Customer Reviews

Marketing Warfare

5 star:		(36)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

This classic book on marketing is a must-read for anyone in business. Classic examples of marketing struggles such as the burger wars and cola wars are things we all can relate to, yet provide valuable examples of what to do and what NOT to do when marketing your products.

Reading these examples reminds you of what you already knew about marketing, yet probably forgot to use in your last marketing campaign. It never hurts to revisit these fundamentals--just as the great Larry Bird could be found practicing foul shots alone on the court many an evening.

Many people object to the military metaphor for business, but in this case, we're talking strategy and that's exactly what you need to employ to market products successfully. Basic principles such as knowing the leader's strength, finding the leader's weakness and hitting on a focused "front" are the offensive strategies. Defense (just as important to maintain market share) is discussed, as is "guerrilla warfare" or being the jeeps against the tanks.

"Marketing Warfare" is easy to read, enjoyable, understandable and applicable to anything you do in marketing. I consider it a MUST-HAVE for anyone doing business where a product is sold.

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.

Nice to see that the cover has been reworked. Still prefere the old one. It captures the essence on the book

The book perhaps deals a little too much with companies and brands that have been arround for many years. I think an analysis of emerging industries would proeve to be more valuble in the fast changing consumer markets. It is easier to review the past and submitt an analysis, do not get me wrong the value of this is emense, but I would like to these good marketing minds put their intellectual capacity to markets that are on the cutting edge both interms of technology but aslo interms of comsumer dynamics.

All in all a must read for Senior Marekting Managers and Director types who continue to not pay attention to the basics as outlined in the book. I work for South Afrca's biggest brewing company and I can vividly relate to some of the follies outlined in the book.

Great Book

If you're looking for a how-to-set-up-a-marketing-program book, keep on looking because this book is not about that. It's about the strategic choices that precede implementation. The first chapters describe general principles (force, advantage of defense and that a marketing war is fought in the mind of the prospect)of (marketing) warfare. The next section describes the "strategic square": Defensive, offensive, flanking and guerilla warfare. What kind of company (size, position etc.)should follow which strategy and why? In my work as management consultant I still find that a lot of strategic mistakes are made because the strategy does not match the position or size of the company. So pay attention. The book concludes with a number of classic (cola, computer, hamburger, beer) marketing cases which describes the strategy (and the mistakes) of the players involved. Even if you are more experienced in marketing, I would very strongly recommend it. If you are not learning from it, it surely reminds you to be consistent. Oh, and not unimportant: it is a fun-to-read book.

While working at Intuit, which pioneered many sophisticated marketing techniques in the software industry, I asked the marketing manager what she considered the most important marketing books to read. "Marketing Warfare" was one of the top three. I devoured it.

The book starts with the principle that marketing is primarily about psychology, and making your product synonymous with a category IN THE CONSUMER'S MIND. Coke=cola. McDonald's=fast food. "Marketing Warfare" describes how you can do this, and how you can compete for a position in the consumer's mind if you're in an industry already dominated by a leader.

I learned more solid, applicable concepts from this book than I did from the first year Marketing curriculum of Harvard Business School.

The book looks at Marketing from a military perspective.

The book was largely influenced by the book "On War" by the retired Prussian general Karl von Clausewitz.

It basically outlines 4 broad Marketing Strategies which depend on your market position, the nature of your product and on the competition; viz, Offense, Defense, Flanking and guerrilla warfare.

"Marketing promises should be as vague as political ones. Otherwise you will erode the effectiveness of your forces", "Marketing battles are fought inside the mind. Inside your own mind and inside the mind of your prospects every day of the week.", "keep the forces concentrated in an overpowering mass. The fundamental idea. Always to be aimed at before all and as far as possible.", "The more helpless the situation, the more everything presses toward one single, desperate blow.", "Strategy and Timing are the Himalayas of Marketing. Everything else is the Catskills.", et cetera.

Marketing is war. The companies have to fight for customers and against each other. Thus the rules of military combat are fully applicable, Ries and Trout insist. That is why they use the ideas of the best military strategist ever known - Karl von Clausewitz - to show how to win a marketing war. And it seems pretty simple. However, only at first glance.

The authors give to a business strategist a set of tools to assess the position and the situation on the ground (which is minds of the actual and prospect clients) in accordance with two basic military principles:
- the principle of force: more money and human resources always come over less money and human resources
- the superiority of the defense: defensive strategy demands less money and resources to win the marketing combat.

After assessing the situation, a strategist chooses which type of marketing war to wage (so called "the strategic square"):
- defensive
- offensive
- flanking
- guerilla

Each type of war is in its turn determined by a set of strategic principles. Follow them and you are doomed to success. As simple as it gets. Just do ALL the things correctly.

The only problem is that you have to do correctly so many things while assessing the situation and choosing and waging the type of marketing war, that winning is becoming an art of itself, rather then a strictly defined set of rules. The case studies in the second half of the book show that even the best and the biggest companies often fail to deliver the positive results.

And the last, but not least: "A general can no more entertain the idea of fighting to the last man than a good chess player would play an obviously lost game", Clausewitz wrote. Admittedly, "no purpose is served by wasting resources to conserve egos. Better to admit defeat and move on to another marketing war", Ries and Trout add. I just cannot agree more on these statements.

I would most definitely recommend this book to anyone seeking employment in a competitive environment. As a marketing major, this book was informative but did not teach me anything new about marketing. Instead, "Marketing Warfare" did look at marketing at an angle I had never thought about before. Marketing is war. Anytime one company makes more money another company loses money. That is the way a free-market economy works. Now that I have read this book I feel more educated in the field of strategy and tactics. This will help me in the long-run as I am looking to one day become a manager who will have to make decisions about strategies and implement the tactics that will need to be used to win the marketing battles of tomorrow.

This book by Al Ries and Jack Trout is brilliant. It takes the comparison of a military scenario and aligns competitive tactics to the world of marketing products and companies. This is a wonderfully clear-cut text with a minimum of 'jargon'. Any reader will find this enjoyable and immediately useful to whatever activity in commerce they seek to expand and prosper with. This text covers competitive tactics to flank, attack and out-maneuver any counter intention to your companies prosperity and bring off a decisive victory. It also contains facinating insights into other companies experiences that helps you understand what pitfalls to avoid in carving out your own companies strategies. It gives you a complete understanding of how to be inventive and at the same time apply successful 'out-flanking' and 'out-witting' tactics to every battle you engage in against your competition to win the hearts of the consumers. A brilliant work from top to bottom, as well as an exceptionally entertaining read. This is definitely one of the best marketing books ever written.

Before reading this book, I have read a similar business book based on another war strategist: Lanchester. The essence of 2 books is almost same but Ries and Trout give a simpler, easier, and inspiring explanation to it. This book became a quick reminder for my own business battle.