Today's smart marketers don't sell products; they sell benefit packages. They don't sell purchase value only; they sell use value.
Philip KotlerOne of the major causes of poverty is a lack of family planning. Governments and nonprofit organizations need to encourage poor people to use birth control so that they don't have unexpected babies, which will only make poorer families poorer.
Philip KotlerRepublicans talk loudly about freedom and yet are against a women deciding what's best for her own body and are against the freedom of two people of the same sex to marry.
Philip KotlerCEOs need to produce continuous growth in sales and profits. Yet they must also invest in sustainability and social responsibility, which then leave them less money for financing their growth.
Philip KotlerCompanies pay too much attention to the cost of doing something. They should worry more about the cost of not doing it.
Philip KotlerGood customers are an asset which, when wellmanaged and served, will return a handsome lifetime income stream for the company.
Philip KotlerEvery business is a service business. Does your service put a smile on the customer's face?
Philip KotlerWe should tax every company's carbon footprint and the carbon footprint of every building and home, to incentivize people to reduce their carbon footprint.
Philip KotlerI admire firms that have achieved a real differentiation from their competitors. Nike is all about mastering sports. Apple is all about creating technologies to make life easier and better. Audi is is all about introducing new technologies to make automobiles safer and better performing.
Philip KotlerThomas Edison had great visions (for lights, music players, movies, etc.) but he knew they didn't count until he could make them work. His statement that creativity is 99% perspiration makes that point. Consider how much time he spent trying to make a synthetic rubber material for tires and never stopped trying but he never succeeded.
Philip KotlerWhenever someone wonders how I could have written 57 books, I remind them that Isaac Asimov wrote 500 books. I like Asimov's view that great insight comes from seeing something as odd and finding out why. Curiosity is the starting point for great science.
Philip KotlerEvery company should work hard to obsolete its own product line - before its competitors do.
Philip KotlerThe most important thing is to forecast where customers are moving, and be in front of them.
Philip KotlerRequiring the payment of higher wages will lead to a loss of some jobs and a raising of prices which drives companies to search for automation to reduce costs. On the other hand, those receiving higher wages will spend more (the marginal propensity to consume is close to 1 for low income earners) and this will increase demand for additional goods and services. Henry Ford had the clearest vision of why companies can actually benefit by paying higher wages.
Philip KotlerPeople who lack material wealth, who are poor, won't be very happy. They will be obsessed with meeting their bills at pay day. And people who have an abundance of material goods are often not happy.
Philip KotlerIt is more important to do what is strategically right than what is immediately profitable.
Philip KotlerWhen it comes to efficiency and effectiveness, I would always start with effectiveness. I am interested in achieving a certain outcome. Only secondarily do I worry about achieving it as efficiently as possible.
Philip KotlerWe need to take a close look at the relationship between the economic system of Capitalism and the political system of Democracy. A democracy with high concentrations of private wealth buys votes and interferes with the ability of Capitalism to perform well. It is no longer one citizen, one vote.
Philip KotlerPeople are more comfortable with the familiar. It takes selling a big dream that comes with excellent income possibility to get someone to leave his or her comfort zone.
Philip KotlerI would favor three policies: raising the minimum wage to $12, closing the tax loophole where persons only pay a 15% income tax on long term capital gains (tax it at the full tax rate), and institute a progressive tax moving the highest tax rate from 39.6% to 45%. I would favor implementing these three policies in that order, starting with raising the minimum wage, but not stopping there.
Philip KotlerAuthentic marketing is not the art of selling what you make but knowing what to make. It is the art of identifying and understanding customer needs and creating solutions that deliver satisfaction to the customers, profits to the producers and benefits for the stakeholders.
Philip KotlerIn fact, Capitalism has a vested interest in creating new wants and making people unhappy until they acquire the next good.
Philip KotlerCompetitive advantage is a companys ability to perform in one or more ways that competitors cannot or will not match.
Philip KotlerA person without an Apple watch is perfectly content with his present watch but when he sees his friends buying the watch, he will hanker for an Apple watch. The endless cycle of wanting, getting, and wanting again is part of the plot of Capitalism. It is the way Capitalism creates jobs. The only antidote is Buddhism that holds that people might be happier by renouncing desire rather than by striving to satisfy desire. But then how can the economy create enough jobs in a Buddhist society of "less is more."
Philip KotlerTurbulence is a condition that we all experience during a flight when the plane is bouncing around by competing air currents. By analogy, the economy may bounce around a lot because of competing currents of public moods and investments. One week everyone might be optimistic and then suddenly something happens to turn everyone into pessimists. Investment dries up and investors become risk averse. A sudden piece of good news then turns around the public mood.
Philip KotlerWhen managers overdo micromanaging of others, they probably hired the wrong people or failed to give them a clear idea of what each one is to accomplish. I prefer to train employees to be self-managers, just as in an orchestra each performer knows his or her role without being micromanaged.
Philip KotlerThe Republican Party has consistently opposed Obamacare (as costing more), stimulus spending (as increasing inflation), etc., none of which has happened in spite of seven years of their warnings. Their main problem is that they don't have the character to admit that they are wrong. They don't have enough character to rethink their deeply held assumptions.
Philip KotlerI have always favored Capitalism as the best economic system and Democracy as the best political system. They both have the most potential for improving the lives of people. However, both systems need to be reexamined and refreshed so that, in fact, they do serve the majority of people.
Philip KotlerThe CEO announces that the purpose of the firm is to improve the lives of the customers and the lives of the firm's stakeholders and the quality of the planet. The company will give fair compensation to all the stakeholders and the CEO will not earn more than 20 times the median income of his employees. He will want his employees to rate him, just as he also has to rate them.
Philip KotlerIn working on any one problem, such as higher minimum wages, so many other issues come into play, such as some businesses possibly closing down, thus creating fewer jobs and more unemployment and incentivizing companies to import more goods from abroad, which leads to even less employment at home, and so on.
Philip KotlerIntegrated marketing communications is a way of looking at the whole marketing process from the view point of the customer.
Philip KotlerThe best way to hold customers is to constantly figure out how to give them more for less.
Philip KotlerI found marketing to be highly descriptive and prescriptive, without much of a foundation in deep research. I brought in economics, organization theory, mathematics, and social psychology in my first edition of Marketing Management in 1967. Today Marketing Management is in its 15th edition and remains the world's leading textbook on marketing in MBA programs. Subsequently, I wrote two more textbooks, Principles of Marketing and Marketing: an Introduction.
Philip KotlerThe theory of marketing is solid but the practice of marketing leaves much to be desired.
Philip KotlerThe key solution is to invest in innovation and entrepreneurship within the company. Reducing waste - although probably not eliminating it - and do so at all levels of government would probably generate the capital needed. Alas, that will probably not happen because it makes too much sense.
Philip KotlerMarketing is the set of human activities directed at facilitating and consummating exchanges.
Philip KotlerMost of the productivity gains appear to go to the top 1 percent. Most people don't have enough income and as a result, they borrow additional money by using their credit card and they fall into high debt. The result of the growing income gap is a slower growing GDP (too few people with money to spend) and a rising tide of indebtedness.
Philip KotlerThere is no such thing as a commodity. It is simply a product waiting to be differentiated.
Philip Kotler