ABSTRACT
The marketing concept provided a first rationale for doing strategic management. To make the right decisions, strategists should understand and utilize the particular performance logic of marketing-inspired strategic thinking. A firm's ability to fulfil customer needs is expressed in terms of key success factors or critical success factors. A firm employs a differentiation strategy when it offers something more specific and special, and asks the customer to pay a premium price for it. Market development and diversification will change the firm from single business into multi-business. A merger or an acquisition is a way to enter a new market and to diversify. The nature of the change incorporated into marketing-inspired strategic thinking is predictable change, as, for instance, with the product life cycle, or with seasonal fluctuations in demand. Implementation is a subject that has seen far less interest from marketing-inspired strategy scholars.
