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Principles and Practice of Marketing cover

Business

Business

Principles and Practice of Marketing

David Jobber; Fiona Ellis-Chadwick

A UK and European marketing textbook that covers the discipline from its fundamental concepts to marketing strategy and implementation. It explains how organisations understand customers and markets, design marketing mixes and build competitive advantage, using European and international cases and giving sustained attention to digital marketing, ethics and social responsibility.

Prerequisites: No prior study of marketing is required, although some familiarity with how businesses operate helps.

Difficulty Level
Intermediate
Academic Level
Undergraduate
marketingmarketing strategyconsumer behaviourdigital marketingTextbook

01 / Reading Guide

Reading Guide

Citation

Jobber, D., & Ellis-Chadwick, F. (2023). Principles and Practice of Marketing (10th ed.). McGraw Hill.

Chapter Summary

The contents list shows 21 chapters in four parts and about 900 pages. McGraw Hill describes the book as a contemporary introduction to marketing that covers the principles, frameworks and concepts behind the discipline and shows how they apply in modern business. The parts move from fundamentals to the creation of customer value, then to communicating and delivering it, and finally to planning and strategy. Among the examples the publisher highlights are the role of AI in fashion retailing and the use of big data at Netflix.

Part 1, Chapters 1–7: Marketing and the Organization; The marketing environment; Sustainable Marketing and Society; Customer Behaviour; Value Through Relationships; Digital Marketing Analytics and Customer Insight; Market Segmentation and Positioning

The fundamentals: marketing in the organisation and its environment, a chapter on sustainable marketing and society that is new in this edition, customer behaviour and relationships, digital analytics and customer insight, and segmentation and positioning.

Part 2, Chapters 8–11: Value through Brands; Value through Pricing; Value through Innovation; Value through Service

Four chapters organised around the idea of value: brands, pricing, innovation and service.

Part 3, Chapters 12–16: Introduction to Marketing Communication; The Marketing Communications Mix: Mass Communications; Digital Marketing and Media; Direct Marketing, Social Media and Direct Messaging; Place: Distribution, Channel Management and Retailing

Communicating and delivering value: an introduction to marketing communication, the mass communications mix, two chapters on digital media and on direct marketing with social media, and place, covering distribution, channels and retailing.

Part 4, Chapters 17–21: Marketing Strategy and Planning; Analysing Competitors and Creating a Competitive Advantage; Product strategy: lifecycle, portfolio and growth; Global Marketing Strategy; Managing Marketing Implementation

Planning and strategy: marketing strategy and plans, competitors and competitive advantage, product lifecycle and portfolio, global strategy, and implementation.

Key Concepts

Part 1: Fundamentals

  • Sustainable marketing: the subject of the new Chapter 3, with sustainability a focus throughout the text according to the publisher.
  • Customer insight and digital marketing analytics: the combined topic of Chapter 6.
  • Segmentation and positioning: the closing chapter of Part 1.

Part 2: Creating Customer Value

  • Value through brands, pricing, innovation and service: the four routes to value that give the part its structure.

Parts 3–4: Communication, Delivery, Planning and Strategy

  • Marketing communications mix: mass communications, direct marketing, social media and digital media.
  • Place: distribution, channel management and retailing.
  • Competitive advantage: the aim of the competitor-analysis chapter.
  • Product lifecycle and portfolio: the tools of Chapter 19.
  • Marketing implementation: managing the execution of plans.

Critical Analysis

Strengths

  • A single book from basics to strategy. The four parts take a reader from fundamentals through the mix to planning, so the book can serve a whole introductory marketing sequence.
  • Value as an organising idea. Part 2 groups brands, pricing, innovation and service under value rather than treating them as separate mix elements.
  • Digital marketing spread through the structure. Digital analytics (Chapter 6), digital marketing and media (Chapter 14) and social media (Chapter 15) appear in different parts, which reflects how digital methods cut across the course.
  • Case and feature material. The publisher lists Marketing in Action boxes, mini cases and end-of-chapter cases (including Boots, McDonald's, Domino's, Chipotle, HubSpot, Dr. Martens, Unilever, Apple, Tesla and Netflix), new Hidden Gem boxes, and recommended readings at the end of each chapter.
  • A sustainability chapter. The 10th edition adds a chapter on sustainable marketing and society.

Limitations

  • Long. About 900 pages and 21 chapters is more than most single modules can cover.
  • No separate chapter on research. Customer insight is combined with digital analytics in Chapter 6, and the contents list shows no chapter on traditional marketing research.
  • Strategy comes last. Planning and competitive strategy are in Part 4, so a course that starts from strategy has to jump to the end.
  • Place is compressed. Distribution, channel management and retailing share a single chapter (Chapter 16), so courses with a strong channels or retailing emphasis will need further reading.

Where It Fits in the Course

Jobber and Ellis-Chadwick is an introductory-to-intermediate text in this marketing course that continues into strategy. Kotler and Armstrong's Principles of Marketing and OpenStax's Principles of Marketing are the other first-course texts; the OpenStax book is free and online, and Kotler and Armstrong are in a 20th edition. Jobber adds chapters on digital marketing and on sustainability and carries the subject on into strategy and implementation within the same volume.

After it, Kotler and Keller's Marketing Management takes the manager's perspective across 22 chapters, Ferrell, Hartline and Hochstein's Marketing Strategy: Text and Cases concentrates on situation analysis and the marketing plan with cases, and Hunt's Marketing Theory addresses the foundations of the discipline for those going into research.

How to Use This Book

The book is for undergraduates and postgraduates taking marketing modules, and for readers who want one book from concepts to strategy. No prior marketing study is needed.

A practical reading plan:

  • Core: Part 1, especially Chapters 1, 2, 4 and 7; then Chapters 8 and 9 on brands and pricing; then Chapters 17 and 18 on marketing strategy and competitive advantage.
  • Second pass: Chapters 10–11 and 12–16 for the rest of the mix, chosen to match the course.
  • Optional: Chapter 3 on sustainability, which many readers will want regardless of course; Chapters 19–21 on product strategy, global marketing and implementation.

Read each chapter, then work the end-of-chapter case: apply the frameworks to a real organisation and test the argument with the recommended readings. Choose a brand you know and follow it through the book.