The latest global economic crisis has shown that when corporate policy is primarily geared towards financial goals, it may violate the ?going concern= principle & instead, corporate management should focus on strategic marketing. In contrast to short-term operational management principles, the aim of strategic marketing management is to build up lasting competitive advantages for companies and their business areas. In order to establish such advantages, companies first need to define the market and business segments that are relevant to them, carry out strategic analyses and forecasts to identify potential market developments, and finally they must design and implement competitive strategies. This third edition of the book indicates the essential methods and processes that are relevant in the context of strategic marketing. New additions in particular include considering situational strategy options in the market life cycle in order to be able to better identify the specific characteristics of new, young markets and also those that are stagnating and shrinking.