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Marketing Strategy
The Thinking Involved

April 2012 | 360 pages | SAGE Publications, Inc
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Marketing Strategy: The Thinking Involved is an innovative text that promotes the idea that effective marketing thinking leads to successful marketing strategy. The book's theories go beyond simply introducing the reader to concepts in the field by providing tools and methods to develop marketing thinking and questioning skills that will help with application of real-life marketing strategies. As the chapters progress, the thinking/questioning develops toward higher levels and more specialized inquiry, helping readers acquire the skills needed in the practice of marketing. The book's timely focus on developing thinking agility leading to strategic agility provides the necessary skills for navigating businesses in today's dynamic markets. The book contains a wealth of pedagogy to support this active learning approach.

 
Preface
The Difference - Becoming a Marketing Strategist

 
Decompression Exercises - Preparing the Way for Thinking

 
The Marketing Terrain Coverage

 
 
I. The Role Marketing Thinking Plays in Strategy
 
1. Marketing Thinking
Chapter Introduction

 
Marketing Thinking

 
Marketing Thinking and Effective Strategy

 
Marketing Thinking: 4-Dimensional Spherical (4-DS) Thinking

 
Learning to Think in a Marketing Way

 
Summary

 
 
2. Learning to Think in a Marketing Way
Chapter Introduction

 
The Process of Appropriation

 
Marketing Thinking in Practice: Shifting Times - The Muji Experience

 
Marketing Thinking in Practice: Taking the Sleeping Business to a New Level - Sleep Squad Comes to You

 
Strategy as a Question

 
Obstacles to Marketing Thinking

 
Summary

 
 
II. Thinking Through the Marketing Process
 
3. The Big Questions: Assessing the Situation
Chapter Introduction

 
The Significance of the Situation Assessment to Strategy

 
Questioning Techniques Applied to the Situation Assessment

 
Thinking about the Five Forces Model

 
Strategy Canvas and the Four Actions Framework

 
Other Related Considerations - Changes in Information

 
Summary

 
Case: JetBlue - Customers Matter

 
 
4. Thinking Further about Marketplace Structure and Strategy
Chapter Introduction

 
Market Structure Orientations

 
Who is Segmenting the Market - the Marketer or the Consumer?

 
Traditional Marketing Logics and Their Sequential Role to Developing Strategy

 
The Problems of Not Recognizing the Position of the Questions Being Considered (Up- vs. Down-Stream Marketing Questions)

 
Segmentation Questions

 
Positioning Questions

 
Issues with the SPOT Marketing Perspective

 
Self-Selection Segmenting Questions

 
Marketing Thinking in Practice - Predictive Analytics

 
Summary

 
Case: Red Bull - What Does the Future Hold?

 
 
5. Thinking Through Difference - The Nature of the Marketplace and Consumption
Chapter Introduction

 
A Difference Perspective of the Marketplace

 
Marketing Thinking in Practice - The Global Crisis

 
Difference Perspective of Consumers

 
From a Difference Perspective - The Role of Strategy

 
Marketing Thinking in Practice - Nestle

 
Marketing Thinking in Practice - Strategic Collaboration Options

 
Summary

 
Case: Apple, Inc. - The Need to be Different

 
 
6. Thinking through the Marketing Mix
Chapter Introduction

 
Marketing Mixes

 
Marketing Thinking in Practice - Barnes & Noble's E-Commerce

 
Issues with the Marketing Mix Concept

 
Marketing Thinking in Practice - Collaborative Marketing

 
Alternative Views to Consider

 
Thinking Strategies to Maneuver Around the Concept Obstacle

 
Summary

 
Case: Ally Bank - The Bank that Wants to be Your "Trusted" Friend

 
 
7. Co-creating Meaningful Differences with Products and Services
Chapter Introduction

 
The Meaning Generation Process - Creating Differences

 
Transitional Thinking - From Quality to Innovation and Beyond

 
Creating Value through Prices

 
Marketing Thinking in Practice - How Online Brand Communitiies Work

 
Strategy Considerations

 
Summary

 
Case: In-N-Out Burger - Keeping it Simple

 
 
8. Co-creating (Co-marketing) Meaningful Differences with Marketing Communications
Chapter Introduction

 
Traditional vs. Contemporary Forms of Marketing Communications

 
An Alternative to the Persuasive Orientation

 
Co-marketing Communication Strategies

 
Marketing Thinking in Practice - Ford Fiesta

 
Summary

 
Case: Alessi - Open Innovation

 
 
9. The Changing Customer Interface Landscape
Chapter Introduction

 
Re-thinking the Front Office

 
Marketing Thinking in Practice - The Service Interface

 
Customer Interface Changing Technology

 
Co-marketing: Co-creating an Experience

 
Creating "Value" - An Expanding View

 
The Consumer Experience - Strategy Considerations

 
Summary

 
Case: The Four Seasons Hotel & Resorts: Getting it Right

 
 
10. Thinking Beyond Logistics
Chapter Introduction

 
Thinking through the Channel Concept

 
Marketing Thinking in Practice: The Value Chain

 
Forms of Collaborative Distribution

 
Summary

 
Case: Zara Retailing - What's on the Shelf Today?

