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![Selling Blue Elephants: How to make great products that people want BEFORE they even know they want them by [Howard R. Moskowitz Ph.D, Alex Gofman]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51JP7UtAX7L._SY346_.jpg)
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Selling Blue Elephants: How to make great products that people want BEFORE they even know they want them 1st Edition, Kindle Edition
Really great products and really huge successes don’t come from focus groups! And if you simply rely on trial and error, or guesswork, you’ll lose far more often than you’ll win. Now, there’s a solution: Rule Developing Experimentation (RDE), the first systematized, disciplined, solution-oriented business process of experimentation.
In Selling Blue Elephants, RDE’s creators reveal how to systematically design, test, and modify alternative ideas, packages, products, and services, to discover offerings your customers will be passionate about...even if they can’t articulate the need, much less the solution!
Discover the seven easy steps that take you from cluelessness to clarity in just days... sometimes even hours. Watch RDE succeeding in companies ranging from Hewlett-Packard to Campbell’s, MasterCard to Maxwell House... and learn how to get the same outstanding results yourself, one step at a time, every time!
- Discover “how the world works” in your market
- Reveal the hidden rules that define your next breakthrough product
- Create prototypes that answer the right questions, fast
- Get at the truths your customers don’t know how to tell you
- Use automated tools to streamline the entire process
- Streamline your research, and get actionable answers in just days
- Extend RDE value throughout the enterprise
- From messaging to corporate communications to investor behavior
- Edition1st
- PublisherFT Press
- Publication date11 April 2007
- LanguageEnglish
- File size5220 KB
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Product description
About the Author
Howard Moskowitz is President and CEO of Moskowitz Jacobs Inc. He is a well-known experimental psychologist in the field of psychophysics and an inventor of world-class market research technology. Widely published in the scientific press, Dr. Moskowitz is known worldwide as the leading thinker and creator of advanced research technology in the area of new product and concept development.
His background includes a Ph.D. in Experimental Psychology from Harvard University and seven years as a Senior Scientist at the U.S. Army Natick Laboratories. In July 2004, he was elected as an IFT Fellow for his contributions in the field of food science and technology. He was also awarded the American Marketing Association’s 2005 Charles Coolidge Parlin Marketing Research Award, regarded as the “Nobel Prize” of the market research industry.
Dr. Moskowitz has spoken widely at both scientific and market research conferences, and guest-lectured at leading business schools including Wharton, Harvard, Yale, and the University of Texas at Austin. He also appeared weekly from 2004-2006 on ABC News Now as The Food Doctor, highlighting the food industry’s most exciting innovations.
Alex Gofman, VP and CTO of Moskowitz Jacobs Inc., is the architect of several globally-recognized market research technologies and holds multiple patents. Widely published in the scientific press on the topics of technology-oriented experimental psychology, he has led new methodologies and algorithms development as well as other aspects of MJI operations since joining the firm in 1992, and is lead developer and architect of its IdeaMap® family of products. He holds a BS and a MS in Computer Science from Donetsk National Technical University, where he graduated Summa Cum Laude in 1981.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.From the Back Cover
This book is as much fun to read as it is informative, and it is as deeply rooted in psychology as it is in the science of marketing. They really deliver the goods!" -Professor Stephen Kosslyn, Chair, Psychology Department, Harvard University "We've been teaching business students how to understand the 'mind of their customers' for a long time. Finally, the ordinary reader, as well as business people, social scientists, and politicians, can share in these tools. Moskowitz and Gofman have flattened the playing field with their book "Selling Blue Elephants." I applaud you both. Two thumbs up." -Professor Subrata Sen, Professor of Marketing, Yale University "We are in an age of the next killer application and it is elusive. "Selling Blue Elephants "is an absolute must read for any business moving from strategy to execution. Howard and Alex have built a process driven engine (RDE) that delivers actionable results that have a direct tie back to business directives. Bringing reality from concept is the key ingredient to a successful business idea-"Selling Blue Elephants "is the cookbook." -Peter Tripp, Vice President, Strategic Programs Office Global Outsourcing and Infrastructure Services, UNISYS "This book is a must read for anyone challenged with showing that systematic experimental design does not start and end in R&D but should be ingrained in the corporate mindset." -Dulce Paredes, PhD., Director, Consumer Sciences, Avon Products, Inc. Really great products and really huge successes "don't "come from focus groups! And if you simply rely on trial and error, or guesswork, you'll lose far more often than you'll win. Now, there's a solution: Rule Developing Experimentation (RDE), "the first systematized, disciplined, solution-oriented" "business process of experimentation." In "Selling Blue Elephants," RDE's creators reveal how to systematically design, test, and modify alternative ideas, packages, products, and services, to discover offerings your customers will be passionate about...even if they can't articulate the need, much less the solution! Discover the seven "easy "steps that take you from cluelessness to clarity in just days... sometimes even "hours." Watch RDE succeeding in companies ranging from Hewlett-Packard to Campbell's, MasterCard to Maxwell House... and learn how to get the same outstanding results yourself, one step at a time, "every time!"
