ABSTRACT
https://s3-euw1-ap-pe-df-pch-content-public-p.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/9780080501277/46f3fe21-8f6e-484c-9030-9772da6c3280/content/figu1_1_B.tif" xmlns:xlink="https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"/> Brainstorming the title for this introductory chapter to The CIM Handbook of Strategic Marketing generated fascinating alternatives, some of which were quite clearly unpublishable! ‘Survival of the fittest in the twenty-first century’ was considered but passed over. Despite this, the Darwinian principle of natural selection it alluded to was readily accepted as a useful metaphor for the contemporary business environment. ‘Capitalism – and how to survive it!’ came close. The ascendancy of market economics has had a dramatic impact on the nature and intensity of competition and, therefore, the requirement for a strategic perspective on markets and the marketing process. The internationalization of the world economy and the globalization of many industries are accelerating this requirement; markets which were traditionally parochial and cartel-like in nature are nowadays subjected to unprecedented levels of sophisticated rivalry.
