Pe,s,=on European Management Journal Vol. 13, No. 4, pp. 455--458, 1995

Elsevier Science Ltd. Printed in Great Britain.

Books for Managers Store Wars by JUDITH CORSTJENS and MARCEL CORSTJENS John Wiley and Sons, 1995, ISBN 0 471 95081 5

For many marketers, even today, with the growth of service marketing and new enterprises such as Body Shop, the top marketing firms are the classic Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) companies such as Procter and Gamble, L'Oreal, Kelloggs and Mars. They were the creators of the fundamentals of modern marketing and have powerfully shaped our consumption patterns of a whole host of daily items, helping to build the consumer society in the process. This in turn lead to the rise of large multiple retailers such as Sainsburys and Tesco, highly profitable (in retail terms) national chains with great buying power and the ability to win significant consumer loyalty. As a result we now perceive a massive marketing battle taking place as powerful manufacturers and entrenched retailers fight to gain share of consumer spending, with in recent years the forces in this area favouring the large multiple retailers. We are all used to reading articles forecasting the demise of the branded product as we have known it, turning once classic marketing companies into weakened shadows of their former selves.

In Store Wars, Judith and Marcel Corstjens provide an excellent and timely response to this somewhat thoughtless scenario and so provide a book that is required reading for anyone involved with or interested in FMCG marketing and retailing. They approach their subject by reviewing the basic techniques used by both consumer goods manufacturers and retailers and showing how each entity's

marketing approach has evolved over time. While not containing anything new for those working in these areas, the opening sections of their book provide valuable coverage of these topics for students and others wishing to know the marketing funda- mentals in these areas. The authors then move on to address the heart of the dilemmas facing both manufacturers and retailers in today's world, such as how can classically branded goods be maintained in the face of ever better store brands and how can multiple retailers successfully fight each other as location saturation and price wars take their toll. It is here that the authors provide most value to the reader for they show that both manufacturers and retailers have certain inherent advantages the other party cannot overcome and that in fact there remains as much of a battle between manufacturers themselves and retailers themselves, hence restoring belief in the continuing viability of much of the fundamentals of consumer marketing.

However, both manufacturers and retailers would be well advised to abandon much of their recent behaviour, since it is inherently self defeating. FMCG firms indulging in ceaseless line extensions, continuous sales promotions and bowing down with price offers to large retailers are only using the priceless virtue of a strong clear image around a single powerful branded proposition. Retailers who attempt to create specific store values, segment the surrounding shopper base or establish lower prices than similar rivals are deluding themselves when they would be better off investing in their own top quality brands.

For the authors, marketers will

never lose sight of the two basic dimensions of mindspace and shelfspace. Manufacturers must build the former so that no retailers can deny them the latter. Retailers must gain the former so that consumers prefer their shelf space and not their rivals. For manufacturers, this means focus on differentiated products, with high leverage, pinpoint branded and sustained by continuous innovation. For retailers it means realising that in many cases they cannot surpass manufacturers due to certain marketing fundamentals and so should concentrate on those product areas and marketing techniques that suit them best.

Store Wars contains many case examples and a host of marketing tools and techniques for today's consumer marketer, looks forward and clarifies excellently the key factors for successful consumer goods marketing in the new environment. An enjoyable and valuable contribution to this demanding subject.

Peter O w e n

Consultant's Journey: A Professional and Personal Odyssey by ROGER HARRISON McGraw Hill, 200pp, £19.95

The Collected Papers of Roger Harrison McGraw Hill, 422pp, £24.95

Roger Harrison's work on Organisation Development, on the Cultures of Organisations and on Learning, has been hugely influential over the past three decades in both Europe and America. It is ironic, therefore, that many managers and executives who have benefited from his insights, his innovative experiments and his creative

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