Foreword

˜˜No matter what the field or profession, the ˜great ones always teach. A friend recently shared this thought with me, and the more I contemplated what shed said, the more I became convinced she was right. In the field of marketing, in my 30 years working to help companies be more innovative marketers, Ive met fewer than a dozen ˜˜great ones. Bud Johnson makes the short list of great ones. Yes, he is an immensely talented and creative marketer. But hes also a great teacher. And I should know. I was one of Buds first ˜˜students. The first marketing plan I ever developed and wrote (for a new line of fishing tackle) was under the encouraging and creative eye of Bud Johnson. I could have had no better teacher.

And now Bud continues his role as teacher, only on a much broader scale, with the publication of Powerhouse Marketing Plans . And, much as when I had the privilege of starting out with Bud, Powerhouse Marketing Plans , provides the realest of a real-world education on how to conceptualize, plan, and implement innovative new marketing ventures . Whats so wonderful about this book (and a testament to Buds skill not only as a creative marketer but as a gifted teacher), is that it can be read at many levels, no matter what the readers business experience, background, talents, or interests.

At one level (the most basic of levels), you can use these sample marketing plans, to guide and modelalmost as a template if you willany marketing plan you have to create. Any (or all) of the fourteen marketing plans will help you make sure youve asked the questions you should be asking, considered all the elements you should be considering, and been clear about the assumptions youre making in your plan. Furthermore, if need be, you can adapt the form and formats of these plans to help you actually write your marketing plan.

On another level, the stories behind the marketing plans can provide inspiration and guidance to the novice and veteran marketer alike, especially when faced with a difficult marketing challenge. Seeing how Bud and his clients solved some of the seemingly insurmountable marketing challenges on the way to developing such marketplace successes as Leggs pantyhose or Philips long- lasting light bulbs is tremendously helpful, if only in knowing that with enough persistence and creative thought, most problems can somehow be solved. The fact, too, that Bud has intentionally included several lessthanexciting, commodity-type products makes these examples, to my mind, all the more inspiring . Knowing, for instance, that Wooster Brush was able to substantially increase the size of their mini paint roller business with a single, well-executed idea may be a source of hope for the innovation manager charged with developing innovations like laundry detergents, deodorants, or toothpaste. My guess is that many of the marketing challenges that Bud describes in the book, at some level, will not be too very different from the marketing and growth challenges you are now facing or will someday face on your current or future new business ventures.

On a third level, the stories behind the marketing plans are fun to read, while adding to your general business knowledge and education. I like to think of these stories as a kind of Indiana Jones adventure for the marketing mind. As in any new marketing venture, you really have no idea whats going to happen. All you know for sure is that youre in for one hell of a ride.

Specifically, Part One of Powerhouse Marketing Plans gives the inside storyliterally from wish to launchof six real-world marketing success stories. Part Two gives eight ˜˜sample marketing plans, disguised for the purposes of client confidentiality, but no less real or instructive than the case studies and marketing plans in Part One. In all fourteen chapters, actual marketing plans have been selected from scores of alternatives, most of which Bud has worked on over the years, because of their variety and ability to elucidate different elements of marketing venture creation within vastly different industries.

What I find uniquely valuable about Powerhouse Marketing Plans , unlike so many of the other business books Ive read over the years, is Buds ability to provide the seminal thinking behind the marketing plan: why and how the venture was originally conceptualized, the inevitable challenges that come with creating something new, and ultimately how these challenges were overcome on the road to business success. As such, I think they provide an unequaled way to learn about how new business ventures happen in the real world.

Put another way, the true learningand valueof Powerhouse Marketing Plans is its exploration of the details of new marketing venturesand the interrelationship among these details. In this book, Bud has attended to the details of all the elements of the marketing mix: from name development to package creation; from display design to trade dealing, and price/value tradeoffs; from product positioning to marketing communications; from researching the competitive environment to understanding consumer segments and their unique motivations and interests. As such, were given a unique opportunity to look behind the curtain of marketing wizardry to see both the magic of directed creative thought and the incredibly hard work thats required to get all the elements of the marketing mix to come together in an integrated way to create a unique new product with a compelling point of difference. If more marketing executives would read Buds book, one cant help but think that new product failure rates would fall dramatically from the 80 to 90 percent levels they are at today.

Powerhouse Marketing Plans really has less to do with the actual writing and format of a marketing plan, and very much more to do with the creative thinking and problem-solving processes behind literally creating something out of nothing. Quotes from Dwight D. Eisenhower and my daughter Caroline come to mind as a way to sum up the essence and value of Powerhouse Marketing Plans .

Said Eisenhower about his plans to invade Europe on D-Day: ˜˜Its not the plan, its the planning.

Said Caroline, dressed in a princesss gown, staring at herself intensely in the mirror: ˜˜I have a magic wand, and Im not afraid to use it.