Marketing - the textbook

Hello,

This is a short review on my marketing textbook: Marketing in Asia (2nd Edition).

Strengths (of the book):

Colourful
Many examples (in context)

Weaknesses:

The style of writing. Despite the book boasting 4 different authors of different nationalities, the language and style of writing is very "Singaporean". What I mean by this is that the way it is written is similar to a very conversational and non-formal manner, very much unlike other textbooks which use a more professional and instructive style. To me, this makes a joke out of the text itself.

Usage of "5-steps". In every chapter and every sub-chapter this textbook provides the 5 steps to accomplishing whatever given plan. (Well, truth be told it is not always 5-steps per se, but a general number of steps) While this may seem pretty trivial, taking into account the book having over 20 chapters and an even bigger number of sub-chapters, this means the student has to remember (or memorize) over a 100 steps, which to me is ridiculous. Here are some examples: "4Ps of marketing", "3 step Planning phase", "5 Environmental Forces", "5 stage purchase decision", "4 Influences on consumer purchase decision, each having another 5 or so sub-influences", "5 Step Marketing research approach" and the list goes on... The question that comes from the student, then, is 'Hang on, were there 4 or 5 steps to this action?' and he wastes his time thinking of a mysterious 5th step when in actual fact there were only 3.

While I find the module in general useful, I find textbook extremely difficult to read and to engage in any learning. Nonetheless, for the sake of the module I still have to read this text and will endeavour to sell it off once I complete this course.

Signing off, R3