Analogies between marketing and war

Are military practices (Tactics and Strategy) comparable or applicable in the field of business and marketing?

Foreword

Today, many authors, marketing and business gurus, entrepreneurs, and university professors strive to make a constant analogy between the Tactics and Strategies that companies use, with the practices of military warfare.

We can find hundreds of notes and various cases to cite as examples; Without going any further, there is a monograph that is part of the preliminary research body carried out for this work, which talks about the strategic wars (with their managers as captains and generals) established between the different AFJPs that operate in Argentina and punctually in the Córdoba city. There are books that analyze the application of Military Strategy and Tactics in the Business field and in everyday life itself; As an example of these, we could name the Best Seller written by the former president of Pepsi - USA, Roger Enrico, who he called The War of the Tails, in which he tells how he became a young warrior who incited, invited and took the entire Organization into battle,taking advantage of the opportunity when his main enemy was asleep.

Nowadays it is very common to hear people talk about: "conquering markets", positioning themselves, attacking competition or defending against it, carrying out marketing intelligence (information, espionage), etc. Words like Strategy and Tactics have become of general and daily use and have application in various fields, which does not mean that they were not used or were not used before, on the contrary, they have an ancient reputation, only in the technological world, Computerized and globalized today, where knowledge is one of the main sources of power, competitiveness, professionalism and the correct use of tactical and strategic planning have become essential for the survival of Organizations.

In short, the interaction between all these variables has brought with it the indiscriminate increase in competition (sometimes bloody) between Companies and other Organizations, who fight for the loyalty or loyalty of a much more up-to-date, demanding and informed consumer. At this stage of events, it is no longer enough to differentiate yourself through the correct use and management of marketing tools (that of the philosophy focused on customer needs), nor with providing a very good service… today, all those Companies that want to survive do so, even instinctively, by focusing on their competitors.

This new reality reflects that Marketing and Business today (and possibly in the future), are much more focused on the movements and information on the competition than on the client itself, which does not imply neglecting it. On the contrary, what is sought is to win the battle from the competitor (if possible make it disappear), occupy the best possible strategic position in the minds of customers and maintain it over time through different tactics. Strategic planning and action become essential when trying to win the difficult battle for loyalty and the mind of the consumer or potential consumer, as will be shown later.

With this work, the aim is to increase the existing documentation regarding the subject under study, providing an objective vision as far as possible of one of the many perceptions that exist in the world of Marketing and Business. Also carry out an analysis on the meaning of Tactic and Strategy for a company, as well as discover the variables that increased the level of competitiveness among Organizations AND explain the analogy between the world of Business and the military field.

At the end of the monograph, they will try to clarify the reasons that lead to "war" for the different companies or organizations and, if possible, avoid them. And the opinions of the different authors and their interpreters will be contrasted, who have relied on the former to write different notes in this regard.

Prussian General and Writer 1780 - 1831

The paradigm shift (variables that drive it)

It is a common denominator and only a coincidence, (it is worth clarifying), that there is a consensus among the authors consulted to carry out this monograph that the world is undergoing a constant transformation. Some of them allege that all this "change" began after World War II and others say that it was during the War, with the explosion of Telecommunications and the rapid advancement of Technology.

In short, decades more or decades less, all of them agree that change exists and that it is increasingly vertiginous and difficult to accompany. The world becomes complex and the information and the variables that are handled when making decisions are increasingly numerous, thus increasing the level of general uncertainty.

According to Alvin Toffler: «As a result of all this, change itself has come to be seen as anarchic, even lunatic.

In contrast, this trilogy starts from the premise that today's ultrafast changes are not as chaotic or random as we have been led to believe. "

Technology, Communication and Globalization, in the Age of Knowledge

These important variables are decisive when it comes to analyzing the paradigm shift that the contemporary world is going through, the ever faster advance of technology brought with it the no less impressive explosion of telecommunications and information traffic, and with everything This reduces the cultural, economic, financial, social borders, etc., between the different countries of the world.

In this way, the concept of "Globalization", which according to different theorists is not new, ended up closing a cycle to start a new one.

As an example we can paraphrase Toffler, who in his book tells us about the fall of the Industrial Age and the birth and growth of the Knowledge Age, which denotes a new way of exercising power through correct management of the information.

In other words, the power of force and money pass in that order to a third and second plane, to assume that said power rests today on its strongest leg and the most genuine source, knowledge.

From this perspective and always under the concept resulting from Globalization, which broadens the battlefield taking it from the local to the international level, we can begin to explain how and why the different participants, call them Government or Non-Profit Organizations, Companies and / o People, develop their tactics, strategies and plans in pursuit of the fulfillment of their objectives and goals that in most cases overlap with those of their peers, thus generating all kinds of conflicts and tensions.

2. Fierce competition, fierce customer

The entire scenario presented above allows us to carry out an analysis of the new war that has been unleashed between the different actors of this young and changing world system.

