Contextual intelligence and flexibility: understanding today's marketing environment

Purpose – Many planning approaches on strategic flexibility often focus on a product and/or market perspective. The purpose of this paper is to argue that today's changes demand a “contextual” marketing intelligence and planning approach. There may be a bigger difference between one person's actions in two different situations than between the actions of two people in the same situation. Design/methodology/approach – The paper's insights are based on a literature review and on insights from successful companies/brands (Google and Apple) dealing with today's changing business context. Findings – Strategic flexibility is decomposing a customer context and then making adjacency moves from some sub‐contexts to a new broader context. It is about “zooming in” and “zooming out” to new directions. Practical implications – Recently, it is about the choice between operating in tailor made contexts (creating niches as a company) or operating in a more holistic context, in which new contextual moves are partly or fully determined by customers themselves. Originality/value – This paper gives another perspective on strategic flexibility.