Epilogue

A great Nation should have a fixed Government, so that the death of

one man should not overturn it.
Napoleon Bonaparte

It’s time to sum up — what has, or should have, this book been about? The central
‘takeaways’ are:

Introduction

 What is market(ing)? A coordinating function that (ought to) helps the organ-
ization to focus all its resources on understanding, anticipating and satisfying
customer needs so that your target customers ‘prefer’ your offer over the
competition’s.
 What is strategy? The longer-term (probably three-plus years) view of what the
organization needs to do to achieve its business objective.
 What is market(ing) strategy? The longer-term (probably three-plus years) view
of what the organization needs to do to position itself within its market so that
it can align itself with the needs and wants of the customers it wants to serve.

Part One - Preparing for the Market(ing) Strategy

(1) The internal business drivers: The internal mechanisms that dictate much
behaviour within the organization. Includes the needs of the key internal
implementers as well as internal and external stakeholders — understand
these needs and make sure that the strategy meets these needs, or all your
work will be wasted.
(2) The external environment: The ‘unavoidable’ elements in the market that you
have to deal with. Includes politics, economics, technology and competition
and everything that just seems to get in the way of serving customers. We need
to deal with these and, importantly, we need to anticipate environmental
change so that we can build it into our plans. Surprise is a bad thing.
(3) The business strategy: The whole debate about the organization actually know-
ing where it is going, rather than just bobbing along on the water waiting
for the wave to push it along or more likely knock it over. Identifying the
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‘financial hurdles’, then putting them in their place is the first step, followed
by setting a business objective and a business strategy that will achieve
competitive advantage.

Part Two - Developing the Market Strategy (SCORPIO)

(4) From business to market strategy: Translating business objective and strategy
into day-to-day organization-speak can be a challenge. The best route is to put
things into customer terms; everybody deals with the customer and ought to
know this.
(5) The market(ing) objective: The key stage and one that can make or break the
market focus of the organization. Properly managed, the market(ing) objectives
become the key performance indicators (KPIs) of the organization and drive all
appraisals, rewards and behaviours. Make sure you take enough time to get
these right.
(6) Developing the Market(ing) Strategy (SCORPIO):
(6.1) Industry and market (I): Decide what business you are in and what busi-
ness you want to be in. There is no point just going along with traditional
‘industry’ definitions of your market that leave you exposed to substi-
tute competition that you don’t understand — this determines the exter-
nal marketplace that you need to know, segment and master.
(6.2) The customer (C): The person or company that provides all your revenues
and cash/profits — how well do you know them? Understanding what
they want now and will want in the future is the biggest battle; provid-
ing it is almost easy in comparison.
(6.3) Segmentation and targeting (S): The mass market is dead and, apart from a
very few organizations, we cannot serve customers on a one-to-one
basis. You need to identify the segments in your market and agree
which ones your objectives require that you ‘own’.
(6.4) Positioning and branding (P): How are we going to be different? What are
we going to stand for (market position)? What are the values and
personality of our brand? How do we measure the financial value of
the brand we have created?
(6.5) Customer retention (R): Customers who come back are the most profitable
customers of all, how do we do that? Loyalty is a two-way street, so what
are we doing to create loyalty in our customers?
(6.6) Organization – processes and culture (O): Making it all happen or blocking
all progress? The organization cannot be ignored, so we have to manage
the culture and the processes to create an environment within which
customers receive real value.
(6.7) Offerings (O): The product or service that carries the identified customer
value, but much more besides. The point at which we create the value
proposition and the business design to drive the organization — to where
the customers are waiting.
 Epilogue 303

Part Three - From Market Strategy to Tactics

(7) Making it happen: Implementation is everything, although there is many a slip,

and we have to work hard to make sure that what was planned gets done.
Holding hard to the key implementation levers and managing the control
systems are the key.

But none of this is obligatory — some organizations would prefer not to change, to
go on making what they think they are good at making, even if their customers
don’t care. A death wish is a solemn undertaking and should be respected.

To end then on a familiar note, and the most relevant to market(ing) strategy:

It’s not how good you are, it’s how bad you want it.

Now, did Napoleon say that?