(FORTUNE Magazine) – Why Madonna and not the Spice Girls?

If you think you already know everything about how to create a great brand, don't read this book. However, if you are puzzled about how certain marketing phenomena become institutions while others quickly fade, check out Radical Marketing: From Harvard to Harley, Ten Radical Marketers That Broke the Rules and Made It Big (HarperBusiness, $25). The Madonna/Spice Girls question above--shamelessly lifted from the introduction to the book--goes to the heart of what authors Sam Hill and Glenn Rifkin are trying to convey: How does any one enterprise grab its customers and hold on? How do you cut through the clutter and gain share of mind, also known as (excuse the old-fashioned word) loyalty? Why Budweiser and not Miller? Why Nike and not Reebok? Who gets through to us, and why?

Much of this stuff may be a bit shocking. For example, you may not think of academia as big on marketing. (Could they be so crass?) The authors make a marvelous, matter-of-fact case: Harvard Business School "not only created the market for graduate schools of business, but after 90 years continues to reign as the most respected brand in its class...." Think of it as Boston's answer to Coca-Cola. That is no small achievement: After Harvard defined the MBA, a great big lucrative market grew up around it. Take a look at Hill and Rifkin's dispassionate analysis of Harvard's marketing strategy.

One point ties together every well-told tale in this book: Radical marketing goes "beyond being innovative or successful or even wild and crazy." Indeed. Over and over again, the authors show that most market research is bunk. If you must have a marketing department, it ought to be composed of "passionate missionaries." It's not about numbers, it's about people. Go where the people are; the numbers will follow.

Passion works. Just look at the Harley-Davidson story. In the mid-1980s, the company was moribund: James Dean was long dead, and the product was, um, not up to par. Enter Rich Teerlink. His only hope for reviving the brand was to be a real motorcycle guy. Luckily, he was one. Teerlink was out there in Death Valley getting dirt on his face and talking to bikers. The details of Harley's revival are worth any marketing maven's time.

This book even helps explain exactly how the Grateful Dead sustained a great big business ($100 million a year in tapes, ties, T-shirts....) even though the band broke up in 1995. Now I know: Even old hippies have vice presidents for marketing. And as this book shows, they're still thinking hard. Radical, man. Radical.

--Anne Fisher