- Discover "how the world works" in your market
- Reveal the hidden rules that define your next breakthrough product
- Create prototypes that answer the right questions, fast
- Get at the truths your customers don't know how to tell you
- Use automated tools to streamline the entire process
- Streamline your research, and get actionable answers in just days
- Extend RDE value throughout the enterprise
- From messaging to corporate communications to investor behavior
Product details
- ASIN : B0054RGY0Y
- Publisher : FT Press; 1st edition (11 April 2007)
- Language : English
- File size : 5220 KB
- Simultaneous device usage : Up to 5 simultaneous devices, per publisher limits
- Text-to-Speech : Enabled
- Screen Reader : Supported
- Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
- X-Ray : Not Enabled
- Word Wise : Enabled
- Print length : 346 pages
- Best Sellers Rank: #403,532 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #188 in Marketing eTextbooks
- #18,642 in Business, Strategy & Management
- #43,198 in Analysis & Strategy
- Customer Reviews:
About the authors
I like traveling, photography, snorkeling, jazz. I used to be a mountain hiker but now enjoy more family oriented ways of traveling (well, the recent diving with the sharks and hiking the virgin jungles of Borneo were exceptions... kinda). Working hard toward joining one day Club 100 (people who visited 100 or more countries / territories) but still is only about 3/4 through the list.
I am an amateur jazz piano player (stress on 'jazz' as an explanation for my inability to play the same melody twice in the same way).
Professional Summary
Dr. Gofman is an accomplished hands-on technology oriented marketing research executive, a scholar and an author with a strong portfolio of successes researching, designing and managing consumer research, innovation and analytics for major global clients. Reputable for the development of innovative marketing and consumer insights methodologies and Web based technologies.
With well over 100 publications, he is widely recognized internationally for contributions to consumer intelligence and related Web technologies, structured experimentation with consumers, consumer insights, conjoint analysis, segmentation, on-line marketing, consumer driven dynamic advertisement optimization, etc.
Dr. Gofman is well known as a perpetual innovator and a co-inventor of world-class web-based marketing and market research methodologies and technologies and as a scholar in cross-science development in experimental psychology and computer science:
- A co-author of award winning internationally acclaimed bestseller Selling Blue Elephants book (Wharton School Publishing, 2007) translated into fifteen foreign languages
- Has been named among the 20 Global "Pioneers of Research"
- An Emerald Outstanding Paper Award Winner for Excellence 2010
- Advisory Board Member of the International Society for Professional Innovation Management (ISPIM)
- Award nominated invited and keynote speaker at many international conferences
- A guest lecturer at universities around the world including Wharton School of Business (University of Pennsylvania), New York University (NYU), Tartu University (Estonia), University MARA / UiTM (Malaysia), Lausanne Business School (Switzerland)
- A member of the Editorial Advisory Board of Recent Patents on Food, Nutrition & Agriculture Journal (Bentham Science Publishers)
- A peer-reviewer of book proposals for Bentham Science Publishers
- A regular contributor to Daily News and Analysis, Research World, Wharton School Publishing and Financial Times Press publications
- The architect of the award-winning Ideamap® family of products (Ideamap®, Ideamap.NET, Stylemap.NET, Videomap, Ideamap Wizard, etc.) as well as the globally recognized brands: DesignLab®, ProductEngineer®, Concept Optimizer® and other MJI technologies, which were positively reviewed by The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The New Yorker, Research Magazine, Quirk's Marketing Research Review, etc.
