Simply put, it is the overlap of three circles.

The first circle is the passionate dream of the enterprise, which we call "what we want to do".

This doesn't need much explanation. But in reality, many enterprises only make their own strategies based on "what they want to do", which is obviously too hasty.

The second circle is the innate gene of the enterprise, which we call "can do".

Enterprise growth and personal growth are the same. Different innate genes lead to different fields of expertise, and the development direction is of course different.

Pan Changjiang should not insist on learning to play basketball, otherwise it will not be easy to succeed, and it will be easy to be trampled and injured by Yao Ming.

On the other hand, Yao Ming should not learn diving. It's not difficult for others to spin in the air for two and a half weeks, three weeks, or even "a month", while Yao Ming may hit the audience with one spin.

Domestic enterprises are willing to "flock" strategy and blindly copy what others call advanced theories and successful experiences.

As soon as the channel is king, everyone will try their best to build a network. As soon as the brand is king, they will try their best to advertise. When it comes to in-depth distribution, the market will sink, and the strategies will converge, and everyone's model standards will be chaotic. In the end, we can only squeeze on a wooden bridge to fight price wars.

This is due to the failure to play their own genetic advantages.

The third circle is the development trend of the industry, which we call "feasible".

If the first two circles are from inside the enterprise and the third circle is from outside, consider the direction and growth space of the industry.

In the mid-1990s, BP machine manufacturers were in full swing, but due to the influence of the upgrading of mobile phone technology, the whole BP machine industry finally died out. Only a few of them have successfully transformed and survived.

In other words, besides what you "want to do" and "can do", it depends on whether the future environment allows it.

Marketing strategy should be forward-looking and ahead of time, which is the same as people speculating in stocks and real estate. When "fools make money", you will find that you have become a fool.

To sum up, the marketing strategy is the overlapping part of the three circles of "what do you want to do", "what can you do" and "what can you do". This part is very small, but it is what enterprises really need, and we call it "what you should do".

So, how to find out what enterprises should do?

The author puts forward four ways of explanation and has the right to make a statement.

First of all, don't mistake tactics for strategy.

The biggest difference between strategy and tactics is that the former can form a huge resultant force.

Simply put, it is to gather the strength of R&D, production, logistics, marketing and other departments to fight a vigorous annihilation war at the same time and in the same space.

This can be expressed by the "Lanchester Square Principle" in management.

The Lanchester Square principle originated from the application of pilots' tactics in World War II. Japanese scholars later applied it to marketing, and Professor koopman and Dr Deming in the United States developed it into a strategic model of business competition.

Give a simple example.

Suppose there are three red divisions and one black division on the battlefield, and the fighting capacity of each division is basically the same. If the decisive battle, of course, is the victory of the red side, but the problem is that the red side has wiped out all the enemies, how many divisions will be left?

On this issue, marketing CEOs have different intuitive judgments.

Some people say it's still the third division. This is obviously wrong. As the old saying goes, "Kill 10,000 enemies and lose 3,000". You can't have nothing.

Some say there are only two divisions left. This is probably wrong. If it is such a simple question as 3- 1=2, there is no need to discuss it at all.

Others say that there is only one division left, which is even more wrong. You three hit one of them, and ended up dead more than others, a little timid.

Even more ridiculous is that there are four divisions. That must be to surrender the opponent, which belongs to the ideological and political work well done, not to mention the discussion.

"Lanchester Square Principle" indicates that there should be 2.8 divisions. In other words, the red side only lost 0.2 divisions and wiped out all the enemies.

In other words, the fighting capacity is square with the number of troops. Subtract the square of 1 from the square of 3 to get 8, which is roughly equal to the square of 2.8.

In other words, if the red side still has three divisions and the black side has six divisions, the red side can not only destroy the enemy's six divisions at a time, but also have more than one and a half divisions even without additional troops.

This is the charm of strategy. Why did the Red Army defeat the enemy 10 times in the third and fourth counter-campaigns against "encirclement and suppression"? Why did the People's Liberation Army defeat 800,000 with 600,000 in the Huaihai Campaign, and 550,000 of them directly wiped out the enemy?

It is a successful embodiment of Mao Zedong's military thought to concentrate superior forces to wipe out the enemy.

To formulate marketing strategy, we must understand the "square principle". When all resources are concentrated in one direction, the income will increase sharply in the form of square.

In reality, we find that the marketing strategies of many enterprises are divergent and cannot be integrated.

From the structure, product, price, channel and promotion, 4P has no internal connection, so it must be done well, but it is not done well.

Means, public relations, advertising, promotion, terminals, channels have their own ideas, and the correlation is not high enough;

Geographically, there is a lack of linkage between regions, and each region is fighting on its own, so experience cannot be exchanged and teams cannot cooperate.

