Abstract
(Notion Press, 1st edition, 2022), 208 pp. ₹259, ISBIN: 979-8887179285.
Many of the books written by management practitioners are about their journey in the corporate world. CXOs, having spent decades in the corporate ladder, provide a pompous account of their resourcefulness in dealing with adverse situations. It is left to the reader to draw a meaningful conclusion and takeaways from the actions of corporate leaders. Vivek Singh’s book—For Brand’s Sake—slightly differs from the usual self-praise accounts. While there are anecdotes from personal experience and the corporate journey of his IIM Ahmedabad friends, Vivek ensures that the book is focused on practical aspects.
Once I finished reading the book, my first impression was that the book was all about decision-making in marketing. An MBA education, in most good institutes, has been about learning to make decisions. The decision-making training is done through cases, exercises, and simulation software, often after students have been exposed to relevant concepts through lectures, textbooks, and articles. However, when the rubber hits the road, that is, when students become managers, they often find themselves missing the link to connect concepts from textbooks to problems they face while on the job. In fact, even before they start their work as managers, summer internship exposes them to such experiences where there is pressure to deliver for securing pre-placement offers. A ready reckoner providing pointers to budding managers for decision-making in the marketing domain, especially when they start their corporate journey, can be a valuable resource. Vivek’s book tries to fill this gap by providing a list of decision-making points in a marketing manager’s job and providing guidance on handling these decision dilemmas.
Vivek has adopted a straightforward approach to guiding by not providing any models or frameworks. If you are looking for marketing models or frameworks to use in presentations to dazzle your boss, this book is not for you. The focus is on the practical side to enable the decision-maker to arrive at a decision for moving forward. Vivek focuses on the norms of decision-making in different situations and contexts, which, when followed, will ensure that the manager can deliver on the marketing tasks. He intersperses the pointers with examples from his field experiences, especially from his visits to small towns (selling 60 large packs, availability of expensive dates and oats of premium brands), thus making it an engaging read.
The book provides pointers for seven main aspects of decision-making in marketing by covering aspects like advertising, media planning, market research, trade marketing, launching a new brand, below-the-line activation, and public relations. The first two chapters are well-detailed and focus on two crucial aspects of advertising, that is, how to get the ads made and how to go about making decisions for media. The next four chapters guide the reader on different aspects to be considered to carry out the activities listed in each chapter. The seventh chapter on public relations also has pointers for e-commerce, social media, YouTube, and influencer marketing, but the coverage is limited. Covering different aspects of e-commerce, social media, YouTube, and influencer marketing is difficult in a chapter.
The bonus eighth chapter is a collection of miscellaneous situations that a marketing manager may face. Vivek draws on his experiences (email to customer care of biscuit company, termination clause for a celebrity), his friend’s experiences (bus branding) and anecdotes from different books (The CEO Factory, How Come No One Told Me That) to provide pointers on aspects that do not fit into any of the earlier chapters.
While drawing from personal experiences to provide pointers to budding managers has its usefulness, there are some obvious limitations. First, the learning gets limited as the book does not cover what the author has not experienced. Second, the usefulness of the book gets limited to the audience in India, given the nature of the experience. But if you are starting your career as a marketing manager in India, this book can be a valuable tool.