This book starts off with an alarming stat: only 14 of the UK FTSE 100 have a marketing director on the board. Why?

My friend, the senior marketing director of a big Japanese electrical and imaging company, says her agency only shows her YouTube clips and can’t even be bothered to say that the idea they’re showing will, eventually, look a bit like the clip.

Recently I took an IPA course on negotiation skills taught by Keith Risk, and was therefore interested to see what Chris Merrington, another IPA trainer, had to say on the matter in this book.

In Barwise and Meehan’s seminal book, Simply Better, the authors laid the groundwork for the ideas developed in this more prescriptive handbook.

With risk aversion taking an increasing grip on corporate boardrooms, it’s no surprise that marketing professionals increasingly reach for the crutch of market research to support their proposals.

Clay Shirky looks set to become the Malcolm Gladwell of new media. His first book, the snappily titled ‘Here Comes Everybody’, quickly established itself as a set text for social media experts, thinkers and theorists.

‘Tricks companies use to manipulate our minds and persuade us to buy’ is Brandwashed’s sub-title; the book purports to lift the lid on the myriad of dodgy marketing practices that con and cajole consumers into buying stuff they don’t want.

Terry Leahy is the least likely person you could think of to plug a new book.

Seth Godin wrote: “There’s a tendency to confuse the next big thing with the one, it, the last big thing, the end of the line … Most of the time, we’re dealing with a moment, a step in a trend.