..Aiye Aiye General!!

No, this is not an account of a brave general nor it is the diary of a self sacrificing patriotic soldier taking the last order from the General in a bid to save his motherland.Well, I always believe those people standing at the front line of defence at the borders of our motherland have something more than just guts and patriotism to stand there, taking a bullet just for the noble cause that his country men can sleep in peace in their cozy bed, expecting at the most a garland by the political helm of his motherland on his grave or the salute of a few bullets at his death ceremony and a meagre compensation for his bereaved family.Yeh alag baat hain ki the closest look we can have on their sacrifices is through a newspaper report or a Bollywood movie made as a tribute to their noble sacrifice.Well the greatest honour they get at any point in their life is to get the national flag to adorn them before their cremation. An honour no other job can get you, an honour and a feeling I always feel worth dying for.

Well, see this is what happens to me.I am so emotional about this topic that I strayed from my main subject.Let me start of.....the following few paragraphs are my feelings or rather a reflection on the book titled "Marketing Warfare" by El Ries and Jack Trout, a book written in lucid English on a topic which appears to have nothing to do with battles and wars. The world as its seen today has seen and experienced more than 2500 years of war.Yet today in this civilised world of ours where wars are least common(at least those in the open), we have a lot to learn and apply what we have learnt from history of wars, to a profession so plain and noviolent.Only the context has changed.Today market is the battle field, competitor products and consumer the target and a MBA graduate the strategist.General Karl Von Clauswitz is the role model and his principles of handling war is the Bible to successful marketing.The very first quote in the book reflects on the thoughts of a strategist and how well he understood or rather predicted the modern day battlefield in the early half of the twentieth century. In the quote, Karl points out that war is like business or the market as both arises due to conflict of interest between groups of individual. Aiye Aiye ,sir!!!

The principle of force is as much the principal factor in marketing as it is and was in a battle.The leader always has the luxury. All other factors equal, a bigger army always enjoys the upper hand and so does a bigger company.It can spend more on Branding,advertising,R&D and even afford to lose money by reducing cost.It is not that a smaller company stands no chance; its just that it must realise that it cannot take the leader head on nor can it hope to win with notion of a superior product.All boils down to strategy...which depends on the battle ground and the ones own position. In a market, the Leader should always play defensive as it has to maintain its dominance; the second should always play offensive and attack not the others but the leader instead so as to increase market share. After all what can you get from the poor, the rich should be attacked, then one can get maximum ROI.:-)The third should wage a flanking attack against the leaders using a product that can be positioned differently in the market. I guess "Appy Fiz" is just the right example in today's scenario.Its a cold drink but it is neither a juice product , a market dominated by Tropicana and neither is it a cola or an "uncola" product.In a "Maggi Ketchup" way, ...."It's different". I am sure that great positioning and great flanking.
The rest in the market should wage a guerrilla against all.Now whats that.Well ask any Indian in the northeast and they will tell you.Everyday Naxalite guerrilla attacks kill hundreds of innocent people. In simple words, its taking a small segment of a big pie and just concentrating on that with an attitude to move out whenever there are little signs of danger. In today's world,...hmm let me think..I think Tag Heur in watches and Rolls Royce in cars..they just make it for the upper class people; only a select few can afford it.Oh yeah I forgot my favorite, Idea Cellular...wooah...let me explain how I interpret their strategy.They saw the national market already dominated by Hutch and Airtel.They can't stand against them let alone win.Hmm..so what to do..lets take a small segment of market and launch a guerrilla attack.How to segment, the rich the poor..no...the zone.Lets take only Pune and adjoining areas and lets start.They won.Today they are doing whats called line extension in Al Ries' words.I have more ..I remember Reliance did it by attacking the student market segment but they formulated it in a way which in the longer run had cost them a lot.
In every market today we can find all these categories and those who follow these principles are the best strategist and the winners in their own perspective. A true general or a strategist is a shrewd strategist.He is flexible to listen to all opinion and does not have false attitude.He is courageous enough to stand by his decisions and does not play a blame game.After all it's his army;he owns their decisions.A trait displayed by Ajay Devgan in the movie flick Gangajal where he takes the reponsibility of a brutal and henious action by his juniours to punish the criminal.He upholds law above all and says that law is equal for a criminal too and only the designated court has the right to decide the punishment; otherwise we shall return to the days of uncivilization where everyone does what he thinks is right.He is bold and knows the facts and the rules and even how to use them to the best of his advantage.He uses a mix of instinct, knowledge, experience, rules, facts and then leaves it to fate. Well the latter does always have the upperhand...no doubt.. as history says it the minister and the general is more important to the king than the king himself and fate or luck seals the ultimum.So..what say.....