Big Business Means War

Big business and the military have a long and cozy history. One reason the two get on so well has to do with the actual contracts businesses receive from the Pentagon (see MM, 1982). But there may be another, more psychological explanation: the two share the same macho attitude.

Nowhere can this common aggressive personality be better detected than in a series of conferences called "Marketing Warfare" and "Attacking the Competition."

These two seminars are sponsored by a New York marketing firm: AMR, Advanced Management Research. They attract representatives from many large corporations and ad agencies.

AMR is unabashed about the connections it draws between the battlefield and the marketplace. "What works best in warfare also works best in marketing," explains one of the company's brochures. With this newly-coined adage, AMR plunges head-long into its military obsession.

At the conferences, AMR alerts its corporate customers of the need for "applying military thinking to marketing problems."

The first session in the day-long "Marketing Warfare" meeting features "the actual study of warfare strategies and how they can be applied" industry. Here AMR sets out to "summarize 25 centuries of military strategy with emphasis on the lessons marketing people can learn from the victories and defeats on the famous battlefields of the past, including Marathon, Waterloo, and Bunker Hill."

Then AMR gets down to brass tacks, detailing "the four different types of warfare a company can wage (offensive, defensive, flanking, and guerrilla)." A company must be aware, AMR says, of "the proper use of `Attack' weapons and tactics."

At the end of the day, after much talk of "hit lists" and "combat teams" each conference attendant receives three vital gifts from AMR: "A complete manual to help prepare you for warfare;" "The classic book on strategy: Clausewitz on War and "an 18 by 24 inch poster: Clausewitz on Marketing.

"We do the program fairly often," says Jack Fogarty, national accounts director of AMR, adding that both "Marketing Warfare" and "Attacking the Competition" (which is a two-day affair) are available "on cassette."

The conferences began "about five years ago," Fogarty recalls; currently AMR holds them in "most major U.S. cities and six major Canadian cities."

The "major corporations" attend, Fogarty says, noting that the New York one this year drew 52 officials, including "someone from Merrill Lynch, American Express and the ad agencies." Gillette and Magnavox, according to conference brochures, hold esteemed positions on AMR's "Faculty Strike Force."

The one-day "Marketing Warfare" conference has an admission fee of $350; "Attacking the-Competition" runs $650, Fogarty says.

Forgarty is especially pleased with the Clausewitz on Marketing poster: it's "something the vice president of marketing loves to have on his wall."