7 p.m., Thursday, November 8, 2012
Fairfield University's Regina A. Quick Center for the Arts

"If your competition is listening to Jack and you're not, you're in big trouble. - Mark Gonsalves, founder of DirectBuy, Inc.

Best selling author Jack Trout , whose idea of "positioning" has become the number-one marketing strategy for the top corporations in the world, will discuss vital tactics for succeeding in the global marketplace, at Fairfield University on Thursday, November 8, 2012, at 7 p.m.

Open to the public, his talk, "Marketing Warfare - How to Survive in Today's Killer Economy," will be held in the Quick Center for the Arts, on the Fairfield campus. Tickets are $25; tickets are free to Fairfield University students and alumni. For more information or to purchase tickets, please contact the Regina A. Quick Center for the Arts: (203) 254-4010 or toll-free 1-877-ARTS-396, or visit www.quickcenter.com.

Trout, of Greenwich, Conn., is the president of Trout & Partners, one of the most prestigious marketing firms with headquarters in Greenwich and offices in 26 countries that counts among its clients the Obama Administration. In addition to being a boardroom advisor to companies such as Apple, Xerox and GE, he has consulted with the U.S. State Department on how to better sell America, and in 2006 helped the Democrats regain leadership of the U.S. Congress.

Among the corporations that have sought Trout's marketing and brand awareness acumen are AT&T, IBM, Burger King, Citicorp, Merrill Lynch, Merck, Lotus, Ericsson, Tetra Pak, Repsol, Hewlett-Packard, Procter & Gamble, Southwest Airlines, Papa John's Pizza, and many Fortune 500 companies. He is currently working with companies in India and China.

"In our world, he is a legend, a Vince Lombardi for brand managers," said John Neal, who teaches marketing in Fairfield's Charles F. Dolan School of Business, which is presenting the lecture. "Jack Trout is the architect of positioning - the fascinating concept of how advertisers can occupy a unique space in a consumer's mind."

Associate Professor Rajasree K. Rajamma, Ph.D., chair of the marketing department, added, "Trout knows that it is getting harder and harder for advertisers to get attention, but it can be done if you think outside the box like he does."

Author of twelve best selling books on marketing strategy, Trout is responsible for some of the freshest ideas to be introduced into marketing thinking in the last decade, such as "differentiation" that demonstrates that every product and service can be differentiated if you are willing to make sacrifices. This philosophy has been embraced by Facebook and Apple, for example. In "Differentiate or Die - Survival in Our Era of Killer Competition" (co-authored with Steve Rivkin), Trout presented the keys to survival in a killer global economy. In reviewing the book, Nicole Zetler wrote on BizCommunity.com that Trout is "one of marketing's godfathers."

Another of Trout's must-reads is "Big Brands. Big Trouble," analyzing the failures of some of America's biggest corporate icons and their lessons learned the hard way. It's a must read for companies who want to get big in a hurry.

He started his business career in the advertising department of GE. From there, he went on to become a divisional advertising manager at Uniroyal. Then he joined Al Ries in an advertising agency and marketing strategy firm where they worked together for over twenty-six years. With Ries, he co-authored the industry classic, "Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind." Trout and Ries wrote a second best-selling book entitled "Marketing Warfare." Their next book, "Bottom-Up-Marketing" became very popular as it completed what has become known as the trilogy of marketing books. Other successful books followed, including the recent "Repositioning: Marketing in an Era of Competition, Change and Crisis," co-written with Steve Rivkin.

For more information about the Dolan School of Business, and for directions to campus, visit www.fairfield.edu .

Posted On: 10-15-2012 11:10 AM

Volume: 44 Number: 81