Marketing Management by Kevin Lane Keller, Philip Kotler (2005, Hardcover)

Though I’m reviewing the 12th edition of Kotler’s Marketing Management textbook – my praise of this great work extends to all of the editions (after all, like most textbooks, the editions aren’t thoroughly different and are usually printed merely to make more money from students and universities). That said, Kotler’s Marketing Management has long been considered the premier graduate-level marketing textbook. In fact, Marketing Management still sits on my office desk today and I often find myself referencing it.

What makes Marketing Management so special is its thoroughness – it touches traditional marketing to consumer marketing to internet marketing and leaves little left untouched. But Kotler is a special author because he surrounds each concept with plenty of tangible, real-life examples. While most textbooks get lost in terminology and theory, Kotler relates marketing to real products, real consumers and real needs. It ends up that Marketing Mangament is a joy to read and study – and its equally useful as a reference book later in life. Which takes me to my next point – Marketing Management is laid out is an easy-to-reference manner which makes it particularly useful for studying and referencing. I commonly find to be a flaw within many other textbooks – Kotler instead has his book laid out with multiple indexes, sorts, and searches.

Marketing Management is truly the best textbook I have ever owned / read and remains the ONLY one I still own today!