From earliest childhood, we learn by watching, and it remains in our nature to solve problems visually. Yet this ability is sadly underused in business. "I'm not an artist," the typical marketer or manager might protest. The secret is that you don't have to be; anyone can use visual tools to enhance thinking and communication - with a little help from this unique guide.

Far more than a book about creativity, The Marketer's Visual Took Kit contains dozens of visual aids for solving everyday marketing problems. Using true-to-life scenarios, the book shows how to create "models" of the issues you face, thus helping you approach marketing in fresh and surprising ways. Here are just two examples:. You can meet for hours to discuss the creation of a new strategy... or you can work as a team to construct a "Strategic Map" that clarifies the meaning of your words.

You can strive in linear fashion to analyze and reposition a weak product...or you can create and evaluate a "Positioning Cube" to suggest new possibilities. Similarly, you'll find many other visually based techniques for building consensus, cultivating innovation, evaluating products, selecting target markets, positioning services, anticipating the competition, reviewing marketing budgets, and forecasting future opportunities.

If your job touches on marketing in any way, you'll be delighted to discover that visual tools are a formidable weapon against confusion and feeling "stuck." In every aspect of your work (and maybe even your life), they'll help you think more quickly and clearly, unlock your creativity (even from ground zero), speed the decision-making process, present and sell ideas more persuasively, and get the most out of teams and teamwork.

So pick up a pencil and bring those innate visual skills out of hiding! Once you try Terry Richey's eye-opening tools, you'll soon be creating your own. And, by adding the visual to the verbal, you'll continue to grow as a marketer and business communicator.