From a more generalized perspective, but always focusing on Organizations and their leaders, Alvin Toffler does not hesitate to name (in the third of his works already mentioned above) such persons, legal and physical, as "The Business Guerrilleros" since they must face not only a fierce competition, but also the more informed and demanding consumers, suppliers and employees; among other contenders in the bid for power management.

“We are living in moments in which the entire power structure that held the world together disintegrates, and another, radically different one, is taking shape. And it is doing it in each and every one of the levels in which we had stratified human society ».

The rules of the game have changed, they change, and they will continue to do so faster and faster, almost in a dizzying way, and organizations, as well as the people who run them, must be prepared and flexible enough to accept and accept them.

Marketing and Business Reengineering

The very popular, Jack Trout and Al Ries, classic gurus and authors of several Marketing books, also talk about this change in their book "Marketing de Guerra" and how the Business sector has undergone considerable transformations as the global scene was developing and its rules changing.

They say:

«Rhetoric aside, it is clear that Marketing is entering a new era, an era that will make the sixties or seventies seem like a school picnic. Competition becomes brutal; The name of the game has changed, it is now: <> ».

In the same way, renowned theorists equally oriented towards the branch of Administration (Business), such as the Japanese Kenichi Ohmae, the Swedish naturalized North American Peter Drucker, the French Jean Jacques Lambin or the American Michael Porter (among others), they do not hesitate to accompany and proclaim through their numerous books this theory on business or organizational metamorphosis.

According to their concepts, Marketing and contemporary Businesses need a constant change in philosophy, a restructuring of priorities, that is, a reengineering that allows the company to defend itself from the incessant attack of competitors or attack them when appropriate, that allows you to better serve your customers, reduce the greatest amount of costs and obtain the maximum possible benefit, while still serving external pressure groups; as a being, the social group in which the company is inserted and to which it owes with resources in exchange for the goods sold.

All these variables cannot and should not be taken care of at random, they need a Strategy, a well thought-out Plan, Tactics and a Commander General or Strategist who takes the Organization in the established direction (whether this is the correct one or not).

Such was what Roger Enrico did with Pepsi USA when he decided to initiate an intelligent attack against his main enemy Coca Cola Company almost two decades ago and that to this day remains and from which Coca Cola has still not been able to recover.

3. From consumer to competitor

“Since World War II, the consumer has been the supreme king in the world of marketing. However, one begins to believe that the consumer king is dead, and that marketing experts have been selling a corpse to management.

Despite the aforementioned, saying that today you should stop looking, studying or pampering customers would be a total fallacy and would surely bankrupt any organization that did so. We simply want to make it clear that the focus of business tactical and strategic planning should be on the competition today. In what the enemy does and knows.

Today more and more companies provide similar products and services, with similar standards, making it more difficult to differentiate through them. For this reason, more than ever, you must take advantage of the weaknesses of others to achieve better positions in the market and this is nothing more than knowing how to reallocate the scarce and necessary resources of the corporation in the most efficient way to exploit one hundred percent. one hundred the strengths of it.

Everything is part of the new rules of the game, the change of philosophy in the business environment does not imply that the consumer, who is the recipient of the products and services that the company offers and who provides the necessary resources, will be left out. to live.

The concept is simple, globalization and all its variables make the ways or the ways to achieve the proposed goals (such as winning the battle), are different and increasingly difficult to navigate or follow, but the ultimate goal remains the same… satisfy the wishes of the demand better than our competitor, with the implicit purpose that it returns to us.

4. Times of war (tactics, strategy and planning)

Yes… surviving day to day in these times is very similar to a war, or to a jungle, or at best to a competitive match of Football or Rugby. It is a constant fight that does not lose the character of competition, professionalism and militarism. Writer Lewis Carroll has already said it: «To stay where you are, you have to run as fast as you can. And if you want to go somewhere else, you should run at least twice as fast ».

The fight to obtain strategic ground in the minds of consumers or in the market is fierce and the one who falls asleep on the road, even if only for a short period of time, in this demanding and wild global world, can dawn cut throat or in the most optimistic hypothetical situation, robbed.

To avoid such a situation, we should compare the ideal image of Business with the way a shark rests, if they read correctly… this fascinating fish is the only one in the sea that does not have a swim bladder, which is why when it sleeps, it continues swimming, otherwise he dies drowned by the inability to pass oxygen through his gills…

In the same way as the shark, the company must not stop moving, it must be proactive and, if possible, anticipate change. For this, their leaders and strategists must have accurate and updated information on the battlefield and all its variables to be able to make the most accurate decisions and to develop the tactical-strategic planning to follow.

«What more evident parallel than the one that exists between the Queronea case and a well-developed adequate business strategy that, as a first phase, prescribes penetrating to investigate and, then, withdrawing to determine the forces of the opponents, forcing them to excel their commitments, and then finalize the resources, attack the open field, overwhelm a previously chosen segment of the market, establish defensive positions within that market, and finally regroup to immediately expand from that base, to dominate a broader field? Many companies have followed such strategies with great success. ”

«The Competitor backs down, we advance…»

It is difficult and in most cases not convenient to take a company to war, since there is a serious risk of losing its most valuable resources, and although this may sound paradoxical, especially due to the times of high global competition that they breathe, each movement carried out by the organization must be millimetrically planned. In a few words, The Tactic and the Strategy acquire a primordial importance, even more than the war itself.

