Free Sun Zu Passages And Marketing Industry Essay Sample

Sun Zu was a military leader, a strategist and a philosopher of war. His most accredited part of work was through his book titled 'The Art of War'. Sun Zu had a great significance in Chinese and Asian history, but his work has continued to get popular in the Western society. His strategies and philosophical views addressed in his book, The Art of War are used by politicians and business managers. The great obstacle to Sun Zu's work was to translate his book to another language since he wrote The Art of War in the Chinese language. Sun Zu's strategies can be used as marketing tools in businesses as the paper will address.

Gagliardi (2010) addresses the issue of ethics as a strategy for competition in relation to the work of Sun Zu. To Sun Zu ethical behavior is the foundation for successful competition in businesses. When businesses are competing they develop strategies that fit in all functional areas. Therefore, while businesses are marketing their products they will engage in some level of competition. According to Sun Zu businesses that react to competitive situations through engaging in conflict with their counterparts are doomed to defeat. Direct conflicts are costly and therefore businesses should use strategies to position themselves. Sun Zu sees success as advancing business position, restrain from costly marketing conflicts and enhancing the business market share.

Ethical issues should be considered as the basis for establishing strategies in businesses. While competing, businesses should not be aggressive because only a well defined strategy is a tool for success in marketing. Strategies should be based on a common philosophy because when people within the same setting share a common philosophy they are more united and focused. The marketing strategies used for competing should be given an ethical consideration both to other businesses and the consumers. Businesses should note that aggressive marketing and competition strategies are very costly and they might not win out of them.

Another passage of Sun Zu that could be applied to the marketing industry is attacking businesses without destroying them. Marketing managers should come up with strategies that will promote their products and increase sales and profits but at the same time such strategies should not destroy other businesses in the industry. Marketing strategies that may destroy an industry include: price reduction, high technology, aggressive promotion and increased innovation among others (Mohr et al 2009).        

The best strategy within a marketing industry is to acquire more consumers of your products without destroying the industry. Sun Zu termed this as the need for a military group to win all without fighting. The goal of a marketing industry is to grow by increasing the market share and prosper. It is important therefore to market your products in a proper way so that the industry is not destroyed. The marketing industry can capture its consumers without destroying itself by increasing its involvement in areas that are under served or by attacking indirectly. It is also important to strategize in the most appropriate way to avoid capturing the attention of the competitors. In relation to business, it is noted that price changes attract the highest level of response from competitors.

One marketing strategy that can destroy the industry is when one business lowers price for its product. If a business has managed to reduce costs it should consider other businesses that might still be operating at high costs. Due to reduction in costs such a business may consider lowering the price for its product compared to product prices in other businesses. When prices are lowered consumers will tend to buy more of the products of that particular business. This means that the rest of the businesses in the industry may have relatively lower sales. To the extreme such businesses may be forced out of the industry which is an adverse effect since it reduces ideas of been innovative and responsive to consumer behavior.

Another principle or passage is that leadership in businesses should be based on character. Sun Zu in his book The Art of War provided character and leadership as a principle to be applied in military. From this, businesses use this principle as a marketing tool since employees in marketing departments need a person they can trust. Leaders should be strict and brave so that they can protect their people. Leaders should possess a character that the people they are leading can emulate from. According to Sun Zu leaders should be intelligent, of good character, and be able to plan and succeed since he is under control of employees.

In marketing industry, a leader should be able to analyze the industry and the businesses inside it to come up with marketing strategies that are viable. A leader should be brave enough to enter into risky marketing innovations. Innovations require a high level of risk taking; hence a leader should be brave enough to exploit these innovations. When the person leading the marketing team is strict, strategies developed will be followed strictly to meet the goals. In addition, a leader in the marketing team should have ample knowledge in the field of marketing. This is important because the people he is leading will rely on him to make rational and effective decisions in many situations (Chow and Hee 2010).

The forth passage as provided by Sun Zu is to react swiftly and increase speed by been prepared. Sun Zu argument was that speed should not be taken to mean taking things hastily, but it requires been prepared to respond to any changes that will affect you. In the military, fighters are required to have new and efficient weapons, make quick decisions and create routes that their opponents do not know of. It is also important to know what will be the reaction of the opponent if one took a certain direction or came up with a new way of doing things or different strategies.

In the marketing industry, being the first to market or promote your product does not necessarily mean that it will achieve a high number of consumers relative to the rest of the businesses. It is important for the marketing industry to be prepared on how it is going to handle success. This is because if the marketing industry is not ready to handle the success it may be outwitted by consumer demand. Therefore, there is a link between success and preparedness in marketing industry. The marketing industry should be prepared enough to the rise in consumer demand by producing and delivering its products much faster than before.

McNeilly (1996) adds that another passage of Sun Zu that can be applied in marketing industry is the use of the use of business knowledge to maximize the power of intelligence in your industry. According to Sun Zu, the military should know who their enemy. The military should know the weaknesses and the strengths of the enemy so that it can strategize on these. Sun Zu advised the military to focus on attacking the weaker points of its enemies because they will defeat them through this. The enemy might be using the old weapons; therefore this can be seen as a weakness to them if the military will focus on the use of newly developed weapons.

In marketing industry the managers should know the weaknesses and the strengths of its competitors. While linking this to Sun Zu passage, it is important for such a manager to use the competitor's weaknesses as its strengths. To have knowledge and be able to exploit a competitor's weaknesses requires a high level of understanding of the competitor's strategies, capabilities and aspirations and compare this with the marketing industry weaknesses and strengths. It is essential to have an understanding of the general weaknesses and strengths that are within the industry, that is, common weaknesses and strengths between the marketing industry and its competitors. The strategies of the marketing industry should be held confidential from the competitors.

As highlighted above Sun Zu passages can be linked to businesses to offer guidance on what kind of strategies it can develop to remain at an upper edge compared to its competitors. According to Sun Zu, in his book The Art of War, he advises the military on how to win an enemy in a fight through the use of key points. Business scholars used these points to formulate principles that can be used in businesses such as marketing industries. These principles include: capturing market without destroying, attacking competitor's weaknesses, and business knowledge, character in leadership, speed and preparedness. These principles guide businesses in formulation of relevant strategies to outwit competitors, improve market share, increase sales and profitability.

 

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