Welcome to the Concluding Part of review on the New World War. In this
review I have discussed another bestseller book on Marketing War. The
book is Marketing Warfare by Al Ries & Jack Trout. They are the
authors of another marketing classic Positioning.

Marketing Warfare was first published in the dark ages of competetion
when there was no such thing as Globalization & Global Economy. Global
commerce was pretty much limited to the multi-national companies.
All that has changed today. Today marketing wars are escalating and
breaking out in every part of the globe. Everyone is after everyone’s
business everywhere.

Marketing as I mentioned earlier is a War. To triumph over the
competetion, it’s not just enough to target customers. Marketers must
take aim at their competitors- and be prepared to defend their own turf
from would-be attackers at all times. According to the authors the
marketing concepts’s customer-oriented philosophy is inadequate. If the
key to success were to introduce products closest to those wanted by
customers than the firm that performed best market research simply would
be the market leader. But this isn’t so. The authors have given the
example of Cola Wars to illustrate this.

All this goes on to show that the principles of Marketing
Warfare are more important than ever. Companies must learn how
to deal with their competitors. How to avoid strengths. How to exploit
weakness. Organizations must learn that it is not do or die for
your company. It’s about making the other guy die for his company.
That is what the book teaches us. The book says that marketing
is a strategy. That is why the military strategy books like The Art
of War are used by big corporations for implementing their
strategies. Some of the marketing warfare strategies that this book
discusses are defensive warfare, offensive warfare, flanking warfare
and guerilla warfare. The companies may use different strategies
depending on their market position.

The book also examines leadership and motivation, intelligence
gathering, types of marketing weapons, logistics and communications. To
illustrate their point the authors compare marketing to a football game.
If a team simply identifies the goal line and moves the ball towards it
without regard to competing team, they most likely will be blocked in
their effort. To win the game, the team must focus its efforts on outwitting, outflanking, or overpowering the opponent. This is the case
in football, war and marketing.

The book is also illustrated on various pages with quotes from Karl
von Clausewitz one of the greatest marketing strategist the world
has ever known. The authors have also given the case studies of All time
big wars like
The Cola War - Pepsi vs. CocaCola
The Beer War - The case study of Schlitz beer
The Burger War - McDonalds vs Burger King
The Computer Wars - Apple vs IBM and various other case studies.

Finally in the end the book provides you with some strategies & tactics
which will be helpful to you the day you decide to go on War. I am
already into it. Waiting for more people to join. Last but least, the
strategies mentioned are not taught by any B-School. So even if you are
doing MBA just read this one. It will really boost your performance.

Other new business books that would be helpful:
22 Immutable Laws of Marketing - AlRies, Jack Trout
The McKinsey Way - Ethan M Rashiel
The Mind Of the Strategist- Kenichi Ohmae
These are latest books that will provide you insights into latest trends
of marketing & business development.

Plot Revealed In The Review:	Not revealed
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