STRONGBRANDS    Professor Tim Calkins, Kellogg School of Management

Almost every company creates a marketing plan each year, and many spend hundreds of employee hours researching, preparing and presenting their tomes to senior executives. But most marketing plans are a waste of time; they are too long, too complicated and too dense. They end up sitting on a shelf, unread and unrealized.

Breakthrough Marketing Plans is an essential tool for people who create marketing plans and people who review them. The book provides simple, clear frameworks that are easy to apply, and highlights why marketing plans matter, where they go wrong and how to create a powerful plan that will help build a strong, profitable business.

Some comments about the book:

“Brilliantly insightful, with an academic’s rigor and an experienced marketer’s practicality. This isn’t just a guide to creating breakthrough marketing plans; it’s a roadmap to business success. Tim Calkins gets to the heart of what makes plans successful. Plans don’t fail because they aren’t elaborate enough; they fail because they aren’t simple enough.”

Kevin McTigue
Director, Hillshire Farm
Hillshire Brands

“Tim Calkins captures the essence of what an effective marketing plan should include and more importantly provides a guide on how to write one. I wish this book was around many years ago when I started my marketing career!”

Arthur Reingold
Director of Marketing
Walgreens

“Professor Calkins has demystified the Marketing Planning Process. His straightforward approach enables anyone to develop focused, compelling and strategic plans to build their brands and businesses. This is an essential guide for any marketer to succeed in today’s highly competitive market.”

Carl Gerlach
Senior Director, Integrated Business Planning
Kraft Foods

“Want to write a winning marketing plan? Then follow Professor Calkins’ advice in this book. He is the expert at creating marketing plans that are simple, intuitive, and poised to help you win. Professor Calkins clearly outlines how to write a great marketing plan. Finally, someone who uses common sense in the creation of marketing plans to ensure that the end result is a winning plan. This is a must-read book!”

Robert Ruijssenaars
Director of Marketing
E&J Gallo Winery