Customer Reviews

Strategic Market Management

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I used this book when I took a strategic marketing class in my MBA program. The author of this book did an excellent job in explaining strategic marketing concepts in a simple but practical way. The main strength of this book is it is very well-organized and easy to follow. The author also used many real-world samples to explain and support marketing concepts presented in the text. I recommend that any business student who has to take business policy class use this book as his or her reference.

I was first exposed to Aakers Strategic Market Management during a marketing strategy course at National University of Singapore. I really appriciated the disposition of the books. It is relatively thin, not many words are useless (which is uncommmon in the case of marketing text books).

Later, still a student, I got the opportunity to develop a marketing strategy for a smaller firm. During this time Aakers book was of the outmost value, being used for reference throughout the analysis. Highly recommendable.

This book is divided into 2 parts. Part I of the book (chapter 2 to 6) covers strategic analysis, with emphasis on customer, competitor, market, environmental and internal analysis. Part II (chapter 7 to 15) covers the development and implementation of strategy.

For part I which covers both internal and external analysis, the 4P's of the marketing mix (product, price, place, promotion), this book merely scrimps through the concepts. Instead I will recommend the book "Marketing" by Roger A. Kerin, et al, which provides more comprehensive approaches. However, the book "Marketing" does not dwell on strategic management and this is where the strength of this book comes in.

Part II provides insight into creation of sustainable competitive advantages and synergy, creation and leveraging of brand equity, approaches to handle strategic uncertainty in making strategic decisions, growth strategies and implementation strategies. There are multiple growth strategies available, such as energizing existing businesses, leveraging, creating new businesses and globalizing businesses. By identifying and constructing a company's business portfolio, such as classification of products or brands into cash cows, stars, dogs and problematic child according to the BCG growth-share matrix, the appropriate brand portfolio strategy can be employed, such as exiting, milking, divesting or expansion strategies. It further elaborates on the needs to prioritize and trim the brand portfolio, offering guidelines on the strategic brand consolidation process.

In this digital era, I am surprised by the numerous grammar/typo errors found in this book and thereby implying a slack proof-reading process. However, since the main focus is on the quality of the contents, I found this book being able to offer an insight into the strategic aspects of management.

This book was part of the required reading for my MBA program at UCI and so far it is the best strategic marketing text I have read. Prof. Aaker's writing style is both concise and eloquent, very well organized and easy to read. I will keep this book on my bookshelf for a long time, it is very "reusable" and goes way beyond the class room. A must-have for both corporate executives and enterpreneurs.

This book is not about the 4Ps of marketing. It's a compact book about market management strategies. You only need to spend 5 minutes on a chapter and you'll get key valuable information. Like it.

Very analytical, more useful for a business owner trying to promote growth. Extremely important material in promoting growth a sustainable competitive advantage in a business or corporation, such as SWOT analysis, brand equity, synergy ideas, and global extensions.

I used this book in my strategic class for MBA, this is the single best book I've ever read in marketing; the professor of this class is not top-notch, but the book he recommended is top of the top!

It's so concise yet full of examples, it provides the best frame work to solve real business problems, I wish all the VP in marketing in big companies could read this book.

In my opinion the most clever chapter in the book discusses how brand equity can be built through secondary brand associations.

As an ex-student who used this book as the guideline for my capstone Marketing unit, I have found the book to be an excellent reference throughout my career in Strategy Development and Marketing

The 5th edition is, in my view, disorganised, unnecessarily complicated and seems to have been hurriedly finished. This text book was required reading for my MBA (Warwick Business School)