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Strategy's original application had to do with military issues² protecting one's homeland from invading
armies or, as one of those armies, finding new, more effective ways to conquer territory. In fact, military
history has become the basis for many marketing strategies and drives much of the current marketing
philosophy.

Titles like Guerrilla Marketing and Marketing Warfare, rife with military reference and application, bear this
out. The applications themselves have become more than mere metaphor or allegory. Many military texts
have become handbooks for strategic planning at the corporate level. Today, the words of General George
Patton, Napoleon Bonaparte and even Genghis Khan are finding their way into corporate boardrooms. The
parallels between the challenges faced by these famous military leaders and many of America's top
companies are not coincidental.

We talked about the word strategy earlier as defined from the classic military perspective. From a business
standpoint, you may want to consider the following definition:

Strategy is the coordination of the means to achieve the desired ends as they are defined by corporate
policy.

The nature of business strategy is much like that of military strategy in that it pits company against
company, marketing team against marketing team, and product against product. Ultimately, however, it's a
case of mind against mind. No matter how large an organization is, or how expansive its management or
marketing team, it all boils down to that simple concept.

In warfare, it was the invasion strategy defined in Gen. Dwight Eisenhower's mind positioned against the
strategic defenses conceived and produced by Gen. Irwin Rommel that led to an ultimately successful
Allied landing at Normandy Beach. History is replete with similar examples²and so is business.
Eisenhower's plan was the result of almost a year's research and development by the finest minds in the
Allied armies, with a strategic launch based on the results of that effort. And that's very much like business.

Understanding the human element of strategic development² that concept of mind (your corporate goals
or objectives) versus mind (your competition's objectives)²is central to understanding the concept behind
strategic development. You aren't merely trying to get on the good side of consumers in hopes that they will
try your product. Often that's the easy part. The hard part is fending off at¬tacks from competitors old and
new who are interested in upsetting your strategies and causing you to lose market share and drop out of
the competitive race. In fact, the twin cornerstones in any strategic development focus on the following:

‡ Any good strategy's foundation is built on the effort to dislocate the market, both physically and
psychologically, for its competitors. This may manifest itself in a surprise attack on market segment,
creation of a better product distribution strategy or manufacture of a superior style of widget to that of the
competition. Handled deftly, such moves can demoralize the competition and cause its efforts to stumble
and fall due to mistakes in judgement or loss of the will to compete. All efforts must operate in concert in
order to be effective and may, for a time, run counter to what your ultimate strategy will be.

‡ As a strategy, dislocation will weaken your competition. Once the competitor has reached a point of
vulnerability, you must pull all disparate elements together and concentrate your focus on that area of
weakness most easily exploited. That may be a market segment not currently being served or a product
classification that hasn't been fully exploited. Just like a weakness in a fortification that, once broken
through, allows the invading army to infiltrate enemy territory, concentration in a marketing strategy will
allow for market entry at the point of least resistance. From there, it's simply a matter of divide and conquer.

Whether your maneuvers are military or marketing, you must first carefully assess the situation before
determining your plan of attack. Sometimes you have all the resources you need and complete intelligence
about the next set of moves scheduled to be made by your competition. More often than not, however,
you're shy on resources, lack the necessary knowledge about your competition and don't have the time and
luxury to analyze the situation and make your next move. That last sentence describes the classic
battlefield scenario, but no doubt experienced marketers would recognize the same set of drawbacks.

There are standard strategic moves that you may be able to successfully implement, provided you analyze
the situation as thoroughly as possible and make your strategic choices based on sound logic and instinct,
not just what you think might be cool to do. Let's consider each strategy in turn, both from a positive and
negative ' standpoint:

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One of the greatest surprises to the British forces at the outset of the Revolutionary War was the colonists'
lack of battlefield etiquette. Seriously outmanned and outgunned, the fledgling American army did not
march in formation into the withering cross-fire of their enemy, like the Redcoats did. Rather than mount a
direct attack² they simply didn't have the manpower to do so²the colonists in¬stead hid behind rocks and
trees, firing their muskets into the line of British soldiers, mowing them down like harvested wheat.

The British direct attacks met with nasty consequences, a fate not surprising considering that military
experts agree that the en¬trenched army easily has a three-to-one advantage. For those with the
resources, a direct assault can be impressive and successful²consider, once again, Normandy Beach²
but it is also costly in terms of re¬sources. The same holds true in marketing. Direct assaults on firmly
entrenched market positions or products exhaust the budgets, tools and resources that go into a marketing
campaign. The result often is an expensive "me too" campaign that doesn't usually work. If your product is
as good as the market leader and no better or different, why would I bother to switch? Marketing history,
like military history, is filled with examples of full-frontal assaults. General Douglas MacArthur said that a
direct assault is the sign of a mediocre commander. The same holds true for marketing.

