Marketing as a strategy

Today, the traditional face of business is seriously changing.

Industrial production has already ceased to be mass. No one bets in business on large batches of the same type of goods anymore. Now it is more important to focus on making a small number of products tailored to the needs of a particular consumer. Purchasing has become a supply chain, and the finance department today is mostly concerned with how a company’s activities affect the stock price of its shares.
Therefore, it is not surprising that there is an increasing desire to take a fresh look at marketing. Business leaders cannot get a clear answer to the question of the impact of marketing on company performance. Sam Wanamaker’s old adage that half of his advertising spend will produce results, but he doesn’t know which one, still resonates with managers. Consider the following facts:
• 80% of new FMCG products fail.
• A 30-second US Super Bowl commercial, the contents of which few now remember, cost $2 million.
• Mass mailing lists average 1-2% of responses.
• Sellers are ready for the fact that 8 out of 10 potential buyers will refuse their services.

Nirmalia Kumar does not so much openly criticize the actions of today’s marketers, but gives a clear program for the leader, which can significantly improve the practice of marketing. Kumar encourages companies to create value and find solutions for customer needs, rather than dumping products and promises on their heads. He believes that marketers need to understand the culture and all aspects of their company, from finance to supplier relationships. Marketers must work together with all departments of the company. Marketing will not bring worthy results if some department of the company is unable to focus on the needs of consumers. Thus, Procter & Gamble Corporation has achieved significant results not due to its achievements in the field of marketing, but only because all its activities are aimed at the client.
Companies should use their marketing potential more actively. After all, much of it is centered around brand value and relationships with customers, employees, retailers, distributors, and dealers. Marketers must add value to these intangible assets. Boards of directors need to judge the performance of companies not only in terms of financial performance, but also take into account achievements in marketing. These include customer satisfaction, customer trust, lost customers, and customer preference for the value of your company’s offerings over competitors. If these figures start to fall, financial achievements will also inevitably creep to zero.

Marketers today face new challenges.

Their clients have little time, but a lot of information. Customers expect good products and first-class services, good service, low prices and higher quality for the money spent and the effort made. New distribution channels emerge, old ones merge, and competitors appear around the world with lower prices for goods and services, and often better quality.
Ironically, the marketing departments of companies lag behind other departments and lose specialists, while marketing becomes the main driving force on the road to company success. Managers should view the marketing component as the basis for corporate strategy. Everything starts and ends with the client. As Peter Drucker said, “The goal of a company is to create a customer… The only core of profit is the customer… A business has only two roads to success: marketing and innovation. It is they who work for the result, and everything else multiplies the costs.


Kumar presents a fascinating system for analyzing and planning a marketing strategy based on the “three Vs” – customer value, value proposition and value network (“three Vs”: valued customer, valued proposition, value network). With eloquent examples, he shows how to create an effective success strategy based on diagrams of the corresponding value curves and value networks.
Kumar analyzes issues such as an avalanche of similar products, price pressures, and the rise of global retail chains in the marketplace. He argues that companies need to better manage their individual brands and improve the brand portfolio as a whole. Each chapter of the book concludes with poignant questions that executives can’t improve their company’s marketing performance without candid answers.
Professor Kumar’s concept, which opens a new page in the theory and practice of marketing, goes beyond the usual understanding.