The textbook is based on four major marketing fundamentals: building and managing profitable customer relationships; building and managing strong brands to create brand equity; harnessing new marketing technologies in the digital age; and marketing in a socially responsible way around the globe. The book extols brand equity because of the value a business gains from a product with a name recognition compared to a generic equivalent. Principles of Marketing 12th Edition also expounds on the significance of today's technologies including the Internet.
The 12th Edition of Principles of Marketing is also updated with stories that reflect modern-day marketing, major trends and forces that are impacting the dynamic and fluid field of marketing. It covers topics including the marketing environment, managing information, consumer and business buyer behavior, segmentation and positioning branding strategies as well as distribution channels. Other topics covered include advertising sales promotion, direct marketing and the global marketplace.
Kotler is a professor of International Marketing at the Kellogg Graduate School of Management, Northwestern University. He has a master's degree from the University of Chicago and a Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, both in economics. He is also the author of Marketing Management, an authoritative textbook on marketing, which as of 2011 was in its 13th edition. The book is widely used in business graduate schools.
He serves as the Crist W. Blackwell Distinguished Professor of undergraduate education in the Kenan-Flagler Business School at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He has a bachelor's and master's degree from Wayne State University in Detroit and a Ph.D. in marketing from Northwestern University. Armstrong is chair of marketing and associate drector of the undergraduate program at the University of North Carolina.