I’m curious to know why you think it’s so good. I’ve studied marketing in the early 2000’s and Kotler’s Marketing Management was pretty much the only book we’ve read, but after college I didn’t feel I could apply much of its lessons to the companies I’ve built myself or the companies I’ve worked for. Most of Kotler’s material is based on how big traditional brands have done marketing, but that wasn’t helpful to me when I was working on early-stage tech startups.
Granted, I wasn’t the most dedicated student at the time, so maybe I just should read it again, but it would be helpful to know what you got out of it.
His framework for how to think about bringing a product to market is what I found most valuable.
What's the competitive environment? Who is the customer (in the most specific sense)? How will the product compete against other offerings? How is it priced relative to the competition? How do you talk about the product - i.e. communicate its value? How does one think about growing the market for the product?
These are questions any product or brand need to answer, regardless of size.
I'd argue that these fundamental questions are elaborated upon in most contemporary textbooks. In practice, however, young entrepreneurs creating business models around apps need to deal with a whole range of both general and specific issues that need to be addressed and Kotler is of limited use here.
This book lays the foundation - and I've worked with FMCGs, tech, media, pharma and I've yet to find an industry where Kotler's principles do not apply.
That's why a good marketer should be able to work within any industry - it's pretty much: product, price, promotion and placement. This has been reinvented, rebranded, and expanded - but in reality this is the ultimate reduction you can get your marketing to.
That would also be my criticism of Kotler and Keller. It's good to learn about the marketing lingo, but it doesn't teach you how to do something concrete at a professional level (create a marketing strategy, write persuasive copy, etc.).
Well it gives you the tools and frameworks to build your own strategy, that's why it's so great.
If you went to university to study marketing, like some of us did, strategy would be put to practice in classes dedicated to it, and all at to be supported - either by theory (like Kotler's) or by research.
Copyrighting is one tool of one of the marketing mix "P"'s - Promotion.
If you want to learn about copyrighting read Ogilvy - he was very good with communication and copy.
Granted, I wasn’t the most dedicated student at the time, so maybe I just should read it again, but it would be helpful to know what you got out of it.