketing.
šŖ The magic of good brands - What is a brand? Why is brand management crucial for long-term corporate success? And what does this have to do with Barbie?
And you can find even more Inspiration, on my Instagram channel, where I share insights, methods and thoughts for your marketing:
š Your inspirations - I'm curious
Where do you get your inspiration?
Do you have any book tips, favorite podcasts, or newsletters for me?
I'd love you to share them with me in the comments or as a reply!
Have a great summer full of inspiration and relaxation!
Thanks for reading,
PS: You can also read this Posting in German.