Summary: Bottom-Up Marketing

Review and Analysis of Ries and Trout's Book

BusinessNews Publishing

• Publisher: Must Read Summaries
• Year: 2016
• eBook ISBN: 9782806222688
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Marketing
• Index: Business

The must-read summary of Al Ries and Jack Trout's book: `Bottom-Up Marketing: Building a Tactic into a Powerful Strategy`.

This complete summary of the ideas from Al Ries and Jack Trout's book `Bottom-Up Marketing` shows that traditional marketing is generally carried out top-down. That is, the senior manager decides on a strategy the company will follow and the middle managers decide on the tactics to achieve that strategy. However, this summary highlights that history’s most successful companies have invariably developed strategy from the bottom-up. In this method, the company first identifies a tactic that is delivering a sustainable competitive advantage in the minds of consumers. The company then focuses its resources on exploiting that tactic to the greatest possible degree by building the tactic into the company’s entire marketing strategy. Bottom-up marketing suggests that the best and most effective way to become a marketing strategist is to put your mind into your marketplace and to find inspiration where customers come into contact with your product or service. By immersing yourself in the tactics of whatever works in reality, you can develop a highly effective marketing strategy.

Added-value of this summary: 
• Save time 
• Understand key concepts 
• Increase your business knowledge 

To learn more, read `Bottom-Up Marketing` and carry out your marketing strategies successfully.

Summary of Bottom-Up Marketing (Al Ries & Jack Trout)

1. THE CONCEPT OF BOTTOM-UP MARKETING

Main Idea

The most effective and profitable business strategies are developed from a knowledge of and involvement with the actual tactics of the business itself. Tactics dictate the most effective strategy for a company - not the other way round.

Supporting Ideas

Marketing

In essence, marketing is the strategy of a business. It is the battle of ideas taking place in the minds of potential customers. Whenever your company wins the marketing battle, you gain one more client or customer. When your competition wins, that client or customer buys from someone else.

Tactic

A tactic is an idea, a competitive mental angle which differentiates your product from all others on the market. A tactic is the benefit your customer considers your product delivers better than any other alternative.

Examples of tactics include:

• The U.S. pizza chain Domino’s promises consumers free home delivery of pizza within 30 minutes of ordering. Home delivery is Domino’s tactic to win sales.
• Federal Express offers next day delivery of packages anywhere in the United States. FedEx’s tactic is dependable next day delivery.

Tactics are neither “good” nor “bad” in the real world. They are either effective - they generate sales, or ineffective - more sales could be achieved by using a different tactic.

Strategy

A business strategy is a coherent marketing direction. It is a program developed and run by a company to systematically organize all marketing activities in an effort to maximize sales. In effect, the strategy is the big picture combining all the individual tactics the company may be using to achieve its objectives.

Examples of strategies:

• Christopher Columbus wanted to find a shortcut to India (the strategy) by sailing west from Europe instead of east (the tactic). His strategy was unrealistic, but his tactic resulted in the discovery of a new continent.
• A dedicated surfer Jack O’Neill got tired of being cold while surfing (the strategy) so he developed a wet suit (the tactic) which is the main product of a multimillion dollar company.

A strategy is the big picture (where the company wants to go) while a tactic is the details (what to do to get there).

Strategy develops over a long period of time. For example, a sale is a commonly used retail tactic. A store which runs a sale every day is a discount store - an example of a strategy. The strategy is built on the ongoing specific tactic.

Tactics are communications-based. Strategies are product-, service- or company-based.

Analogy

If a tactic is a nail, strategy is the hammer used to drive the nail home.

The Traditional Top-Down Approach To Marketing

For most companies, the standard approach to developing marketing strategy has usually been:

Step 1:
The senior management meet together and decide a grand strategy for the company.

Step 2:
The middle managers take the strategy and break it down into numerous tactics they hope will be effective.

Step 3:
The company’s front line employees put the tactics into action.

The problems with this top-down approach to marketing are:

1. The senior management of the company are generally the most isolated from the real world of the consumer. They are the most unlikely people in the entire company to be able to understand what customers are thinking.
2. The senior management may dictate a strategy which cannot be efficiently executed. There may be no workable tactics which can successfully achieve the specified strategy.
3. The middle managers may be tempted to provide a comfort level by adopting a number of tactics in th...

Table of contents

• Title page
• Book Presentation
• Summary of Bottom-Up Marketing (Al Ries & Jack Trout)
• About the Summary Publisher
• Copyright