Ten Rules of Radical Marketing

1. The CEO must own the marketing function Radical marketing requires that the top individual in the organization be intimately involved in the marketing function, and in fact, drive the marketing approach of the organization. This ensures that everyone in the organization has a strong focus on the interaction with the market, because the CEO demands and expects it.

2. Make sure the marketing department starts small and flat and stays small and flat The key point here is that the marketing function must not get so large that it starts to become bloated with bureaucracy and protocol, but rather is small and flexible enough to respond to new trends to stay in touch with the market, and to try out 'outrageous' new approaches.

3. Get out of the office and face-to-face with the people that matter most the customers Hardly a radical idea, but surely a sensible one.

4. Use market research cautiously Related, this point relates to the propensity for CEOs to 'go with their gut' on key marketing decisions, rather then rely upon focus groups or in-depth market surveys. Because of their close connection to their customers, such marketing decisions often turn out to be right.

5. Hire only passionate missionaries Radical companies hire what the authors call 'passionate missionaries' for senior positions. These are individuals who believe in the product and the customer base as strongly as does the CEO.

6. Love and respect your customers Unlike 'mainstream' companies, senior people in radical marketing companies do not see their customers only as target market segments, defined by demographic or psychographic characteristics. Rather, they think of their customers as being like themselves, passionate and proud to be associated with the product. In this sense, the authors describe the senior managements of 'radical' companies as 'loving and respecting' their customers.

7. Create a community of customers One very striking aspect of certain of the radical marketing companies discussed in the book is their ability to create an extremely dedicated and loyal community of customers, who will even go to the extent of having their bodies tattooed with the brand they identify with (e.g. Harley-Davidson, the Grateful Dead).

8. Rethink the marketing mix "Radical marketers market continuously and devote huge amounts of money, effort and time to communicating with their customers. However, they seldom have huge advertising budgets. In fact, some, like Providian, don't even have marketing budgets, reasoning that such budgets act as "entitlements" and encourage spending when none is needed or, conversely, as ceilings, discouraging marketers from spending more when they see an opportunity... When radical marketers use advertising, they tend to do so in short, sharp bursts, what we have called "surgical strike advertising".... Radical marketers tend to use more one-to-one or targeted communications tools, ranging from direct mail to Web pages to local advertising to sponsoring neighborhood basketball tournaments.

9. Celebrate uncommon sense Radical marketers break the rules. For example, rather than try to maximize distribution of product to place as much as possible in the market, they may tend to limit availability to create pent-up demand, and thus foster loyalty and commitment among their distributors.

10. Be true to the brand "Radical marketers are obsessive about brand integrity, and they are fixated on quality."