This book takes the approach that a successful company is always ahead of its competitors. Thus, its marketing strategy must always be about beating the competitors. If so, then marketing can certainly be described as warfare. The authors decided to keep the book light and easy to read. Because of that, it might appear too shallow, especially to an experienced marketing professional. Even though I am not one, I wished there were more details about the examples they give.
The authors give four strategies that apply to different types of markets and companies.
* Defensive strategy applies to a market leader.
* Offensive strategy applies to a strong challenger.
* Flanking strategy applies to a weaker challenger, and is the most effective in their view.
* Guerilla strategy applies to a small company that wants to avoid being crushed by the bigger competitors.
They explain each strategy in theory and by giving specific examples. They devote much effort to emphasize the folly of picking a strategy that does not match your company realistic market position. They note that most marketing professionals think their company is a leader or at least a strong challenger, so they choose the defensive or offensive strategies. In reality, there are very few companies that are leaders or strong challengers in any market. Therefore, too much marketing patriotism results in misdirected marketing campaigns that fail to achieve positive results.
I think this book is great. I wish there was a more expanded version with more detailed case studies. Overall, though, I recommend it.