Ralph D. Sawyer, a prominent businessman, author of several books and publications, alleges in his work entitled "The Art of War" that this should be avoided by all means. His proposal is to win without fighting a battle.

To achieve this there are different Tactics; such as: disrupting the plans of the enemies, breaking up their strategic alliances, etc. These actions imply the planning of a strong intelligence strategy, since the author thinks that to engage in combat is always the last alternative and only when the company is faced with an extreme threat and when victory is certain.

At the same time, Toffler tells us about "The Lightning Wars of the Companies" and says: "In this new and complex flow, companies can use extra-intelligence to launch surprise attacks in a territory that they had not previously beaten, which it means that companies can no longer be sure where the new competitive assault will come from. ”

From a slightly more warlike and aggressive point of view, Trout and Ries write: «Today, to be successful, the company must focus on the competitor. You must look for weak points in the positions of your competitors and then launch Marketing attacks against those points.

These two authors, who have based their book on the thoughts of Karl Von Clausewitz (Prussian general who wrote the famous book De La Guerra, published in 1832), think that as corporations experiment with different ways of increasing sales they turn to each Once more to war strategies, thus increasing the level of competitiveness and conflict in the scenario or sector in which they operate.

In conclusion, we can say that despite certain conceptual differences, we found some coincidences between the different books analyzed. For example, for the majority of the authors, the study of resource management must be precise so as not to fall into an irreversible loss when establishing combat, that is, the management of logistics must be efficient.

They also consider that you can not fight all your life continuously, the idea is to try to conquer ground and through intelligent strategies, maintain it (and that is perhaps the most difficult).

Furthermore, they agree that attacks should be short, fast and surprising, and above all, with the least possible loss of resources.

"Much better are fast, lightning-type blows, which depend more on time than on force (what the Germans call Blitzkrieg). It is not that the principle of force is not important, quite the contrary; but, unless an attack is properly planned, the advantage will be lost if the battle is allowed to degenerate into a war of attrition.

Finally, many people may disagree with the direct application or analogy made between military principles and marketing or business, or with any other aspect of everyday life, but the setting and change that occurs in the Today's world demands it.

The historical study of war is not only an analysis of how to win, but it is also just as important to know how not to lose.

Perhaps Marketing is a war, where competition is the enemy, and the objective is to win the battle. In war you win by mocking, flanking and overwhelming the enemy. The territory that is acquired is only a reflection of the ability to do these things. Why should Marketing be different? Currently, the real nature of Marketing is the conflict between corporations, and not the satisfaction of human needs and desires. If human needs and wants are satisfied by the process of business competition, then for reasons of public interest the competition must continue. But it should not be forgotten what is the fundamental essence of Marketing ».

5. Tactical and strategic planning

It is important to emphasize that the focus of this monograph is not on the war itself (nor does it pretend to justify it), but rather that it focuses on the military practices that can be applied in the different areas of daily life as a result of the new conditions proposed by the world today.

It has simply tried to show and coordinate, in the most objective way possible, the reality of the world in recent decades, perceived from the experienced eyes of the different authors consulted.

So, we can say that what the proposed reality indicates to us is that we cannot fail to observe the importance that Tactical and Strategic Planning acquires in companies, as a professional tool that allows us to reduce uncertainty when making decisions.

Let's not forget that the general context has been changing faster and faster over the years, as well as the number of variables that companies must try to control.

"Tactics can arise at any level. They are short-lived realignments, are adjustable, and assume the action and interaction that opposing forces use to achieve specific goals after their initial contact. The strategy defines a continuing basis for focusing those adjustments toward more broadly conceived purposes. A genuine strategy is always necessary when the potential actions or responses of an intelligent opponent can substantially affect the desired result, regardless of the overall nature of the company's activities. "

Tactic and Strategy go hand in hand, one cannot exist without the other. The difference lies in the fact that the first of these are specific actions that are applied in the short term and the second is a way to continue thought in the long term and taking into account the variables of the context, especially that of the competition.

It is impossible to deny that military terminology and thought has spread to other sectors of society and that its methods are increasingly applied to different "civil affairs", such as business management. As an example we can once again quote Trout and Ries who say: «The best marketing book is not the work of a Harvard professor. Nor from any distinguished contributor to General Motors, General Electric, or even Procter & Gamble. We think that the best work on marketing is the one written by a Prussian general in his retirement days, Karl Von Clausewitz ”.

To conclude, it remains for us to say that after the documentation presented and to which they can be sent, it is concluded that planning, tactics and strategy do not escape the sphere of business and are in common use among authors that have been consulted. All of them renowned in the sector in question.

6. Bibliography