100 books like Cultural Intelligence for Marketers

This book expanded my thinking and provided a fresh perspective, reminding me of why I became interested in this important topic years ago and continue to be fascinated by the complexity and nuances of cross-cultural communication.

Now, more than ever, we are all interconnected through advances in technology that bring us closer together. We are working increasingly with a global workforce that inherently comes with very different backgrounds, languages, histories, foods, music, religions, social norms, customs, traditions, and values.

We need to grow our understanding of people from cultures different from our own and Erin's book is a complimentary contribution to this body of knowledge; it is not duplicative but singularly unique and a refreshing read.

Geopolitics shape economies. Success in global business depends on understanding the economies in which you operate. That’s why I’m a major fan of this book by Tim Marshall. He’s a former diplomatic editor and foreign correspondent who uses his experiences and research in a really compelling way.

When I was leading international expansion and strategy for HubSpot, a large public software company, one of the factors I had to look at to choose our next office locations was the political and economic stability of the different countries we were evaluating.

For anyone working at a global company, it’s important to understand the relationships between nations that often underpin local economies and dictate their future. 

Consumer behavior is deeply rooted in culture. Where we live and grow up in the world shapes how we think and what we buy.

As a marketing executive, I loved learning from Rapaille’s examples, which are rooted in experience with some of the most successful product launches and advertising campaigns in history. He has used these principles to achieve international business success for some of the world’s most iconic brands. His theory helped Chrysler with the PT Cruiser launch. He also influenced the famous Procter & Gamble campaign for Folger’s Coffee, one of the most successful ad campaigns in history.

This is my top pick for international business professionals who want to learn how to build a successful global brand.

Global business and remote work often go hand in hand. Having worked in a large multinational business, I’ve seen how the issues Tsedal covers actually play out in practice. She talks extensively about two important goals for any remote global team: productivity and trust, and how to achieve both in cross-national remote work settings.

I’ve always found that creating a stable and repeatable operating cadence is critical for driving success with remote global teams. Remote workers crave predictability, and Tsedal talks about how important this is, based on her research and work as a professor at Harvard Business School.

I appreciate that she highlights the fact that preferences around synchronous and asynchronous communication can change depending on employees’ cultures and language competence levels. 

Too many books on how to succeed in the arts talk about how you are a "product." These people are idiots who know nothing about business. If you are an actor, singer, or painter, you are not a product. That implies you are able to be sold to multiple people at the same time. And re-used. And replaced when you break. Sorry, you’re not a product.

You are an entrepreneur, and you are selling…a service. And that service is…invisible. That’s what this book taught me. I am not a product. I am a salesman, and I am selling the invisible.

The techniques required to sell a service are far different from selling a product, and heck, I just didn’t like thinking of myself as a product anyway! I am a unique human being with incredibly unique talents. Aren’t you?

As Godin states: “Great marketers don't use consumers to solve their company's problem; they use marketing to solve other people's problems.” This book is for anyone in sales. For writers, you may find you see book marketing in a new light after reading this book. Not only is there psychology in how consumers (readers) make their decisions, learning to sell books also has a psychology behind it. Once you know who you are selling to and understand their needs, you can and will sell more.

One of the most crucial elements of my marketing journey was to understand the use of “hooks” that clever brands build into their products and messages. I found this book explains the most effective strategies to bring innovation to your business while scaling it to become an influential brand both online and offline. Because social media reshaped our world in a way that people have short attention spans, from the book I learned how to grab potential audiences’ attention by communicating effectively. The book is an excellent guide on succeeding with brand communication in our short attention span world, so highly recommended to everyone.

Electric guitars and basses are the most popular stringed musical instruments.

Many players dream of building their own instrument. This book provides step-by-step instructions for doing just that. The author is an enthusiastic builder himself, and is also a teacher of instrument construction.

The book is written in a direct and personal style, and anticipates all of the questions a novice builder will ask. This is amazingly confidence-building. For first-time builders of electric guitars, there is no better place to start than this book.

This is the best book I have read about how to become a profitable toy inventor. Richard Levy, the toy inventor responsible for the Furby and many other massive successes, is the real deal. His inventing tips and advice are absolutely priceless. He is the perfect example of the right person to take inventing advice from! By that I mean, he is an inventor who has achieved repeat commercial success.

Whether you are busy or inexperienced, this book will teach you how to make as much as possible out of it. This is an exciting time to be an author because you have direct access to your audience – the Internet will certainly help.

This book is a step-by-step guide with direct instructions on how to identify your brand, define your audience, and set priorities. Find out how to come up with your own website, develop a strategy, or even blog as a marketing tool.