However, upon buying it, I was pleasantly surprised.
The book itself is of a very high quality; complete with color print. Loads of updated examples of success- and marketing failures line the pages along with the text to give you an example of how the various elements of marketing has affected one or more companies' strategies.

The writing by the authors are casual but still technical in a sense that it's "too the point" but still does it in a non-academic sense -- so students: don't worry!

When a chapter has been debated in the book, you get a short reference list, summary of the chapter, various exercises -- like checking out how marketing stategies are applied on various websites -- study questions, key terms used in the chapter (very important for exams!) and case studies. All in all a very thorough explanation of the chapter + plenty of material to help you along the way.

This book is especially helpful for students, as it *is* a foundations book.

I can highly recommend it to marketing students.