STRATEGY

Better strategy, Better results

Be strong where the competition is weak. First in wins. Know the competition, know thyself.

These sound like marketing strategies. They are actually paraphrases of the text from the world’s oldest military treatise – The Art of War by Sun Tzu. It’s our marketing text book because marketing and war are about the same thing: winning. Here are some more bits of wisdom from Sun Tzu – and what they mean for marketers.

Sun Tzu: Attack him where he is unprepared, appear where you are not expected.

Marketing equivalent: Be strong where the competition is weak.

Sun Tzu: Whoever is first in the field and awaits the coming of the enemy, will be fresh for the fight; whoever is second in the field and has to hasten to battle will arrive exhausted.

Marketing equivalent: First in wins.

If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle. – Sun Tzu

Marketing equivalent: Know the competition, know thyself.

What would Sun Tzu say about us? We would be supremely complimented if he likened us to the shuai-jan:

The skillful tactician may be likened to the shuai-jan. Now the shuai-jan is a snake that is found in the Chung mountains. Strike at its head, and you will be attacked by its tail; strike at its tail, and you will be attacked by its head; strike at its middle, and you will be attacked by head and tail both.