Marketing Warfare Strategies

Marketing warfare strategies are competitor-centered strategies borrowed from the field of military science and applied in a marketing context. According to Rindfleisch, advocates of this approach suggest that both marketing and the military are very similar, and both fields share “(i) two or more opposing forces; (ii) competition for a limited and valuable resource; (iii) a zero-sum orientation in which gains come at the expense of competitor losses; and (iv) defined rules of engagement in which one competitor attacks while the opposing defends.” This approach was popular in the 1980s, whereas in the current era of relationship marketing this approach has become less relevant. Also, an increased awareness of differences between business and military organizational cultures raises questions of the applicability of military strategies in a business context.

Keywords: competitor-centered strategies; marketing strategy; organizational culture; relationship marketing