Absolute Essentials of Strategic Marketing PDF
Preview Absolute Essentials of Strategic Marketing
Absolute Essentials of Strategic Marketing Strategic marketing is a complex topic, and this short-form textbook illuminates its fundamental elements to provide a bird’s-eye view of the field for students of marketing strategy. Focused on the marketing of goods and services, the book highlights how incremental changes in the market environment drive changes to marketing strategies. The author, an experienced marketing expert, uses the concept of ‘strategic windows’ to facilitate student understanding, looking at how firms can best anticipate and react to opportunities and threats. Enhanced by text features such as essential summaries, focused references and additional online supplements, this very short introduction enables the reader to zero in on the core priorities for strategic marketers. The result is a volume that is valuable reading for marketing students around the world. Tony Proctor is Emeritus Professor in Marketing at the University of Chester, UK. Absolute Essentials of Business and Economics Textbooks are an extraordinarily useful tool for students and teachers, as is demonstrated by their continued use in the classroom and online. Success- ful textbooks run into multiple editions, and in endeavouring to keep up with developments in the field, it can be difficult to avoid increasing length and complexity. This series of shortform textbooks offers a range of books which zero-in on the absolute essentials. In focusing on only the core elements of each sub-discipline, the books provide a useful alternative or supplement to tra- ditional textbooks. Titles in this series include : Absolute Essentials of Operations Management Andrew Greasley Absolute Essentials of Strategic Management Barry J. Witcher Absolute Essentials of Green Business Alan Sitkin Absolute Essentials of Entrepreneurship Nerys Fuller-Love Absolute Essentials of Strategic Marketing Tony Proctor For more information about this series, please visit: www.routledge.com/ Absolute-Essentials-of-Business-and-Economics/book-series/ABSOLUTE Absolute Essentials of Strategic Marketing Tony Proctor First published 2021 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN and by Routledge 52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017 R outledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2021 Tony Proctor The right of Tony Proctor to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice : Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data A catalog record for this book has been requested ISBN: 978-0-367-43775-6 (hbk) ISBN: 978-1-003-00570-4 (ebk) Typeset in Times New Roman by Apex CoVantage, LLC Visit the eResources: http://www.routledge.com/9780367437756 Contents Preface vi Introduction 1 1 Marketing strategy 3 2 Product portfolio and marketing capabilities 11 3 Industry and competition 21 4 The marketing environment 31 5 Customer and market analysis 40 6 Sustainable competitive advantage 51 7 Growth strategies 60 8 Segmentation, targeting and positioning 71 9 Marketing mix strategy 80 10 International marketing 91 11 Marketing planning and implementing marketing strategy 100 Index 112 Preface T here are many definitions of strategy, but in business it refers to how a firm sets about both setting and achieving organizational objectives. In this book we look specifically at marketing strategy, and in particular the strat- egy concerning the formulation and implementation of the marketing mix. The successful implementation of the marketing mix leads to satisfaction of customer wants and needs and increases the likelihood of achieving an organization’s objectives in the marketplace. In recent years, relationship marketing has come to the fore as strategic alliances and networks involving firms working together towards shared goals has become more fashionable. The strategic management of such relationships is at the core of relationship marketing. The argument put forward in this book is that when changes in the market and the marketing environment are incremental in nature, firms can successfully adapt themselves to the new situation by modifying current marketing and other functional programmes. H owever, if the cumulative changes in the economic, technological, social, political and cultural environments remain unnoticed by a company’s manag- ers until it is too late to respond, the problems which they create for the firm may be overwhelmingly difficult to overcome. Similarly, when the degree of market change is of such magnitude that the competence of a firm to continue to compete effectively is questioned, then the firm may be experiencing the closure of an important strategic window. Where change, leading eventually to the closure of a strategic window, is either very rapid or very slow the con- sequences may well be disastrous. In the first case, the window closes before an organization can respond and, in the second instance, it does not even notice that the window is about to close until it is too late to respond. I t is important to examine not only where the firm is today but how well equipped it is to deal with tomorrow. In particular, the task of predicting non-incremental changes in the market is of critical importance. Existing firms and their competitors can sometimes be replaced in a comparatively short space of time by a whole new range of competitors. Firms which are Preface vii oblivious to the opening and closing of strategic window, firms which fail to utilize overlapping strategic windows to best advantage or firms which are unable to divest when a window closes risk disaster. The book looks at many of the issues indicated above. It sets out a frame- work for organizations to follow in order to meet any threats they may encounter and make the best of opportunities that may occur in the market- ing environment. Tony Proctor 2020 Introduction This is a very short introduction to strategic marketing. It is comprehen- sive in nature and provides pointers to key aspects of the subject. You will be provided with an overview of an important aspect of business strategy. In practice strategy may be formally planned and implemented or evolve and develop over time. This has to be borne in mind when reading about the subject. However, to make the subject matter clearer and readily understandable the subject has to be presented in a logical and structured manner. The pedagogical features of the book include essential summa- ries, focused references/readings and online supplements to help achieve this objective. T here are many definitions of strategy, but in business it refers to how a firm sets about both setting and achieving organizational objectives. In this book we look specifically at strategies relating to the marketing of goods and services. The argument put forward in this book is that when changes in the market and the marketing environment are incremental in nature, firms can successfully adapt themselves to the new situation by modifying current marketing and other functional programmes. S uch changes in the environment can be introduced through technologi- cal innovations, changes in customer tastes, changes in legal regulations, economic and financial constraints or any changes in environmental condi- tions. In addition the nature of competition may also change, and in par- ticular the elements which make up the five forces of Porter’s competition model. New entrants to the industry may appear; substitute products may become more attractive propositions to customers; both suppliers and cus- tomers may find their bargaining powers strengthened; and the balance of competition power between the incumbent firms in the industry may change as one firm develops a competitive advantage. However, if all these changes remain unnoticed until it is too late to respond, the problems which they cre- ate for the firm may be overwhelmingly difficult to overcome.
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