Principles of Marketing by Philip Kotler, et al > Reviews (1)

I bought this book from my student bookshop (Aston University campus) priced at a generous £44.99. This price rarely fluctuates, the cheapest I think being Waterstones, possibly £39.99 there. I bought this book for the course that I'm currently doing, BSc Business and Management. I am in the first-year of this course and this book was recommended by the university and the head Marketing lecturer early on in the module. This book also had, a 'OneKey' online Marketing module tests to be able to do alongside the course, coming free with it. This is a particularly good service to use if approaching a test or to simply check on progress. It is handy as the results are also re-layed back into the lecturer who the 'OneKey' is assigned to.

The book itself is attractive enough from the outside, a decent cover, plenty of colours, and this is continued throughout the whole book. Each chapter is well defined, and the pages are nicely layed-out.

At the beginning of the book, there is a brief contents which briefly outlines each chapter, the following contents goes into a lot more detail and breaks down each chapter into key areas. This is then followed by supporting resources, and a brief introduction into the previously mentioned OneKey. There is then a particularly solid 'Guided Tour' which shows the reader exactly how to use the book effectively, this breaks down what each page will be showing, and why certain texts are in colour etc. This is really good to read prior to the first chapter read in the book and is good to refer back to it throughout research in the book. A preface and a brief 'about the authors' follow and we are then into the first chapter.

Within each chapter there is a Prelude case to begin the chapter (examples being Nike and Unilever) which gives you a good feel about what the chapter is about, and this can also be used as reference cases in future essays and assessments. There is an introduction that welcomes you into each chapter nicely, these are very handy and gets you to link the prelude case and the chapter a bit more. Each chapter has four or five main points which they then expand on depending on the topic. The writers also use italics and bold to show the reader exactly which words they need to remember and these words and then defined in the corresponding columns to the left or right of the text. This is good because often with HE books, without realising the reader can become confused due to not knowing, or knowing the incorrect, definition for key words in the text.

There are plenty of diagrams that are appropriate to the text and gives the reader more to think about the test that they are reading. I found these particularly useful, as I have been able to use them as referencing in Marketing groupwork and in other areas of my course (e.g Foundations of Management coursework).

Throughout the chapters, you come across 'Marketing Insights' which are case studies related to the chapter. Because it is a Marketing book, you often come across pictures of advertisements for the 'Marketing Insights'.

This is good as you can visibly see the context of marketing at work. Very useful.

After the main content of the chapter comes the 'summary' which nicely draws up the previous chapter into easily-readible chunks with key words once again highlighted through italics or bold writing. An exam tip I learnt was by reading these really got into my head the terms needed for each chapter, a real help at times. Next is four or five questions known in the book as 'discussing the issues'. These an be done if you have enough time, or can just be read, like I did, and then thought about instead. After this, 'applying the concepts' allows the reader to apply the various marketing techniques learnt in the chapter and then put into case study example questions. Really good to do throughout the course, as it does improve your progress. Finally, the 'references' are then found for the chapter previously read, this is good for group-work I found.

At the end of the chapter there are 'Concluding cases' which are again case studies depicting the chapter that they are in. These are very relevant and have questions about the concluding cases at the end of them which can be done for progress reasons.

At the end of the book, there is an extensive and informative glossary that breaks down all of the words found in the columns of the chapters and then them and their definitions are duplicated in the glossary at the back. Very good to have as it is very important in marketing to learn the new terms and know them well, as some are very similar and it is important to know the different between the two when it comes to assessment. There is no blagging at University level that could be done at GCSE/A Level! There is the basic subject index that gives a page number next to each term, simple but effective.

All in all, I was delighted that I purchased the book as it has really helped me out in my tough Marketing module. I found the book informative and also interesting to read, which meant that I rarely got bored (unlike other HE material!), when reading it.

A must-buy for any Marketing module, especially if it recommended by the course lecturer or university.