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The direct assault tends to play into the defending army's (or company's) hands, putting the offense at a
distinct disadvantage. The in¬direct assault, on the other hand, exploits a weakness of the opposition,
identifying and penetrating a weakly defended point of entry in the marketplace, only to grow and expand
from within. This indirect assault often operates as a diversionary tactic, masking a direct assault that
comes after the point of entry has been exploited.

Volkswagen did not enter the U.S. market going head-to-head with big, boxy Chryslers, Packards and
Hudsons. Instead, the Ger¬man automobile identified an undeveloped niche for small, economical, well-
made cars and slipped quietly in while the major automotive producers were trumpeting newer, larger
models in the expanding post-war environment. Once the beachhead had been established and the car
became a cultural presence in the U.S., prices increased befitting not the product's size, so much as its
engineering superiority.

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Similar in design to the Indirect Attack, the envelopment strategy identifies weakly defended points of entry
in order to gain a foothold. Once established, the attacker spreads out in all directions, finding other points
of entry or market niches on which to capitalize, then introducing itself to those niches and eventually
enveloping the target. Mass marketers of consumer goods often find such a strategy successful introducing
first one product, then another, until the marketplace is littered with the company name and its related
brands.

Boston Beer Company, producers of the Samuel Adams Beer brands, did that among its customers. The
company first introduced it flagship brand, the lager, as an entry into the high-quality craft brewing market
that was emerging in the 1980s and established a foothold among drinkers who favored a well-made, full-
flavored beer. Once the brand had established a market presence, Boston Beer Company began
introducing a wide variety of ales, porters and stouts and, while it didn't leave the craft beer audience, it did
envelop a wider segment of that audience until it had a contender in every category. The fact that the
 market itself was growing significantly helped increase public preference for and sales of that brand.

Military examples of the envelopment strategy are too numerous to mention. The most obvious one would
have to do with the ways the defenders of the Alamo succumbed to General Santa Ana's troops, which
significantly outnumbered the Texan defenders. The Mexican soldiers eventually found weaknesses in the
defenses and flooded in. And the rest, quite literally, is history. That may not be the best example, but it
certainly is the most obvious one.

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Probably the most difficult and failure-prone of all plans, the bypass strategy enables attackers to bypass its
chief competitors and diversify into unrelated products or markets. From a military perspective, this may
work as a temporary flanking strategy, but in marketing it runs the risk of diluting the core business and
central operating strategy, extending resources into areas where the company had no business being.

Pepsico diluted its core competency²the production and distribution of soft drinks²to move into the fast
food market, purchasing brands such as Taco Bell and KFC. The move was well out¬side the influence
sphere of its chief competitor, Coca-Cola. The Atlanta-based soft drink producer retrenched and stuck to its
primary purpose²producing Coke. Coca-Cola was and still re¬mains the leader of the two brands in
markets worldwide.

One company that was able to diversify successfully was Virgin, the massive British-based music retailer
that acquired and has made a rousing success out of Virgin Atlantic Airlines. According to
entrepreneur/owner Richard Branson, if you" can succeed with one company, you can succeed with them
all. Branson's belief is that if you break the right rules of business, you're bound to gain ground. Go figure.

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In an age of smaller, entrepreneurially driven companies, the guerrilla attack has become one of the most
frequently used marketing strategies. Most of us first heard about the concept of small, strate¬gic strikes
when a group of American and English commandos trouped through the Malaysian jungles to blow up the
prisoner-built bridge over the river Kwai. From a marketing perspective, it's been a popular strategy ever
since.

Most often guerrilla marketing is conducted by a small company against a larger, market-dominating firm.
It's characterized by periodic, strategically driven strikes, each of which has its own single objective. Taken
together, guerrilla warfare can hamstring a major operation, such as it did to American forces in Vietnam, or
it can result in market or military success. Castro's Cuba is one such exam¬ple. Rarely does one expect big
wins from a guerrilla assault, unless it's combined with another strategy. But continued attacks well-
conceived can demoralize the opposition, slow progress and sometimes draw the larger opponent to a
standstill.

And sometimes, whether in military action or marketing maneuvers, that's the best we can hope for.

 

Michael Muckian, °



 


 

° 
 Prentice Hall.

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