All Business Is Local: Why Place Matters More Than Ever in a Global, Virtual World

by John A. Quelch, Katherine E. Jocz

Overview

Why businesses should never underestimate the power of place.

Today's business leaders are so obsessed with all things global and virtual that they risk neglecting the critical impact of physical place. It's a paradox of the Internet age: now that it's possible for businesses to be everywhere at once, they need to focus on what it means to be one specific place at a time.

The best global brands, from IBM to McDonald's, are by design also the leading local brands. For instance, your decision to patronize Starbucks will depend on whether it's the best local coffee shop in your neighborhood, not on how many thousands of global locations it has.

Marketing experts John Quelch and Katherine Jocz offer a new way to think about place in every strategic decision-from how to leverage consumer associations with locations to where to position products on the shelf. They explore case studies such as Nike and The Apple Store, which use place in creative ways.

Drawing on a blend of hard data and engaging anecdotes, this book will help any business-from global mega-brands to boutique, small town stores- influence customers more effectively.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781101571873
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	02/02/2012
Sold by:	Penguin Group
Format:	eBook
Pages:	256
File size:	1 MB
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

John Quelch is Dean of CEIBS, the highestranked business school in China. He's also a former Dean of the London Business School and a former professor at Harvard Business School.
Katherine E. Jocz is a research associate at Harvard Business School and a former director at Marketspace. Their work has been featured in the Harvard Business Review among other publications.

Editorial Reviews

A marketing instruction manual for small-business owners. Quelch, a former Harvard Business School professor who now serves as dean of a business school in China, teams with Jocz, a current HBS research associate, to offer advice on marketing any product to any group of consumers. Satisfying paying customers who desire a local, meaningful connection with a product but also operate in a world of globalization could constitute a conundrum. Quelch and Jocz (co-authors: Greater Good: How Good Marketing Makes for Better Democracy, 2008) seek to transform this problem into an opportunity for greater profit. They open with the example of Real Madrid, the successful soccer club in Spain. Naturally, Spanish soccer fans feel a special kinship with the team; the authors understand that kinship, which includes an ownership interest by thousands of Spaniards, has been vital to the club's many successes. But why stop there, the authors ask, when opportunities to market high-grade soccer play exist in dozens of other soccer-crazy nations. They explain how Real Madrid's website, bolstered by social media, reaches out to soccer fans with spendable income in other nations across the world. Such a local/global mix can be exploited by almost any capitalist enterprise, but only with careful market research followed by actual marketing that offers something for just about everybody. The authors explain how to manage psychological place, physical place, virtual place and geographic place to build revenue flow. Because the intended audience is decision-makers inside business enterprises, other readers may need to dig through some jargon, as well as a hefty dose of repetition. A clearly presented, mostly successful marketing text.

Kirkus Reviews