In the words of Li Yunlong in "Bright Sword", one is connected with the other to die. This is called "refueling tactics", which is a taboo for military strategists.

In the article "The Art of War", it is precisely this truth that "those who know others will win".

If the understanding of strategy only stays at the simple tactical level and cannot form a strategic synergy, then the results of marketing will naturally surprise people.

Second, there is no right to speak without investigation.

This sentence seems to be uncontroversial, because Chairman Mao has already said it.

But many people know that strategy comes from research, but they don't know that there are two meanings behind it. One is to have a standardized research department, and the other is to have correct research methods.

Why did Chairman Mao fight like a god? An important reason is that there are three bureaus of the Central Military Commission behind it.

Ye Jianying, the First Bureau of the Military Commission, is responsible for staff and operations;

Ceng Xisheng, Second Military Commission Bureau, responsible for intelligence and information;

Peng Xuefeng, the Third Military Commission Bureau, is in charge of guard liaison.

Without these three innings, the commander is a one-man army. Without eyes and ears, there is no guarantee of victory.

After Zunyi Conference, the Red Army met Guo Xunqi, a famous soldier of Sichuan Army. At that time, two elite enemy brigades pursued. However, due to the absence of the Third Military Commission, we misjudged the enemy's strength.

The Red Army tried to "Lanchester" the enemy, but was almost "Lanchester" by the enemy.

At the critical moment, Mr. Zhu personally went to the front line to command, but even so, he failed to annihilate the enemy and formed an unfavorable war of attrition.

The invincible battle made the Red Army deeply realize the value of the three military commissions.

Shortly thereafter, in the dispute between "going north" and "going south", Zhang split the Red Army, led his troops south, and secretly ordered Chen Changhao to detain other Red Army members.

Chairman Mao made a decisive decision and went north to escape overnight. The first sentence after getting out of danger is to ask whether the Third Bureau of the Central Military Commission has kept up, which is enough to prove that the strategic department is irreplaceable for decision makers.

In reality, we often see that many enterprises still lack in-depth understanding of strategic research departments.

Some small and medium-sized business owners like to do things "according to the intuition of entrepreneurs". What they saw in the market, what they heard from their friends at the banquet, they have summed up their strategic ideas.

After the enterprise has reached the scale, it will not work. How can a person become an expert and know all the tactical details?

As important as research methods.

It is often seen that enterprises hold seminars, and the boss is always willing to "throw a brick to attract jade" first. "What do you think of this problem? I think so ... "

This kind of meeting is basically unnecessary because once the boss speaks first, there will be two kinds of people at the meeting.

One just can't find a chance to kiss up. Without a chance to give a gift to the boss, I used the idea of giving a gift to the boss to beat around the bush and conduct "business flattery."

The boss refers to the deer as a horse and will try his best to cooperate, saying that the deer's horn and the horse's ear are the same thing.

Another person thinks that the boss is "invincible" and really worships the leader. Now that the boss has considered it, don't worry about it.

We found that leaders must speak at the end of the seminar, listen more and talk less, listen first and then speak, and learn basic research methods to get real conclusions. Prevent that group of people from spoiling the boss and strengthen the wrong decision-making of enterprises. .

Third, you can't talk about strategy if you don't know tactics.

Ignorance of tactics will lead to the most serious distortion of judgment, and the formulation of strategy will definitely make mistakes.

The failure of the fifth counter-campaign is a typical example.

At that time, the highest military decision-maker of the Red Army was Li De, an international joint production consultant. Because of his ignorance of frontline tactics, Li De copied the so-called advanced foreign theories and formulated a defense strategy based on "fortress warfare" and "short-term assault", hoping to "keep the enemy out of the country".

However, this strategy obviously does not take into account the characteristics of the Red Army and lacks tactical support.

In the "fortress war", the Red Army has no heavy artillery and no reinforced concrete. The "semi-permanent fortifications" built with wooden stakes and sandbags can only be passively beaten, and the enemy can blow up one of our battalions with a few heavy guns;

In terms of "short-term assault", there are still many people in the Red Army who use "Made in Hanyang", an obsolete product during Zhang Zhidong's period in the Qing Dynasty, and their opponents are mostly American-style equipment, so they have all sacrificed before rushing to enemy positions.

General Peng, who was in charge of sticking to the south gate of Guangchang at that time, jumped up and cursed his mother, pointing out that this strategy was a black sheep of "selling Tian Xin without pain", which was easy to understand.

On the contrary, when making a strategy, Chairman Mao will fully consider what tactics to cooperate with and whether it conforms to the tactical characteristics of the Red Army, so that the strategy is no longer a "castle in the air".

