Structural Topic Models

MP#3: All Competitors React à Managing Sustainable Competitive Advantage

No matter how well a firm addresses customer heterogeneity and customer dynamics, competitors will constantly try to copy its success or innovate business processes and offerings to match customers’ needs and desires better. Since all competitors react, through persistent efforts to copy and innovate, marketing managers must constantly work at building and maintaining barriers to competitive attacks. Managers build sustainable competitive advantages that are relevant for a specific target segment, by building high-quality brands, delivering innovative offerings, and developing strong customer relationships.

MP#4: All Resources Are Limited à Managing Resource Trade-offs

Most marketing decisions require trade-offs across multiple objectives, because the resources available to address these needs often are interdependent and limited. When marketing strategies allocate spending to brand advertising, or innovating new products, or expanding the sales organization to build stronger relationships, they often rely on the same fixed resource pool. A firm only has so many resources, so important trade-offs are unavoidable. Managing resources optimally is critical; marketing resources provide the levers to implement what the firm learns from the first three Marketing Principles.