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Organizational transformation comes not from organizational disruption but from creating a strong culture with shared goals and a disciplined approach to problem solving

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Marketing Management, the Big Picture is the only book from business school I keep on my shelf at work.

—Apple Computer Product Manager

Framework > Strategy

The framework approaches strategic marketing as a system where changes in one aspect of the strategic plan affect other aspects, and where strategic decisions have executional ramifications. This interrelatedness of the modules forces a discipline and unity of purpose that results in efficient decision making.

Marketing Objective

The primary goal of the marketing objective module is to balance the resources allocated to customer retention and customer acquisition with the revenues the firm garners from retained vs. acquired customers. By understanding and managing this important relationship between acquisition and retention, the firm can asses the true impact of its resource expenditures. A firm that understands this relationship is therefore in a much better position to optimize the efficiency of its strategic marketing efforts.

Source of Volume

While very often managers use past performance to project future sales, Big Picture-based projections require an understanding of who will purchase the company’s products and why they will do so. Whereas the Marketing Objective module deals with the allocation of resources between acquisition and retention activities, the Source of Volume module deals with specific attitudes and behaviors of customers in regards to our company and the competition. Within the Big Picture, increases in sales can come from growing our category through an increase in primary demand, we call this a stimulate demand strategy, or from taking away customers from competitors or substitute products in adjacent categories, we call this an earn share strategy.

Segmentation

This module presents a pragmatic approach to rationalizing our markets by using just two variables—the main variable, that is, the principal benefit customers seek when purchasing a product or service; and the dynamic variable—or the company’s attribute or benefit which differentiates it vis-á-vis the category leader. If the firm elects to pursue a stimulate demand strategy, it will emphasize the main variable; if it implements a steal share strategy, it will build its execution around the dynamic variable. The approach to segmentation presented here is simpler and much more pragmatic than the traditional approaches to segmentation.