When Marketing is Strategy - Article Analysis Essay

Introduction

The article, 'When Marketing is Strategy' by Niraj Dawar reviews on the importance of marketing strategies shifting towards the downstream from products to the customers. Dawar points out that competitive perks in a downstream perspective emanate outside a company that is from customers and other external stakeholders. In his article, professor Dawar persuades readers to have second thoughts on traditional strategy methods to downstream activities, where their focus should concentrate on a customer's needs and in which competition is accumulative. Shifting the market strategy to downstream is advantageous to the company or business as it not only has a significant influence on the customer's purchasing criteria while accumulating their data but also exploits an excellent network effect. The author illustrates how shifting strategies in marketing improve how marketers offer their products as compared to improving the product itself.

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Dawar illustrates how a businessperson could redefine the criterion of a customer by giving an example of how Cialis beat Viagra. Eli Lilly had to make a crucial decision about what to center as the marketing strategy for Cialis. The debate was on whether to focus on how Cialis lacks side effects or to introduce a new criterion, which was the longer duration. Lily made a final decision on focusing on Cialis' long period and not its efficacy. This criterion was more efficient in the erectile dysfunction market. Changing a company's approach can have a significant impact on the marketers and the customers as well. Dawar further suggests in his article that even a late market can choose his or her competitors. One can choose to market their products in a way that they can choose less differentiation, which is advantageous. The author also notes that innovation does not always mean the right products in the downstream market but instead focuses on market activities and market tools.

Professor Dawar demonstrates in a right way that if one chooses upstream as a marketing strategy, then they might miss significant opportunities. The article is well structured and points out facts clearly concerning the shifting marketing strategies downstream. The author illustrates well the importance of using the downstream perspective, especially for companies that want to climb up the value chain and the maturing companies. To support his hypothesis, he uses several and numerous examples. However, one should not regard this article with many impressions, as the author does not use real data to support his arguments but rather examples only. There are many better examples of developing a market opportunity via upstream that the author could demonstrate, but he maintains his focus on the downstream cases. Dawar defines upstream in the healthcare sector and overlooks on the opportunity of the meaning of upstream in the healthcare industry. Dawar only focuses on the advantages of downstream marketing and does not outline a single setback. For instance, it might require extra capital to fulfill a customer's needs.

Conclusion

In conclusion, Dawar, in his article, asks marketers to shift their focus to downstream strategies of marketing as they utilize a customer's criterion of purchase. He highlights the advantages and the importance of changing downstream in marketing, which can make a marketer win over his or her competitors. However, the article has setbacks as the author fails to use raw data to support his hypothesis.