This book is one of the greatest marketing manuals ever written--the classic that defines the strategies, plans, and campaigns of today's marketing battlefield. Marketing is war. To triumph over the competition, it's not enough to target customers. Marketers must take aim at their competitors - and be prepared to defend their own turf from would-be attackers at all times. This indispensable guide gives smart fighters the best tactics - defensive, offensive, flanking, and guerrilla.

1. Book Summary
Moses Sam Paul J.

2. Contents
❖ Marketing is War
❖ Brief History of War
❖ Big Picture
❖ Principles of Defensive Warfare
❖ Principles of Offensive Warfare
❖ Principles of Flanking Warfare
❖ Principles of Guerrilla Warfare
❖ Strategy & Tactics
❖ The Marketing General

3. Marketing is War
❖ Best book on Marketing - “On War” - 1832 - Strategic
Principles behind all successful wars - Karl Von
Clausewitz (Prussian General)
❖ War - 2 immutable characteristics - Strategy & Tactics

4. Marketing is War
❖ Football - you win by outwitting, outflanking & outplaying
the other team
❖ War - you win by outwitting, outflanking and over
powering your enemy
❖ Why should Marketing be any different?
❖ Start with a perspective change
❖ Customer Oriented to Competitor Oriented

5. 2500 years of war
Marathon
490 B.C.
Arbela
331 B.C.
Persians
(15000)
Athenians
(11000)
Phalanx
Persians
Alexander
Cavalry
Flanking
Metaurus
207 B.C.
Carthaginian
Romans
Forces concentrated
in an overpowering area
Saxons
Normans
20 Norman Knights
break saxon
lines and get Harold
French
(20000)
English
(5500)
English longbow
Technological Innovation
Hastings
1066
Crecy
1346
Loser
Winner
Strategy

6. 2500 years of war
Bunker Hill
(1775)
Trenton
1776
Americans
(1000)
British
(3000)
Waited too
long to attack
Hessians
(1500)
washington
(2000)
Principle
of Force
Austerlitz
1805
Austrian-
Russian
Napolean
Manoeuvrability
Napolean
Arthur Wellesley
(Duke of Wellington)
Superiority of
the Defense
Waterloo
1815
French
English
Line of
Least Expectation
Quebec
1759

7. 2500 years of war
The Somme
(1916)
Sedan
1940
English
+ French
Germans
Machine Gun
Hessians
(1500)
washington
(2000)
Principle
of Force
Balaclava
1854
Gettysburg
1863
English
(Lord Raglan)
Russians
Failure to build
on the initial success
Rober E. Lee
(75,000)
George.G. Meade
(88,000)
Greatest # of troops
should be brought into action
at the decisive point

8. Principles learnt from war history
❖ The principle of force
❖ The greatest possible number of troops should be
brought into action at the decisive point : Clausewitz
❖ The superiority of Defense
❖ The defensive form of war is in itself stronger than
the offense : Clausewitz

9. The strategic square
❖ Market Leader: Defensive Warfare
❖ Market No:2 : Offensive Warfare
❖ Market No: 3/4: Flanking Warfare
❖ Market Entrant: Guerrilla Warfare

10. Principles of Defensive warfare
❖ Best defensive strategy is the courage to attack yourself
❖ Only the market leader should play the defense
❖ Strong competitive moves should always be blocked

11. Case Study
❖ Gillette - Market Leader in Wet Shaving Market
❖ Threatened by
❖ Wilkinson - Bonded Stainless Blade
❖ Bic - Disposable Blade
❖ Gillette’s Defense
❖ “Trac II” - World’s first double-bladed razor
❖ “Atra" - First adjustable double-bladed razor
❖ “Good News” - Inexpensive Disposable razor
❖ Though it was against their core business
To ward off Wilkinson
To ward off Bic

12. Case Study
❖ Context:
❖ Bristol - Myer was supposed to enter the analgesic with Datril which would cost a lot less than
Johnson & Johnson’s Tylenol.
❖ Defense Strategy of J&J
❖ Reduced prices of Tylenol still price change would take days to get effect across 165,000 retail stores.
❖ Complained to networks, the magazine, the proprietary association & the council of better business
bureaus.
❖ Strong armed Datril to change its ad copy from “dollar lower” to ”Datril could cost less , a lot less”
to “Datril could cost less”.
❖ Result:
❖ Tylenol found itself at the top of the analgesic market
❖ Partly because of the price reduction
❖ Partly because of the publicity from defence warfare

13. The strategic square
❖ Market Leader: Defensive Warfare
❖ Market No:2 : Offensive Warfare
❖ Market No: 3/4: Flanking Warfare
❖ Market Entrant: Guerrilla Warfare

14. Principles of Offensive warfare
❖ Find a weakness in the leader’s strength and attack at that point
❖ The main consideration is the strength of the leader’s position
❖ Launch the attack on as narrow a front as possible

