I gave away copies of the 1986 version, alongside Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind: How to Be Seen and Heard in the Overcrowded Marketplace. Together, they were my introduction to the concepts of Guerilla Marketing. No pair of books were more useful to me in my career in Direct Marketing. I read several others by Al Reis and Jack Trout and none wasted my time.

I haven't read the anniversary edition. I look forward to doing so.

The book focuses on strategy more that marketing. It classifies firms into leader, challenger and follower and suggests strategies for the same - defender for the leader, offensive for challenger, and guerrilla for the follower. It beautifully lays down how one can find weakness in other's strength ( classic example being Coca Cola with caffeine vs 7UP, broiled vs fried). Taking 3 major industries - Cola, Burgers and Computers, it shows how the universal concepts can be applied to any given company. But it is in contrast to what the blue ocean strategy suggests. It necessitates that one has to treat business like warfare, and that collective growth is impossible.

В русской версии еще и Кутузов есть. Мыло что запомнилось дельного, сравнивается военная стратегия с бизнесовой.

GOLD

War analogies never get old, especially when applied in the right context. At first, I thought the book was a pun on how companies are literally "fighting" under the pretext of marketing; but the book explores the strategic underplay in action which is insightful indeed. A crash course in understanding market behavior.

Sound strategies but it is so out of date it is hard to take seriously.

A really INTERESTING business book. Breathtaking story of Coca Cola vs Pepsi, Bud vs Miller, McDonald's vs Burger King, Ford vs GM epic battles. And the story of IBM vs Apple from the heart of that exact battle. Never thought that business literature could be so much exciting. Now I love marketing as much as I love history.

One of the best books I've read on marketing wars. Though the book is the depiction of historical scenarios, The cola war, the beer war and the burger wars have been very insightful. The connection of marketing concepts with war strategies is an amazing step to making marketers understand the importance of marketing values and methods.
The beer war clearly defines the strategies adopted by brands like Hieneken, Budweiser and Miller.
The book also puts forth the concepts of frontal attacks, flanking and guerilla marketing tactics in such a simple and elegant manner that it becomes very easy to grasp.

So, I read this book just after reading Blue Ocean Strategy and also watching a video by Jack Trout (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5-d1...), so that I could get the exact philosophy of Jack Trout about marketing. I would recommend others to do the same and watch the video before going into the perspective of Jack Trout for marketing, it's helpful. ;-)

At first, I thought that this book will have a very different perspective from Blue Ocean Strategy, because, in Blue Ocean Strategy marketing was not looked at like a war, but the most of the focus was on differentiation and low cost for building and marketing a product or service. But when I read the book Marketing Warfare, I came to realize that Jack Trout also focused the most on differentiation and taking the niche areas to achieve before going and attacking the Industry Leader Organization.

I guess in that the name "Marketing Warfare" was a bit misleading to me.
Otherwise, the book was helpful in terms of conveying the thought of Markets/Opportunities as "Mountains" or "High Grounds", and also how, military strategies totally fit into the world of marketing.

Jack Trout very clearly explains the types of warfares in four ways, "Offensive Warfare", "Defensive Warfare", "Flanking Warfare" and "Guerilla Warfare". He shows how each type of warfare is suitable for organizations of different sizes and also for the growth of the organizations who are already at the leader's position.

I would recommend this book for the people who are trying to get an insight into how the marketing world looks like and also the way a marketing manager should be thinking.

all i can say for this book.....AWESOME!!

(Relativt) simpel med gode pointer.

An excellent way of looking at the role of marketing in today's business world. Exceptionally interesting and written very well, it's one of the few marketing books I wasn't immediately bored by. This one isn't written like a text book. Enjoy!