The Marketing Playbook: Five Battle-Tested Plays for Capturing and Keeping the Leadin Any Market

For those directly (or even indirectly) involved in their organization's marketing initiatives, what Zagula and Tong offer in this volume can be very helpful. They introduce and then rigorously examine what they call "five battle-tested plays for capturing and keeping the lead in any market." Use of "any" is an exaggeration because, of course, it is imperative to market whatever one offers only where potential is greatest for sufficiently profitable sales. Zagula and Tong duly note that "no matter what the play, if you're running it on the wrong field or with the wrong resources, it just won't work." In marketing as in thoroughbred racing, "there are courses for horses." Also, different situations require different "plays." Here are the five which Zagula and Tong offer for consideration: The Drag Race: "In some circumstances, your best bet calls for singling out one competitor and putting the pedal to the metal racing against them to win." Comment: Endorsed by Henry V, the Russian forces at Balaclava, and Crazy Horse and his Oglala Sioux warriors...but not by the French forces at Agincourt, Lord Cardigan and the Light Brigade, and the Seventh Cavalry under Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer's command at the Little Big Horn. The Platform Play: Once dominant, develop strategic alliances and strengthen position because "you never know from where a new challenger is likely to emerge." Comment: Obviously, the strategy and tactics are almost wholly defensive. This allows time to consolidate, train, refresh, obtain and evaluate competitive intelligence, and in all other appropriate ways anticipate threats to dominance. The Stealth Play: As you gather resources and complete preparations, whittle away at the incumbent's weak points. However, never forget that "big, dumb, slow companies can still squish you." Comment: An excellent strategy for organizations with severely limited resources. Margins for error are razor-thin. The "big, dumb, slow companies" can afford to carpet bomb. Be a sniper. Carefully read Sun Tzu's The Art of War, especially the chapter on Estimates. Also Jason Jennings' Think Big, Act Small. The The Best-of-Both Play: Rather than focus on compromises ("trade-offs") at both the high and low ends of the given market, gain dominance over the entire category "by collapsing these two ends. If you appeal to the most important needs of each segment of the market, you can win them all." Comment: Huge "if" because, when attempting to appeal to all market segments, you could lose in competition for dominance in any one of them. High-Low Play: Try to close out the competition by splitting the given category and thereby owning both. "This is the hardest play to manage, but if it's done right, you'll achieve high volumes and high margins at the same time." Comment: An even greater "if." Any summary such as this fails to establish for any one "play" the extensive context within which Zagula and Tong carefully explain the relative adv

This is a great book that looks at marketing from a practical real world point of view.For the people complaining about the book go buy a kotler book or something.These guys were real excutives doing real marketing in a real company.

In business schools they always teach you the tools of marketing (tactics)... such as pricing, promotion, advertising, positioning... But they do not teach the reasoning behind using these tools... This book gives you 5 different marketing strategies for creating a profitable business... As Sun Tzu said " Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat." This book gives you the strategic vision of marketing... If you are looking for tactics go and buy a Philip Kotler book... Nobody gave the position of Microsoft to these guys free... You may not like the products of Microsoft but this does not change the reality of their business success... As business people if we can digest the success of others easily... then we do not need to label marketing a very hard discipline... indeed it is not... and the writers are rigth... there are only 5 big plays available in the big picture but it is our wisdom to make combinations out of these plays for creating significant value for all of our stakeholders... One more reminder: This book is for people who are making strategic decisions... Not the people who are waiting practical recipes to sell some items... Please think about the difference between marketing and sales before buying/reading this book...

The authors, using their Microsoft experience, offer five strategies for marketing products and services. Their book sees marketing as a team sport that requires five plays to create a winning campaign. The five plays: 1. The Drag Race - Pick a single competitor to which to compare yourself. Then put everything into beating it. 2. The Platform Play - Ignore the competition. Focus on being a platform from which the entire industry can succeed. Make it easy and profitable to do business for others to partner and do business with you. 3. The Stealth Play - Focus on a specific niche where you can build your strength unnoticed. Peacefully co-exist with market leaders. Remember to stay out of the way of big competitors who can squish the life out of you. 4. The Best-of-Both Play - Dominate a category by collapsing both high- and low-end product into a single offer. This strategy allows customers to have it both ways. 5. The High-Low Play - The opposite of point #4. With this play to squeeze the competition by dominating both the high and low end. To succeed, say the authors, who spent years as marketing executives at Microsoft launching successful brands and marketing popular product lines, you must do your homework. That means looking at the history, seeing the industry as it is today, and looking for levers to create dynamic openings. The authors have written a readable book. Its conversational tone makes it a useful resource for marketers at both large and small companies.

I've had the benefit of seeing John's strategies in action first hand. When we first started Intelligent Results, John personally worked with us to establish our market strategy and tune it as our technology vision and understanding of our target market developed. Having his unique approach to marketing summarized in an accessible, humorous and pragmatic book is a huge benefit to any startup. I highly recommend it for anyone who's considering a new business, or who's attempting to bring new products to market.