Strategic marketing in companies around the world is confronted with unprecedented challenges and exciting opportunities in the twenty-first century. Driven by demanding customers with complex value requirements, aggressive global competition, turbulent markets, rapid emergence of disruptive new technologies, and global expansion initiatives, marketing strategy has become an enterprise-spanning responsibility with major bottom-line implications. Central to the opportunities generated by these challenges is a critical need to improve executives’ understanding of markets and competitive space, customer value delivery, innovation culture and processes, and effective organizational design.
Strategic marketing’s demanding role in business performance is demonstrated in the market-driven strategies of successful organizations competing in a wide array of market and competitive situations. Providing superior customer value, leveraging distinctive capabilities, responding rapidly to diversity and change in the marketplace, developing innovation cultures, and recognizing global business challenges are demanding initiatives which require effective marketing strategies for gaining and sustaining a competitive edge. Strategic Marketing examines the underlying logic and processes for designing and imple- menting market-driven strategies. Providing superior value to customers is the core objective of market-driven strategy. Several initiatives are necessary in achieving this objective.
• Marketing strategy provides the guidelines for action that are essential in delivering superior customer value.
• Marketing is a major stakeholder in the essential organizational core processes—new product development, customer relationship management, value/supply-chain management, and business strategy implementation.
• Essential relationship initiatives place new priorities on collaborating with customers, suppliers, value-chain members, and even competitors.
• Understanding customers, competitors, and the market environment requires the active involvement of the entire organization to gain and manage market knowledge decisively.
• Developing methods that enable the organization to continually learn from customers, competitors, and other relevant sources is vital to sustaining a competitive edge.
• The powerful technologies provided by the Internet and the World Wide Web, corporate intranets, and advanced communication and collaboration systems for customer and supplier relationship management underpin effective strategy processes.
• The environmental, ethical, and corporate responsibility aspects of business practice are critical concerns for individual executives as well as their companies, requiring management direction and active involvement by the entire organization. Customer diversity and new forms of competition create impressive growth and performance opportunities for those firms that successfully apply strategic marketing concepts and analyses in business strategy development and implementation.
The challenge to become market-driven is apparent in a wide array of industries around the world. Analyzing market behavior and matching strategies to changing conditions require a hands-on approach to marketing strategy development and implementation. Penetrating financial analysis is an important strategic marketing requirement. Strategic Marketing examines marketing strategy using a combination of concepts, application processes, and cases to develop managers’ and professionals’ decision making processes and apply them to business situations. The book is intended for use in under- graduate capstone marketing strategy courses and the MBA marketing core and advanced strategy courses.
Regardless of business size and scope, competing in any market today requires a global perspective. The ninth edition accentuates this global perspective. The author team pro- vides an extensive range of global involvement. The shrinking time-and-access boundaries of global markets establish new competitive requirements. The global dimensions of marketing strategy are integrated throughout the chapters of the book and also considered in several cases. The rapid emergence of powerful new competitive forces throughout the world, often facilitated by new business models, mandates an international viewpoint for executives in most organizations.
Strategic customer relationship management (CRM) is examined in a new chapter, recognizing the escalating importance of this topic in business firms and its essential role in guiding marketing strategy. Customer equity and customer lifetime value are examined along with other relevant aspects of CRM. Innovation and new product planning and strategic brand management are given increased coverage in this edition. Enhancing brand equity has become a top priority challenge in companies around the world. Internet initiatives comprise a vital part of the marketing strategies of all companies. Internet strategies are rapidly expanding on a global basis.
Because of the nature and scope of the various uses of the Internet, we have integrated this important topic into several chapters rather than developing a separate chapter. Internet Features are included in all chapters. Special attention and emphasis are given to marketing metrics throughout the book. Improving the measurement of marketing effectiveness is a high priority issue in many companies. New current applications of business marketing initiatives are included in every chapter.
New features examine strategy, innovations, relationship, global ethics and corporate responsibility, Internet, and metrics aspects of business practice. Strategic Marketing uses a decision-making perspective to examine the key concepts and issues involved in analyzing and selecting strategies. It is apparent that many instructors want to examine marketing strategy beyond the traditional emphasis on marketing functions.
Marketing strategy is considered from a total business perspective. The length and design of the book offer flexibility in the use of the text material and cases. The feature applications included in each chapter can be used for class discussion and assignments. The book is designed around the marketing strategy process with a clear emphasis on analysis, planning, and implementation. Part I provides an overview of market-driven strategy and business and marketing strategies. Part II considers markets, segments, and customer value. Part III provides the basis for designing market-driven strategies. Part IV considers market-driven program development.
Finally, Part V examines implementing and managing market-driven strategies. Decision process guidelines and applications are pro- vided throughout the book to assist the reader in applying the analysis and strategy development approaches discussed in the text.