Product Description

The book that changed marketing forever is now updated for the new millennium

In 1986, Marketing Warfare propelled the industry into a new, modern sensibility and a world of unprecedented profit. Now, two decades later, this Annotated Edition provides the latest, most powerful tactics that have become synonymous with the names Ries and Trout. New content includes in-depth analyses of some of the biggest marketing successes and blunders of the past two decades—including Volkswagen, Sony, Coca Cola, Budweiser, IBM, and McDonalds—along with annotated reproductions of winning and losing ads.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #61932 in Books
• Published on: 2005-11-22
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 224 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780071460828
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

From the Back Cover
You've got your hands on one of the greatest marketing manuals ever written­­the 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 competitors­­and be prepared to defend their own turf from would-be attackers at all times. This indispensable guide gives smart fighters the best tactics­­defensive, offensive, flanking, and guerrilla. It's the book that wrote the new rules!

Praise For Marketing Warfare:

"By far the most valuable and exiting business book to come along in years."­­Glamour

"Had Coca-Cola only listened to Trout and Ries, it would have known that to tamper with the Real Thing would be to court disaster."­­New York

"Chock-a-block with examples of successful and failed marketing campaigns. . .Makes for a very interesing and relevant read."­­USA Today

About the Author

Al Ries is Chairman of Ries & Ries, an Atlanta-based marketing strategy firm. He is a legendary marketing strategist and the bestselling author/coauthor of eleven books on marketing. Ries writes a monthly marketing column for AdAge.com, and he is frequently quoted in major publications.

Jack Trout is President of Trout & Partners Ltd., where he supervises a global network of experts that apply his concepts and develop his methodology around the world. Trout is recognized as the world's foremost marketing strategist; his concept of "positioning" has become the world's #1 business strategy. Trout writes a bimonthly column for Forbes.com.

Ries and Trout are also the authors of the marketing classic Positioning.

Customer Reviews

Incoming!!! (Sales, that is...)
This classic book on marketing is a must-read for anyone in business. Classic examples of marketing struggles such as the burger wars and cola wars are things we all can relate to, yet provide valuable examples of what to do and what NOT to do when marketing your products.

Reading these examples reminds you of what you already knew about marketing, yet probably forgot to use in your last marketing campaign. It never hurts to revisit these fundamentals--just as the great Larry Bird could be found practicing foul shots alone on the court many an evening.

Many people object to the military metaphor for business, but in this case, we're talking strategy and that's exactly what you need to employ to market products successfully. Basic principles such as knowing the leader's strength, finding the leader's weakness and hitting on a focused "front" are the offensive strategies. Defense (just as important to maintain market share) is discussed, as is "guerrilla warfare" or being the jeeps against the tanks.

"Marketing Warfare" is easy to read, enjoyable, understandable and applicable to anything you do in marketing. I consider it a MUST-HAVE for anyone doing business where a product is sold.

Excellent guide to marketing strategy, but a bit simplistic
This book takes the approach that a successful company is always ahead of its competitors. Thus, its marketing strategy must always be about beating the competitors. If so, then marketing can certainly be described as warfare. The authors decided to keep the book light and easy to read. Because of that, it might appear too shallow, especially to an experienced marketing professional. Even though I am not one, I wished there were more details about the examples they give.

The authors give four strategies that apply to different types of markets and companies.

* Defensive strategy applies to a market leader.

* Offensive strategy applies to a strong challenger.

* Flanking strategy applies to a weaker challenger, and is the most effective in their view.

* Guerilla strategy applies to a small company that wants to avoid being crushed by the bigger competitors.

They explain each strategy in theory and by giving specific examples. They devote much effort to emphasize the folly of picking a strategy that does not match your company realistic market position. They note that most marketing professionals think their company is a leader or at least a strong challenger, so they choose the defensive or offensive strategies. In reality, there are very few companies that are leaders or strong challengers in any market. Therefore, too much marketing patriotism results in misdirected marketing campaigns that fail to achieve positive results.

I think this book is great. I wish there was a more expanded version with more detailed case studies. Overall, though, I recommend it.

Insightful, lively and real.
Nice to see that the cover has been reworked. Still prefere the old one. It captures the essence on the book

The book perhaps deals a little too much with companies and brands that have been arround for many years. I think an analysis of emerging industries would proeve to be more valuble in the fast changing consumer markets. It is easier to review the past and submitt an analysis, do not get me wrong the value of this is emense, but I would like to these good marketing minds put their intellectual capacity to markets that are on the cutting edge both interms of technology but aslo interms of comsumer dynamics.

All in all a must read for Senior Marekting Managers and Director types who continue to not pay attention to the basics as outlined in the book. I work for South Afrca's biggest brewing company and I can vividly relate to some of the follies outlined in the book.

Great Book