Strategic Marketing

I. Introduction - Competing for the future

Today organizations have to find answers to questions that might be asked in near future by both: customers and competitors.

In his book “On Marketing” by Kotler written in 1999, the author is drawing a dramatic picture of the future, for the competitive situation in 2005: “Companies are unable to sustain competitive advantages (outside of patents…)” .
Although his scenario maybe came not true , the point is interesting: How do companies find the right way to respond to new developments (e-business, globalization etc.).

Strategy is about the long term development. Organizations need to collect information of the market, they have to define strategies and difficulty enough, they need to implement the strategies.

In order to remain a market leader, Hamel and Pralahad advise their reader in an article from 1994 to pause for a moment and ask questions like:

-Who are the customers today and who will be the customers in the future?
-Who are presently our competitors and who will compete with us in the future?
-What is our competitive advantage today and what will make us a leader in the future?
Models like Ansoff’s matrix or Porter’s 5 Forces make today’s situation visible and allow to formulate strategic options.
The task is to find and implement strategic options, that allow the best allocation of recourses in the future.