Best marketing books of foreign authors
Crossing the Chasm
By identifying the differences between "innovators" and "laggards" and everything in between, Geoffrey Moore creates a roadmap for how new markets develop. While his book focuses on high tech, the lessons that he draws and the example he gives are applicable to every industry and business situation.
The Life of PT Barnum
You may think that "personal branding" is all the rage, but the true expert of self promotion was the great PT Barnum, who managed to enhance, build, change and strengthen his public image over half a century, forcing the world to take him on his own terms. Fascinating stuff.
Influence
As useful to salespeople as it is to marketers, Bob Cialdini's book is all about how people say "Yes!" and what you can do bring them to that point. In a series of intensely practical observations, Cialdini reveals how your actions and words can profoundly effect the desires and needs of your customers, colleagues and even your competitors. Essential stuff.
Buy-ology
By injecting neuroscience into the art of marketing, Martin Lindstrom explains how everything we think and do is influenced by mental forces of which we are only vaguely aware (if at all). More importantly, Lindstrom shows how these impulses might be scientifically measured and then used to hone marketing campaigns. Scary, maybe, but sci-fi no longer.
Positioning
As true today as it was when published 20 years ago, this classic by Al Ries and Jack Trout lays out the basics of finding where your product fits in larger picture of what other people want and what other companies are doing. Some of the case studies are showing a little age, but this remains a seminal, essential text.