 
 
11. The Question of Price
Chapter Introduction

 
The Origins of Price

 
The Strategy Role of Price

 
Marketing Thinking in Practice - Raise Your Prices!

 
Price Determination

 
Summary

 
Panera Bread Company - Believing in Reciprocity

 
 
III. Reflective vs. Forward-Looking Sides of Marketing Thinking
 
12. Assessment vs. Navigating Strategy - Using Metrics
Chapter Introduction

 
The Backward-Looking Perspective and Rear-View Metrics

 
Marketing Thinking in Practice: Rear-View Metrics

 
The Balanced Scorecard Perspective

 
The Forward-Looking Perspective and Metrics

 
Differences between Assessment and Navigating

 
Summary

 
Case: Best Buy - Looking Forward - A New Way

 
 
IV. Thinking Organization
 
13. Cultivating a Thinking Culture
Chapter Introduction

 
Organizational Cultures

 
Barriers to Organizational Thinking

 
Marketing Thinking in Practice: Creativity is the New Style in Leadership!

 
Characteristics of Thinking Organization

 
Summary

 
Case: Google, Inc. - Seeking the Fun in Innovation

 

“The unique feature of this textbook is that it blends traditional marketing thinking and the emerging theme of thinking in marketing. It is an awesome marketing textbook.”

Jifeng Mu
Alabama A&M University

“The author introduces strategy as a ‘way of thinking’ as opposed to using models in a passive manner. The goal is very ambitious and I commend him on adopting this stance. The various thought projects, decompression exercises, etc, are very well thought out.”

Debi Mishra
Binghamton University

I have not received the review copy so I was not able to review the book and make decision.

Jack Wei
Marketing and Real Estate Dept, Univ Of West Georgia
August 23, 2021
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Interesting book, but too complex concepts. It can work for graduate courses, but not for undergraduates

Dr Marcos Hashimoto
School Of Business, University Of Indianapolis
July 18, 2018
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The content is really interesting! It provides a new way of thinking the marketing strategies. The book is good for begginers and also for professionals that has great experience with the discipline.

Professor Lucas Lira Finoti
Business Administration , FACEAR
April 7, 2016
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Fantastic tips and very good detailed thinking on Marketing Strategy the real life case studies are brought to life by the author

Mr Mohammed Arshad
Training, Calderdale College
May 14, 2015
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The book provides basic knowledge about marketing strategy. The topics being covered are well chosen. Furthermore, many examples and cases are used for a better understanding and application of the theory. Especially the chapter about prices is well elaborated and gives many practical insights. However, it would be nice if the book would aslo contain a chapter about different marketing strategic tools and their application (e.g. calculation of the BCG-Matrix).

Miss Agnieszka Zablocki
Department of Marketing/Institute for International Marketing Management, Vienna University of Economics and Business
April 22, 2015
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This book provides a slightly different view on some of the current thinking. It allows students to widen their perspective of marketing strategy.

Mr Alan Shaw
Business, Sheffield Hallam University
October 17, 2014
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Fantastic book

Mr Troels Møller
Danish Academy of Business & Technology , Danish Business Academy
July 9, 2014
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Good overview, nice examples, good business graphics

Mr Florian Dieterle
Marketing Management, Hochschule fuer Unternehmensfuehrung
December 18, 2012
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Key features

Key Features

  • Chapter discussions integrate marketing concepts and theories.
  • Over 45 Marketing Thinking Challenges throughout the chapters allow readers to try different forms of marketing thinking—traditional and contemporary—thus providing the means for developing thinking agility skills.
  • Decompression Exercises at the beginning of each chapter provide a pause before getting started, preparing the way for more effective thinking and learning.
  • Character Figures, posed as questioners throughout the chapters, provide different lines of questioning while breaking up the text.
  • Contemporary Cases are available at the end of many of the chapters, providing an additional element for developing marketing thinking.

Sample Materials & Chapters

toc

ch 1 & 2

ch 13

For instructors

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