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A new marketing book, "The Seven Keys to Marketing Genius," focuses on sound competitive strategy and building relationships instead of buying advertising.

St. Louis, MO (PRWEB) August 11, 2005 -- A new marketing book, The Seven Keys to Marketing Genius, focuses on sound competitive strategy and building relationships instead of buying advertising.

While teaching marketing courses at Concordia University, Professor Michael Daehn realized he had his work cut out for him. “My students had a lot of bad ideas to unlearn,” said Daehn. “They had a warped view of what good marketing is supposed to be.” Daehn blames the prevalent examples of poor marketing that envelopes our culture.

“My students are surrounded by marketing and advertising, but most of it is poorly done. There is so much wasted exposure,” he said. Daehn disciplines his students to do their homework before launching a marketing campaign. Students are taught how to define an element of their product that provides a unique competitive advantage. Then they determine a narrow segment of the market to target their marketing towards before any money is spent on paid marketing techniques.

“Most paid advertising will get customers,” Daehn said, “The question is how to get the best return on investment while building the strongest relationships with the least amount of wasted exposure.” Unfortunately this is not what is usually seen in the marketplace. Most people think of the ads during the Super Bowl when they talk about marketing, but Daehn says that in many cases these commercials are an example of what not to do. “Super Bowl ads are extremely expensive, are not targeted to ideal customers and do little to establish a strong relationship between the consumer and the advertiser.”

According to Daehn there are Seven Keys to Marketing Genius: Key 1: Find Your Advantage, Key 2: Define Your Purpose, Key 3: Create an Image, Key 4: Implement Promotions, Key 5: Build Relationships, Key 6: Gather Feedback, and Key 7: Adjust to Changes. Most marketing textbooks do not take this approach and tend to focus on promotion. According to Daehn, “If you focus solely on promotion you end up spending a lot of money with out a sound plan behind what you are doing. It’s like building a house without blueprints.”

Frustrated by the lack of an appropriate text book, Daehn started to put together his own material. After three years he realized he had enough for his own book and thought it might be useful to others. He decided to publish the book himself to keep down costs. “My students were spending well over $100 on their marketing text book and it had little practical value for them. My book is filled with practical, useful advice for the real world of marketing at a fraction of the cost,” said Daehn. There is also a Companion Guide filled with outlines, forms and study questions for the text. “I don’t think I am going to get rich from writing this book, but I hope I am able to make a contribution to improving the resources for students, professors and professional marketers.”

Michael Daehn has been winning marketing awards since high school. He is an entrepreneur, marketing consultant and founder of marketingenious. In his spare time he is a professor of marketing and advertising teaching the next generation of marketing geniuses how to be successful. He resides in St. Louis, MO with his wife and family. He can be reached at e-mail protected from spam bots. For more information or to purchase the book visit www.marketingenious.com.