Flying over Luding Bridge is such a successful case.

At that time, the Red Army's Long March came to Anshunchang on the banks of the Dadu River, which was blocked by a big river and then approached by troops. There are only three or two boats on the ferry, so there is obviously no hurry.

At the critical moment, the Red Army made a strategic transfer plan to capture the upper reaches of Luding Bridge.

However, it is 320 miles from Anshunchang to Luding Bridge, and the mountain road is good until March 80, and it is difficult to get there for two days and one night.

Chairman Mao fought in the north and south, experienced the front line, and knew that strategy could not be separated from tactical cooperation. Take the following measures:

One is to send the most aggressive team, the Red Fourth Regiment in Yang Chengwu;

Second, give them the best light weapons in the whole army;

Third, send a large number of propaganda teams to publicize and inspire the morale of marching along the way;

Fourth, do a good job in ideological work and relieve worries. "Commander, don't be afraid that the team will run away. Half of them will succeed. Mr. Zhu and I will be your reception team and promise not to lose a single soldier. "

It was all kinds of tactical support that made the Red Army finally gain a strategic turning point.

If it is Li De, Chairman Mao's evaluation is that "even soldiers have to eat and sleep when they start fighting", and the most crucial battle in strategy is unsuccessful, so I'm afraid the modern history of China will be rewritten.

It is a basic principle that you can't talk lightly about strategy without knowing tactics, but it is often ignored by enterprises in reality.

Without practical marketing experience, you dare to make marketing strategies, which is just like writing recipes without being a chef. Who dares to eat a ton of salt cabbage?

When the strategic results are not satisfactory, decision makers always look for reasons in the implementation of subordinates, but rarely review their own shortcomings in strategic formulation.

Details determine success or failure. On the surface, the implementation details are only subordinate's business, but do decision makers know the details? Is it included in the thinking process of strategic formulation?

You know, any strategy must be composed of feasible tactics.

Fourth, it is not possible but most likely.

The marketing strategy of an enterprise is about the future. Since it is a forecast, theoretically, any strategy is likely to succeed.

I often see this argument, and some people say, "Is it impossible for my idea to come true?"

This is not right. Because strategy is not possible, but the greatest possibility.

Usually we will encounter three situations:

If there is a, it will introduce b, which we call "inevitable event", that is, high probability event;

A may produce B, but it may not, and the probability of both is 50%, which belongs to "probable event";

A may not get B, which is called an "accidental event", that is, a small probability event.

Strategies can only pursue high probability events, not small probability risks.

For example.

During the Three Kingdoms period, Cao Cao decided to conquer Wu Heng in the north.

Before the war, most consultants opposed it and thought it was unlucky.

Cao Cao pushed his way through the crowd and finally won through hardships.

The advisers were frightened by this. At first they stopped sending troops, but they didn't expect to win. Wouldn't it be nice to have us back?

Unexpectedly, when Cao Cao came back, he rewarded the counselor who opposed the expedition. Up to now, his words have been translated as "I survived this expedition." Although I won, it was too risky. If I always do things like this, I will be finished sooner or later. "

This can be seen as the embodiment of Cao Cao's small probability strategy.

Coincidentally, we can also see such examples in our lives.

Wang Rong, the youngest of the "Seven Sages of Bamboo Forest" in history, found a plum tree when he was playing with his partner when he was a child.

Plums are big and round, and only he doesn't go when everyone goes to pick them.

He thinks Li Zisheng must be suffering from being left alone by the roadside. The children have to admire him for tasting it. This is the origin of the allusion of bitter Li on the roadside.

Wang Rong is a clever boy, but his cleverness is first manifested in his sober realization that others are not more stupid than me.

Since no one else is stupid, why doesn't anyone pick? The conclusion was naturally tried, but it was too bitter, so most of the plums were preserved. This logic is not complicated.

Of course, there may be accidents. Plums, for example, were not ripe before, but happened to be ripe when they met in Wang Rong, so people who dare not try are fools.

Now, either because of moral enhancement, people are reluctant to take public property, or because there are too many pesticides sprayed on it, no one dares to eat it.

However, at that time, these were small probability events, so it was right for Wang Rong not to pick them, because it was most likely that the plums were bitter.

The formulation of enterprise strategy is also the same problem.

Because of the uncertainty of the future, the strategy can't guarantee the success of the enterprise 100%, but it must be the pursuit of maximum probability events.

You can't put all your eggs in one basket just because of the existence of small probability events.

This is because the investment of enterprises in marketing strategy is often more than "Do you want to climb a plum tree?"

In this sense, we should not take chances when formulating strategies, let alone toss and turn.