NEW hardcover

New And Improved Tedlow, Richard S

Product DescriptionTraces the emergence of standardized brandname products for the mass market through corporate confrontations, shrewd financial agreements and inspirational sales programsFrom Publishers WeeklyIt is a truism that successful firms change with the times, responding to the marketplace and to the competition This central theme is driven home with pith and historical perspective in an exhaustive, lively casebook that is especially timely in light of the reported nearbankruptcy of many of the nations top retailers Prime examples of companies that have lost their way, on Tedlows scorecard, are honest, clunky old Sears Roebuck, too slow to adjust to a world of market segmentation and competitive discounters, and A & P, which kept trying to sell everybody everything with its own namebrand products while specialty stores and local chains scored big with nationally distributed brands Harvard Business School associate professor Tedlow also draws marketing lessons in studies of how CocaCola bested Pepsi and how General Motors vanquished Ford, only to succumb to the disarray and entropy that grips Americas industrial heartlandCopyright 1990 Reed Business Information, IncFrom Library JournalIn this volume, Harvard business historian Tedlow charts the evolution of consumer markets in the 20th century Using the company histories of Coca Cola, General Motors, A&P, and Sears as ongoing illustrations, the author arrives at a threestep developmental cycle of consumer markets The cycle begins with market fragmentation, transmogrifies to mass markets, and culminates in a segmented state where individual consumer wants are king Tedlow proposes that mass markets, driven by consumer needs, are not at all inevitable but rather are an outcome of, among other things, an entrepreneurial spirit inherent in the American character While this books primary appeal will be to the serious student of business history, Tedlows readable style and provocative recounting of incidents like the CokePepsi cola wars will provide some appeal for any thoughtful business manager Gene R Laczniak, Marquette Univ, MilwaukeeCopyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc