Strategic marketing is a complex topic, and this short-form textbook illuminates its fundamental elements to provide a bird’s-eye view of the field for students of marketing strategy. Focused on the marketing of goods and services, the book highlights how incremental changes in the market environment drive changes to marketing strategies. The author, an experienced marketing expert, uses the concept of ‘strategic windows’ to facilitate student understanding, looking at how firms can best anticipate and react to opportunities and threats. Enhanced by text features such as essential summaries, focused references and additional online supplements, this very short introduction enables the reader to zero in on the core priorities for strategic marketers. The result is a volume that is valuable reading for marketing students around the world.

This concise textbook provides a comprehensive and clear overview of the theory and practice of creative problem solving from a management perspective. The book works step by step through the creative thinking process. Beginning with theoretical frameworks, it considers ways of thinking, defining problems and structuring responses to them, techniques for generating ideas, evaluating and defining them, and finally how technology can be used within the creative problem-solving process. Pedagogical features to aid learning include objectives at the start of each chapter, further reading suggestions and practical examples. Divided into ten short chapters to suit content delivery, this textbook is designed as either core or recommended reading for advanced undergraduate, postgraduate, MBA and Executive Education students studying Creativity and Innovation, Management and Leadership and Management Skills.

Fully updated and revised to include the latest case studies and examples from a broad range of industry sectors, this second edition of Strategic Marketing: An Introduction is a concise, thorough and enlightening textbook that demonstrates how organizations can cope with a myriad of demands by better understanding themselves, their products or services, and the world around them. From assessing internal relationships to planning and implementing marketing strategies, and featuring analysis of relationship marketing and strategic alliances, Proctor uses insights from a range of key models and theoretical frameworks to illustrate how an organization can successfully take advantage of 'strategic windows' to improve its position. Core issues covered include: marketing strategy analyzing the business environment the customer in the market place targeting and positioning marketing mix strategy. This textbook is the complete guide to assessing and imposing a realistic and successful marketing strategy to fit an organization, its resources and objectives, and the environment in which it operates. Accessibly written and supported by a user-friendly companion website, this new edition of Strategic Marketing: An Introduction is an essential resource for all students of marketing and business and management. A companion website provides additional material for lecturers and students alike: www.routledge.com/textbooks/9780415458160/

Strategic marketing is a complex topic, and this short-form textbook illuminates its fundamental elements to provide a bird's-eye view of the field for students of marketing strategy. Focused on the marketing of goods and services, the book highlights how incremental changes in the market environment drive changes to marketing strategies. The author, an experienced marketing expert, uses the concept of 'strategic windows' to facilitate student understanding, looking at how firms can best anticipate and react to opportunities and threats. Enhanced by text features such as essential summaries, focused references and additional online supplements, this very short introduction enables the reader to zero in on the core priorities for strategic marketers. The result is a volume that is valuable reading for marketing students around the world.

Stimulating and developing the creative potential of all members of an organisation is widely seen as contributing to performance and results. This prestigious textbook provides a complete overview of the creative problem-solving process and its relevance to modern managers in the private and public sectors. It introduces ideas, skills and models to help students understand how creative thinking can aid problem solving, and how different techniques may help people who have different thinking and learning styles. This updated fifth edition includes fresh case studies, exercises and suggested reading, alongside extensive diagrams and thought-provoking questions. A new chapter considers the use of heuristics in decision-making situations faced by managers, and examines how aspects of creative problem solving can relate to such situations. It also introduces a complex in-tray exercise, which demonstrates how the conflicting demands on an individual manager can be considered in practice. Supporting PowerPoint slides for lecturers are available for each chapter. Creative Problem Solving for Managers will continue to be an ideal resource for undergraduate and postgraduate students studying problem solving, strategic management, creativity and innovation management, as well as managers looking to develop their decision-making abilities.

Stimulating and developing the creative potential of all members of an organisation is widely seen as contributing to performance and results. This prestigious textbook provides a complete overview of the creative problem-solving process and its relevance to modern managers in the private and public sectors. It introduces ideas, skills and models to help students understand how creative thinking can aid problem solving, and how different techniques may help people who have different thinking and learning styles.

This updated fifth edition includes fresh case studies, exercises and suggested reading, alongside extensive diagrams and thought-provoking questions. A new chapter considers the use of heuristics in decision-making situations faced by managers, and examines how aspects of creative problem solving can relate to such situations. It also introduces a complex in-tray exercise, which demonstrates how the conflicting demands on an individual manager can be considered in practice. Supporting PowerPoint slides for lecturers are available for each chapter.

Creative Problem Solving for Managers will continue to be an ideal resource for undergraduate and postgraduate students studying problem solving, strategic management, creativity and innovation management, as well as managers looking to develop their decision-making abilities.

Table of Contents

1. Creativity and its Importance in Business 2. Blocks to Creativity 3. Theories of Creativity and the Creative Problem-Solving Process 4. Problem Solving and Improvisation 5. Factors Influencing People's Ability to Undertake Ideation 6. Objective Finding, Fact Finding and Problem Finding/Definition 7. Morphological Analysis and Related Techniques 8. Brainstorming and its Variants 9. Lateral Thinking and Associated Methods 10. Synectics 11. Paradigm-Breaking Techniques 12. Miscellaneous Ideation Techniques 13. Evaluation 14. Decision Making and Problem Solving 15. Implementing Ideas 16. Computer-Assisted Creative Problem Solving

Fully updated and revised to include the latest case studies and examples from a broad range of industry sectors, this second edition of Strategic Marketing: An Introduction is a concise, thorough and enlightening textbook that demonstrates how organizations can cope with a myriad of demands by better understanding themselves, their products or services, and the world around them. From assessing internal relationships to planning and implementing marketing strategies, and featuring analysis of relationship marketing and strategic alliances, Proctor uses insights from a range of key models and theoretical frameworks to illustrate how an organization can successfully take advantage of 'strategic windows' to improve its position. Core issues covered include: marketing strategy analyzing the business environment the customer in the market place targeting and positioning marketing mix strategy. This textbook is the complete guide to assessing and imposing a realistic and successful marketing strategy to fit an organization, its resources and objectives, and the environment in which it operates. Accessibly written and supported by a user-friendly companion website, this new edition of Strategic Marketing: An Introduction is an essential resource for all students of marketing and business and management. A companion website provides additional material for lecturers and students alike: www.routledge.com/textbooks/9780415458160/