- Author of multiple patents
- The biography has been included in the 2010 and 2011 Editions of Who's Who in America.
Areas of Interest:
Structured Experimentation with Consumers, Actionable Consumer Insights, Marketing Intelligence, Product Management and Innovation, Rule Developing Experimentation, Conjoint Analysis, Online Surveys, Multivariate Web Sites Optimization, Multivariate Package Optimization.
Current Positions:
Vice President of Moskowitz Jacobs Inc. leading innovative market research, marketing intelligence and consulting for many Fortune 500 clients (including all top 10 global pharma companies) as well as developing new methodologies and Web applications based on actionable consumer insights (since 1992).
Adjunct Associate Professor of Marketing at Pace University (Lubin School of Business, Graduate Center) teaching graduate classes in Marketing, Marketing Research and New Product Development (since 2007).
VP and CTO of i-Novation, Inc., a Web subsidiary of Moskowitz Jacobs Inc.
Previous Jobs
Publications:
-Authored and co-authored more than 100 books, chapters in monographs, patents, articles and international conference papers
-Co-authored an award winning internationally acclaimed bestseller Selling Blue Elephants book (Wharton School Publishing, 2007) translated into fifteen foreign languages
-Contributed to major academic and professional books
-Presented papers at multiple international conferences around the world that earned several awards nominations
-A regular contributor to Wharton School Publishing and Financial Times Press as well as to Business/Marketing sections of Daily News and Analysis.
-A regular contributor to Research World, the only magazine for market research professionals worldwide to provide news and views from all industry sectors. Some of the articles has been republished/translated in Asia, Australia, North and South Americas, including Financial Times Press.
You can find more info on his personal website www.alexgofman.com.
Howard Moskowitz is president and CEO of Moskowitz Jacobs Inc., a firm he founded in 1981. Dr. Moskowitz is both a well-known experimental psychologist in the field of psychophysics (the study of perception and its relation to physical stimuli), and an inventor of world-class market research technology. Among his important contributions to market research is his 1975 introduction of psychophysical scaling and product optimization for consumer product development. Whereas these methods are standard and well accepted today, they required a massive culture change in the 1975 business community. In the 1980's his contributions in sensory analysis were extended to health and beauty aids.
Dr. Moskowitz graduated Harvard University in 1969 with a Ph.D. in experimental psychology. Prior to that, he graduated Queens College (New York), Phi Beta Kappa, with degrees in mathematics and psychology. He has written/edited 25+ books, has published well over 400 articles, has lectured in the U.S. and abroad, and serves on the editorial board of major journals. In 1972 Drs. Moskowitz and E.P. Koster co-founded the journal Chemical Senses and Flavor, now called Chemical Senses, the leading journal in the field. He has won numerous awards, among them the Scientific Director's Gold Medal for outstanding research at the U.S. Army Natick Laboratories, and the 2001, 2003 & 2004 awards by ESOMAR (European, now World Society Of Market Research) for his innovation in web-enabled, self-authored conjoint measurement, and for weak signals research in new trends analysis and concept development. The self authored concept technology has brought concept/package design development and innovation into the realm of the researcher, significantly reducing cost, time and effort for new product and service development. In 1992 Dr. Moskowitz founded a $2,000 prize for young scientists working in the psychophysics of taste and smell, administered through the Association of Chemoreception Scientists, which continues today to encourage young researchers. In 2004 he became a Fellow of the IFT (Institute of Food Technologists), and was awarded the David R. Peryam lifetime achievement prize by the American Society for Testing and Materials. In 2005 Dr. Moskowitz received the Charles Coolidge Parlin Award from the American Marketing Association, considered to be the 'Nobel Prize' of market research, for his lifetime contributions to the field, ranging from product work to the optimization of consumer concept and package designs. He appeared weekly between 2004 and 2006 as the 'Food Doctor' on ABC NewsNow, where he anchored a 10 minute spot, featuring young food and beverage entrepreneurs spot, featuring young food and beverage entrepreneurs.
