Consistent, marketing-minded leadership-complete with a vision and a plan- is a necessity in today's competitive environment. For the high school athletics director, the racquetball club manager, or the commissioner of a professional league, the absence of this type of leadership is sure ticket to disaster. Of cause, having a plan does not ensure success. the NFL's Super Bowl halftime fiasco and the failures of the WUSA or the XFL, were failures in deliberate, calculated marketin strategy. The lack of strategy, however, simply multiplies the odds of failure. In this chapter, we lay out the basis element s required for strategic marketing leadership. We refer to these elements as the marketing management process, a process that combines both strategy (the big picture) and tactics (the details of a plan). Subsequent chapters in this book flesh out the various tactical steps in the marketing management process. This chapter places each step in the broader perspective of strategy.