15. Case Study
❖ Hertz - Market Leader in Rental Cars - inherent weakness - longer waiting time
❖ Avis - Offensive Strategy
❖ Marketing Campaign - “Rent From Avis. The line at our counter is shorter.” #HertzStumped
❖ TV - Expensive to reach all homes - Ad spots
❖ World War II - $9000 a minute
❖ The Vietnam War - $22,000 a minute
❖ During Super Bowl -$1,000,000 a minute
❖ Radio - Offensive Strategy
❖ Marketing Campaign - “How do you spell ‘relief’ from the pain go high TV costs?” -
R.A.D.I.O

16. Case Study
❖ Hertz - Market Leader in Rental Cars - inherent weakness - longer waiting time
❖ Avis - Offensive Strategy
❖ Marketing Campaign - “Rent From Avis. The line at our counter is shorter.” #HertzStumped
❖ TV - Expensive to reach all homes - Ad spots
❖ World War II - $9000 a minute
❖ The Vietnam War - $22,000 a minute
❖ During Super Bowl -$1,000,000 a minute
❖ Radio - Offensive Strategy
❖ Marketing Campaign - “How do you spell ‘relief’ from the pain go high TV costs?” -
R.A.D.I.O

17. The strategic square
❖ Market Leader: Defensive Warfare
❖ Market No:2 : Offensive Warfare
❖ Market No: 3/4: Flanking Warfare
❖ Market Entrant: Guerrilla Warfare

18. Principles of Flanking Warfare
❖ Tactical Surprise ought to be an important element of the plan
❖ A good flanking move must be made into an uncontested area
❖ The pursuit is just as critical as the attack itself

19. Typical Flanking Moves
❖ Flanking with Low Prices
❖ Days Inn flanking Holiday Inn (Low end of Motel Market)
❖ Budget Flanking Hertz & Avis (Low end of rent-a-car market)
❖ Flanking with High Prices
❖ Haagen-Dazs (Super Premium Ice cream)
❖ Flanking with Small Size
❖ Beetle (Volkswagen vs. General Motors)
❖ Flanking with Large Size
❖ Prince Manufacturing - Large Tennis Racquets

20. Typical Flanking Moves
❖ Flanking with Distribution
❖ Timex using Drug Stores sell Watched when competitors were distributing through
Jewellery & Department Stores.
❖ Avon flanked with door-to-door selling of cosmetics
❖ Hanes selling L’eggs, an inexpensive pantyhose on free-standing racks in food and
drugstore outlets.
❖ Flanking with Product Form
❖ Close-Up a clear red gel combination of tooth whitener and a mouth wash - Marketing
strategy
❖ Lever in early 70s flanked with translucent gel form because of silica abrasives
❖ Flanking with Fewer Calories
❖ Stoufer - “Lean Cuisine” - single serving frozen entree <300 calories.

21. The strategic square
❖ Market Leader: Defensive Warfare
❖ Market No:2 : Offensive Warfare
❖ Market No: 3/4: Flanking Warfare
❖ Market Entrant: Guerrilla Warfare

22. Principles of Guerrilla Warfare
❖ No matter how successful you become, never act like the leader
❖ Find a segment of the market small enough to defend
❖ Be prepared to bug out at a moment’s notice

23. Note
❖ A Guerrilla doesn’t change the mathematics of a
marketing war. A big company will win a small one. A
guerrilla reduces the size of the battleground to achieve
a superiority of force
❖ A flanking attack is deliberately launched close to the
leaders position to bleed or unravel the leaders share.

24. Types of Guerrillas
❖ Geographic Guerrillas
❖ In Chicago, Crain Communications’s “Chicago Business” has 40,000 paid subscribers while Business
Week has only 36,000 subscribers
❖ Industry Guerrillas
❖ Triod Systems of Sunnyvale, California designed a computer system to solve inventory problems of
automotive parts wholesalers.
❖ Key is to be narrow and deep rather than broad & shallow
❖ Product Guerrillas
❖ Tandem’s fault-tolerant computers for on-line transaction processing. It had two processors. If one
fails the other will take over.
❖ High-end Guerrillas
❖ The $250 cuisinart - food processor.
❖ High Price is the cause and the effect is its mystique nature. High Price raises the question why? Be
sure to have an answer.

25. Strategy & Tactics
❖ Form should follow Function and Strategy should
follow Tactics
❖ Strategy should evolve out of the mud of the
marketplace and not in the anti septic environment of
an ivory-tower.
❖ Objective of Strategy: Make the operation work on a
tactical level.

26. Marketing General
A Marketing General should
❖ Be Flexible
❖ Have Mental Courage
❖ Be Bold
❖ Know the Facts
❖ Know the Rules
❖ Be Lucky
Strategy & Timing are the Himalayas of Marketing everything else is the
catskills.

27. Merci!
Moses Sam Paul J.
Danke!