Marketing strategy: the right place and the big problem

• Author: Bacanu B.
• Pages: 11-18

Bulletin of the Transilvania University of Braşov

Series V: Economic Sciences • Vol. 8 (57) No. 2 - 2015

Marketing strategy: the right place and the big

problem

Bogdan BCANU1

Abstract: The study explores the use of the marketing strategy concept, guided by the idea

of the original definition of strategy. This definition limits the number of organizational

levels where the concept might apply. This restriction affects the application area of the label

“strategic” in the marketing function. The study is based on logical reasoning associated

with the original content of strategy and with the state of facts in the real world of business.

The reasoning used in the study is similar to the reduction at absurdum approach, used in

mathematics.

Key-words: strategy, marketing strategy, strategic marketing

1. Strategy as a label for something important

„Strategy” and „strategic” are words that enjoy an intense use during the last years.

They are used in the most surprising contexts, starting with scientific claims of a

particular field and ending with the usual ones associated with current activities

marked by banality. In many standard cases the use of the term could be quite

excessive. The benign consequence of this is the creation of vague formulations

associated to the main concept. But more serious is the possibility to create some

confusion related to the basic concepts of strategy that refer to or used in any form

the label „strategic.”

The attribute „strategic” showed an expansion in the common language so

spectacular that it is natural concern that a misuse of the label occur. This feeling is

accentuated by the fact that the label „strategic” is only used as a beacon for what is

intended to be perceived as important. Rumelt (2011) says that the use of this label

became a verbal tic. There is an avalanche of strategic „stuff”, - management,

resources, projects, decisions, and many others- which might create the idea that the

lack of such labeling creates frustration to the ones involved in these „stuff”, thus

getting this particular attribute becomes an implicit objective of their work. Does the

label fit in all cases?

1 Transilvania University of Braşov, b.bacanu@unitbv.ro