Marketing Strategy: A Customer-Driven Approach

Here at last is a textbook on marketing strategy that is truly about strategy from a marketing perspective. Steven Schnaars examines marketing's contribution to strategy and strategy's contribution to marketing thought over the past three decades. He argues that today, more than ever before, business strategy must be customer-driven if it is to be successful.

Designed for the undergraduate course on marketing strategy or the first course on marketing management in MBA programs, the book traces the evolution of strategy from past strategic planning schemes that stressed competition to its present focus on the consumer. In clear, concise prose, with hundreds of examples, Schnaars discusses the development and impact of the Boston Consulting Group's experience curve and growth-share matrix, Porter's three generic strategies, the standardization-customization debate, and contribution of the PIMS model to product quality. Separate chapters follow - each with a customer-driven focus on product differentiation, market segmentation, product quality, speed as strategy, and long-term consumer satisfaction. In sum, this book shows how marketing strategy should be crafted. An Instructor's Manual is available gratis.