Book excerpt: Creating and delivering superior customer value is essential for organizations operating in today's competitive environment. This applies to virtually any kind of organization. It requires a profound understanding of the value creation opportunities in the marketplace, choosing what unique value to create for which customers, and to deliver that value in an effective and efficient way. Strategic marketing management helps to execute this process successfully and to achieving sustainable competitive advantage in the market place. Creating Customer Value Through Strategic Marketing Planning discusses an approach that is both hands-on and embedded in marketing and strategy theory. This book is different from most other marketing strategy books because it combines brief discussions of the underlying theory with the presentation of a selection of useful strategic marketing tools. The structure of the book guides the reader through the process of writing a strategic marketing plan. Suggestions for using the tools help to apply them successfully. This book helps students of marketing strategy to understand strategic marketing planning at work and how to use specific tools. Furthermore, it provides managers with a practical framework and guidelines for making the necessary choices to create and sustain competitive advantage for their organizations.