Last week I noted that Al Ries and Jack Trout wrote two great books that influenced my thinking and I summarized Positioning. This week, I discuss Marketing Warfare, which builds on Positioning. It advises that “marketing is war,” even citing Karl von Clausewitz (the Prussian General who wrote On War in the mid 1800s) as one of the greatest marketing strategists of all time.
Most of Marketing Warfare is a review of various marketing strategies, including:
- Defensive strategies,
- Offensive strategies,
- Flanking strategies and
- Guerilla strategies.
Great stuff, written in clear, concise language.
But the idea from Marketing Warfare that has most influenced my thinking is “strategy follows tactics.” At first, the idea may seem counter-intuitive. Shouldn’t one first figure out what one wants to achieve, then figure out how to achieve it?
No, advise Ries and Trout. Your strategy must be based on your tactical capabilities. Said differently, there is no sense defining a strategy that you don’t have the tactical ability to execute.
Once again, important lessons for those of us in the data quality profession. We certainly need to “think big.” But “thinking too big” and failing because we don’t have enough resources doesn’t do our organizations any good. We must make a stone, cold sober assessment of what we can really accomplish. And, if we want to do more, we need to build greater tactical capability.
Pretty obvious. After it is stated.
