Choice Review

Magrath (director of corporate marketing services, 3M Canada) attempts to link marketing with total quality management. The book divides marketing into a process consisting of seven so-called systems: persuasion, selling, incentive, product innovation, marketing channel, logistics and customer service, and market planning and research. Each of these systems represents a chapter in which the author describes the particular system and gives several examples to support his descriptions. For example, the selling system chapter incorporates "Why Quality Improvement is Critical," "How to Achieve Zero Defects Marketing," "Key Process Variables," "Improving Quality in Sales Rep's Activities," and "Total Quality in Sales Force Management." The book has weaknesses: the terms process and system are not clearly defined and explained to the reader. The author begins with the assumption that everyone has in-depth experience with the terms. Also, in this reviewer's opinion these terms were not clearly linked to the marketing activities. The references are drawn too often from newspapers to call the book scholarly. Nonetheless, McGrath should be applauded for trying to link marketing to total quality management. Appropriate for professional/practitioner audiences. D. Morris; University of New Haven