Marketing Strategy ^{3rd Ed.}

The third edition of the highly successful Marketing Strategy, has not simply been updated from the previous edition, it has been re-written. This latest book from Paul Fifield is based on the author's own business consultancy experience and the SCORPIO^© model he has developed, with clients, to help organizations create market strategies capable of dealing with today's cut-throat competitors.

The model forms the centrepiece of a new edition which provides a genuinely new aid for those working in the 'no-man's-land' between corporate strategy and marketing tactics — in market strategy. It helps the busy practioner create a step-by-step process in which the key components are:

• Segmentation and targeting — which customers should you target and why?
• Customers — who are they, what do they want, how can you get the organization on your side?
• Retention — customers who come back make all the profits, but how?
• Positioning and branding — it's all about being different, but in what way?
• Industry or market thinking — what business are you (really) in? It's too important to ignore.
• Offerings — Creating customer value propositions that align the stakeholders in the right direction.

Marketing Strategy show you how to align all these elements into a market/customer strategy that works. It provides highly structured and practical guide for marketing executes as well as being a powerful overview for those on executive and MBA courses.

• Introduction
1. What is market(ing)?
2. What is strategy?
3. What is market(ing) strategy?
4. The approach of this book
• Part One — Preparing for the market(ing) strategy
1. The internal business drivers
1. Personal values of the key implementers
2. The mission/leadership
3. Shareholder value
4. Long-term financial objective
5. Other stakeholders' requirements
6. The vision
2. The external environment
1. Customer and market orientation — the culture
2. The environment audit
3. Opportunities and threats
4. Strengths and weaknesses
5. Competitor analysis
6. Assessing our current position — a conclusion
3. The business strategy
1. The financial hurdles
2. The business objective
3. Business strategy
4. Competitive strategy
5. Sustainable competitive advantage
   
• Part Two — Developing the market(ing) strategy
4. From business to market(ing) strategy
5. The market objectives
1. The planning period
2. What makes a good market objective?
3. Using market(ing) objectives
6. Developing the market(ing) strategy (SCORPIO^©)
1. Industry or market?
2. The customer
3. Segmentation and targeting
4. Positioning and branding
5. Customer retention
6. Organization — processes and culture (with Hamish Mackay)
7. Offerings
• Part Three — From market(ing) strategy to tactics
7. Making it happen
1. Market plans
2. Market control systems
3. Strategy evaluation
4. Identifying barriers to implementation
5. Identifying drivers for change
6. Using the system
• Epilogue
• Appendix: The Strategy checklist

The only criticism of this excellent book is that the authors tries to cover too much in too short a space. The most impressive thing is that he nearly manages to do it!

If you find many marketing authors to academic or too gung-ho, this is a perfect match, as most of what he goes through, you can use as a marketeer or as a consultant.

My recommendation would be to read it from cover to cover, regardless of your previous knowledge, as everything builds on everything else, which doesn't come through on a quick skim.

Deeply recommended.