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Michael Perla from MarketingProfs.com, states that "if the objective of marketing is to select, serve and satisfy customers in a profitable manner, then a marketing strategy is the way a company accomplishes those objectives, which may include segmentation studies, competitive analysis, and the tactical 4 Ps (Promotion, Place, Product, and Price)." Perla goes on to compare a marketing strategy to the wisdom of Sun Tsu, famous in the book The Art of War. Sun Tzu wrote about four items that we "could apply to the testing of marketing strategy: speed, strengths and weaknesses, alliances, and successful market capture (Perla 2003)." Perla expands the marketing mix to include studies and competitive analysis. This way the marketing manager can see where the market is, or isn't, and tailor his product or service to the unmet wants and needs of consumer. His reference to Tsu is good since it links the act of planning a marketing strategy to a plan of war. The general who prepares his troops by measuring up the enemy, shoring up alliances, and then with speed, executes his plan, can quickly capture the enemy. We can apply this same principal to a company capturing the market share or out pacing the competition. Planning is critical to success, and a marketing strategy is that plan. Speed is critical since change is rapid. Quick execution can be the difference between a successful marketing strategy and failure. Perla concludes his article by telling us that there is no perfect strategy. He believes that a company must continually test their marketing strategy against the market and the competition and that most business pundits will tell you it's all about the execution.
Robert Winton writes, "The definition of strategic marketing is usually divided into four functional areas. You may notice that my definition of marketing includes having something for people to buy, finding people who will buy, encouraging people to buy, and providing value.
