ABSTRACT
The role of marketing strategy is the process construct that allows a company to focus limited resources on the best marketplace opportunities to achieve sustainable competitive advantage and thus increase sales. There are many barriers that distract, deter, and divert managers from making clear strategic choices, ranging from faulty research data to poor competitive analysis. The fundamental realization to be asserted and agreed upon is that the only reality in the marketplace is in the minds of customers. The strategic centerpiece, again, understands customer decision-making as a basis to develop and optimize strategy. Given the nature of the strategic problem briefly outlined, the next issue of interest is the role of senior management. Means-end theory posits that there are psychological levels of abstraction in which personal meanings are associated with concrete product descriptors. Branding is a common marketing term, which essentially means to create an identifiable brand persona that makes a promise of value.