Moskowitz Jacobs, Inc. Mind Genomics(RIdeaMap(R).net received the 2012 Edison Bronze Award for applied technology-research tools. The awards recognize ideas at the forefront of new products, services, marketing, design and innovation.
Dr. Moskowitz was a contributor to the new Quest documentary "The Naked Brand", which is being screened during NYAdweek, October 3, 2012. His latest e-book, "Rule Developing Experimentation: A Systematic Approach to Understand & Engineer the Consumer Mind" (Bentham Science Publishing) is available online from http://benthamscience.com/ebooks/a-z.htm as of September, 2012.
Customer reviews
Top reviews from other countries

Now you might say "Isn't every book just a means to get the author consulting business?" That may be true, but usually the book in question still stands on its own.
This book tells stories of companies using the author's RDE testing approach without conveying any information the reader can actually use or learn from without hiring the authors firm. I get RDE helped Prego come up with chunky sauce. But how? That Vlasic created variants of a basic pickle to better appeal to multiple segments. Again, how? In discussing how RDE can help dissect your competitors products, how do you make statements like "Success in RDE deconstruction of the competitive frame is 80% getting the right raw materials in the first place?" and then not explain at all how the example company did this? ("raw materials" refer to the various components of that made up the competitors offering).
How did HP, Vlasic, Prego, or anyone else decide what to test in the first place, who to test it on, what elements to test, what takeaways to follow-up on and what to reject, etc. None of that is covered. Instead you get the equivalent of the power point presentation given by the Underpants Gnomes Where Step 1 is "collect underpants," step 2 is blank, and step 3 is "profit." The book has continued references like "don't worry about entering all the data manually; everything is done automatically if you are using a program such as IdeaMap.NET" (which happens to be the authors' proprietary tool). There is in fact so little info on actually doing testing that should the book convince you to buy their tool, you would still need to hire them to run it for you since there is nothing on how companies came up with the inputs in terms of hypothesis, elements, etc.
With due respect to Moskowitz's work as a consultant -- which if you have heard Malcolm Gladwell describe it is top notch -- Selling Blue Elephants fails as a business book has nothing to do with its sub-header "How to make great products that people want BEFORE they even know they want them."

As I got into the book, I was disappointed that the only practical advice the authors offer is to contact them about using their on-line research tool. Good as their tool may be, it appears not to be well suited for the needs of my small B2B business.
I now feel I've paid about $20 for the authors' elaborate marketing brochure, and I have no way to apply what I learned unless I choose to work with their company. Use of books to promote the authors' business is a consistent trend in the publication of business books. I don't object to it if the book provides real value the reader can apply even without engaging the services of the authors' company. This book fails that basic test, as do many other such books. If the trend toward self-promotion continues without regard for the lasting value a book provides to the reader, I think the entire market segment will lose credibility.
By the way, in contacting the authors' company I learned that the cost of their services comes to about $10,000 per study. That's very reasonable for companies bigger or more mature than mine, but its well beyond what we can afford at our stage of growth.
I'll be selling this book soon on the Amazon.com marketplace. I only wish I had bought it there.


