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Strategic Wear-Out
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The saying – ‘nothing lasts forever’ – is certainly true of marketing strategy. Care must be taken to avoid strategic wear-out. This occurs when the organisation no longer meets customer needs and the pursued strategy is surpassed by competitors. Davidson (1997) summarises the causes of strategic wear-out.
- Changes in customer requirements
- Changes in distribution systems
- Innovation by competitors
- Poor control of company costs
- Lack of consistent investment
- Ill-advised changes in successful strategy
Future business needs active steps to ensure that your strategy does not ‘wear-out’ and the role strategy formulation is to develop/maintain a marketing orientation. This is based on the premise of defining customer need and prospering through customer satisfaction and loyalty. Sound, general, and financial management should underpin this orientation, and the entire corporate focus should relate to key asset of any business – customers.