Concurrent marketing

by Frank V. Cespedes

Companies today have the capability to develop higher quality products and services faster than ever before. Advances in production quality, cycle time, supply chain arrangements, and customer information - all radical improvements in "upstream" efforts to serve the customer - have altered business competition. Concurrent Marketing is the first book to show why this competitive environment demands a new, more coordinated marketing effort "downstream" in which field sales and service take on increased strategic significance. In such an environment, product management, sales, and service groups must interact more often, more quickly, and in greater depth across an increased number of products, markets, and accounts. Concurrent Marketing explains how companies can integrate the activities of these three groups and leverage functional expertise for competitive advantage. Cespedes addresses the importance of specialist expertise in cross-functional activities; the role and limits of incenti