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Below is a not-exhaustive list of the books I believe are an important part of any business library, but are most certainly important for Marketing Mortals, who have some catching up to do. For more information about a particular book, the link will take you to Amazon.com. If you’d like to recommend a book you don’t see here, contact me and I’ll post it. Enjoy!
	New: Networking Activity Card Deck Order yours now.*	Kurtzman, Joel
	*Download free Networking Playbook
	MBA in a Box: Practical Ideas from the Best Brains in Business	Kurtzman, Joel
	Even if this were not written and edited by my husband, I would have this book in the list. It's a compendium of practical advice on innovation, finance, profit, leadership, technology, sales, and marketing, by the "best brains" in business today: Dean Kamen, Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, Michael Milken, Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Warren Bennis, and Michael Porter. If your MBA seemed a bit theoretical, have a look at this. Don't have an MBA? You're in very good company.
	Pirates of the Digital Millennium: How the War Over Intellectual Property is Destroying Companies, Economies, and Personal Freedoms	Ganz, John and Rochester, Jack
	This book is the latest word on digital piracy, the complexities of which all marketers need to comprehend. Computer program piracy. Music piracy. Movie piracy. Games piracy. It’s all about the flagrant theft of intellectual property: any copyrighted material that takes digital form and is misused. Where will it lead? What are the legalities? What are the implications? This soon-to-be-available book is based on research conducted by IDC on behalf of Microsoft. It belongs as a reference on your bookshelf.
	Ageless Marketing : Strategies for Reaching the Hearts and Minds of the New Customer Majority	Wolfe, David B. and Snyder, Robert
	The results of a groundbreaking research project on the aging boomer generation, detailing the core values, buying behaviors, and emotional factors that distinguish the New Customer Majority. As more companies seek sales from multiple age groups, "ageless marketing" becomes critical to financial performance. An important new book.
	Linked: How everything is connected to everything else and what it means for business, science, and every day life	Barabasi, Albert-Laszlo
	Sort of, the science behind the Tipping Point.
	Selling the Invisible: A Field Guide to Modern Marketing	Beckwith, Harry
	How do you sell your company's most important products when you can't touch, see, or hear them? That's the problem with services, which Beckwith addresses with insight and practical strategies.
	Use What You’ve Got	Corcoran, Barbara
	The chairman and founder of the real estate agency that has defined the NYC market for the past 20 years tells how she got from $0 to $2 billion by applying the advice of her ever-wise and energetic mother.
	The Attention Economy: Understanding the New Currency of Business	Davenport, Thomas H. and Beck, John C
	This book outlines the burgeoning attention economy and outlines a plan for how to earn and spend the "new currency of business" -- attention.
	Six Thinking Hats	De Bono, Edward
	Practical and positive approach to making decisions and exploring new ideas
	Getting Started in Personal and Executive Coaching	Failey, Stephen G. and Stout, Chris E
	The bible for those interested in growing a thriving practice. Filled with how-to, research, and reality checks, this was originally geared toward setting up a coaching practice, but it is equally applicable to growing your practice in other disciplines as well.
	The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference	Gladwell, Malcolm
	If you don't read this book, you don't get to use the phrase "tipping point," which is making its way through marketing networks faster than the Sasser virus. This is a brilliant little book with a lot of great research and anecdotal Ah-ha's! Gladwell looks at how major changes in our society so often happen suddenly and unexpectedly. How ideas, behavior, messages, and products spread as social epidemics. If there's a way to analyze how things take off and reach critical mass, wouldn't that spell goodness for your marketing?
	Free Prize Inside	Godin, Seth
	When I was checking this out at Barnes & Noble, the cashier, who reminded me of Aunt Clara on Bewitched, got all flummoxed. She handed it back over the counter before ringing it up. "You didn't get this here, hon." The book she tried to give back is Seth Godin's latest (and my favorite, packaging-wise). It comes in a cereal box complete with Super Hero on the front. Luckily the read is as great as the packaging. The free prize, of course: whatever you can build into your product that makes it highly desirable to your market. (Not to mention gets you Permission from your market and stands out like a Purple Cow -- See Godin's other books, below.)
	Permission Marketing	Godin, Seth
	Marketing as we know it is over. In this day and age, the smart marketers realize they need "permission" in order to market to to their audience. How do you go about getting that permission? Read on.
	Purple Cow: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable	Godin, Seth
	A manifesto to marketers who want to help create products that are worth marketing in the first place. Any book by Seth Godin is entertaining at a minimum, and darned if you don't just learn something new every time.
	Marketing for Dummies and Marketing Kit for Dummies	Hiam, Alexander
	Practical tools to implement effective campaigns right away, from ready-made planning forms to easily customizable prototypes.
	The Vest-Pocket Marketer	Hiam, Alexander
	All those oft-heard-of, little understood, formulae associated with marketing.
	Advertising & Marketing Checklists	Kaatz, Ron
	77 proven checklists to save time and boost advertising effectiveness.
	The Ultimate Marketing Plan	Kennedy, Dan S.
	Find your most competitive edge, turn it into a powerful marketing message, and deliver it to the right prospects.
	Guerrilla Marketing: Secrets for Making Big Profits from Your Small Business	Levinson, Jay Conrad
	Much of what appears in this book is widely known at the entrepreneurial water cooler. Filled with hundreds of "weapons" and invaluable business advice, it has been updated for the 21st century and is still considered a classic.
	Thinkertoys	Michalko, Michael
	Have fun finding new ways to problem solve.
	Personal Brand Magazine	Montoya, Peter
	Hints and tips for the small business starting out.
	Crossing the Chasm	Moore, Geoffrey
	A clean, understandable model for building your business systematically.
	Creativity in Business	Ray, Michael and Myers, Rachelle
	Based on the course by the same name, developed by the authors for Stanford Business School.
	Focus: The Future of Your Company Depends on It	Ries, Al and Trout, Jack
	Lays out the smart way for your company to evolve, increase market share, and enhance shareholder value without sacrificing your key assets. Get rid of all that is extraneous and energy-wasting. Grow, but not for the sake of growth.
	Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind	Ries, Al and Trout, Jack
	Positioning, a concept developed by the authors, deals with the problems of communicating in an over communicated society. The model we used in the Positioning lab was adapted from this book.
	The Secrets of Six-Figure Women	Stanny, Barbara
	Research, interviews and dialogues with more than 150 high earners of the female persuasion whose annual incomes range from $100,000 to $7 million. Stanny reveals what they all have in common.
	Twenty Ads That Shook the World	Twitchell, James B.
	A fun analysis of the country's most groundbreaking advertisements and just why they were powerful enough to change us.
	The Provocateur	Weber, Larry
	Weber, himself a known practicing provocateur of the highest order, demonstrates how leaders who build not simply companies, but communities (think Lou Gerstner, Oprah Winfrey), are changing the content of leadership and are in sync with a world being turned upside down by technology, the global economy, and the social landscape.
© 2004 Karen Warner & Associates