The Invisible Touch:
The Four Keys to Modern Marketing

by Harry Beckwith
published by Warner Books, 2000

ESC Software Marketing Book Club's July, 2009 selection.

The Invisible Touch is about marketing. The four keys to successful marketing are price, brand, packaging, and relationships.

The author says that the first lesson of marketing is to look around and see what's really there, and not what you want to be there.

You can't just create a marketable product. You have to surround it with service that is superb, too.

More and more, it's hard to tell if software is a product or a service. According to Beckwith, the differences between products and services include -

• Products are made; services are delivered.
• Products are used; services are experienced.
• Products exist; services are received after they're bought.
• Products are impersonal; services are personal.

Join ESC, you'll have access to the entire discussion about Beckwith's book. You'll learn how mISVs can do a better job of doing market research, branding, marketing, and all of the sales-oriented skills needed to build a successful software business.