• "Marketing with a big M" is all about strategy -- the discipline of identifying customer needs and meeting them, profitably.

• "little m marketing" is the tactics (advertising, promotions, public relations, on-line, and direct mail, for example)

In reality, some companies are great at strategy. Some have excellent tactical execution. Some are smart enough or lucky enough to have both.

Other companies operating in Asia have brilliant strategies they can't execute. Still others have no strategy, but have succeeded anyway, due to luck, contacts, or the sheer will of the company's management to succeed.

Companies fall into four clear categories: Mm Winners, Dreamers, Doers, and Duds, and today’s Mm Winner can easily be tomorrow’s Dud. Increasingly in the new Asia, the safety net of the past is being removed, and the margin of error for not aligning Big M and little m Marketing is razor thin.

Although relationships are still powerful motivators in Asia business, competitive advantage is increasingly earned through superior ideas and execution. The clubby environment of government and business in collusion has been broken down in many Asia countries (accelerated by the reforms of the Asia crisis), and the process of awarding contracts, hiring staff has become more transparent.

Although not a complete transformation, the growing transparency of business offers a more level marketing playing field following China and Taiwan’s accession to WTO, economic reforms and liberalizations, and the growth of Internet business.

Business people in operating in Asia are now under pressure to master the art of BIG M, little m marketing, and this book offers a Compass, a Map, and Six Signposts to success to guide marketers across the changing landscape.