MARKETING STRATEGY

Better marketing strategy, better bottom line

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

These sound like business 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 one of our favorite marketing text books 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 everything from business marketing strategy to small business marketing strategies.

	You are looking at what should be the starting point for every marketing strategy. The customer.

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

Marketing strategy 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 strategy 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 strategy equivalent: Know the competition, know thyself.

What would Sun Tzu say about our approach to business marketing strategy? 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.