Stratagem I
Stratagem is a series of articles written for sales and marketing professionals. I write Stratagem to give insight into the relationship built between three highly connected marketing principles: a company’s marketing tactics (think the Four P’s or four marketing practices), the buying patterns of targeted consumers, and marketplace trends that affect the practices and the consumers. I call it the “Bermuda Triangle.”

It’s a challenge out there to successfully navigate any product or service into the marketplace as well as produce sales. I believe it also takes the absence of supernatural happenings or, quite simply, it takes luck. I hope you’ll find some small nugget of marketing prowess in the Stratagem articles, some navigational tools that help you set the right course.  

So here we go. First, a little background on the word “stratagem.” If you look in the dictionary for meaning, you’ll probably read something about conniving strategy. So why would I pick such a word as the title for my article series? Frankly I wanted something pointed. I wanted a word never used in conversation. When is the last time you heard a colleague being referred to as a stratagem? Or better yet, is this the first time you’ve ever heard of the word stratagem?
 
I’ve done way too much research on the word. In the last two years I’ve read Greek mythology – maybe for the first time, I’ve read English plays – probably the first time without Cliff Notes, and I’ve even learned to pronounce the Latin equivalent of the word!  In my travels in the land of lexicography, I uncovered a great example of the word and also a storyline that deftly describes its meaning. 

Let me tell you about Mr. George Farquhar (referred to by me as GF) a play write who finished writing The Beaux’ Stratagem in 1707 from his home in England. This was GF’s last play and critics say his best. GF was apparently quite a witty guy, but a little shy. He had a bad case of stage fright (I know the feeling) and a tough life – no surprise to those who write for a living. He died in poverty and lived only to see three performances of his last play, The Beaux’ Stratagem.

The Beaux Stratagem Storyline
GF’s play is written about two young men who leave London in search of fortune, love and fame – in that order. They arrive in a small town and discover an available heiress, an unhappy wife, a slew of bandits (or brigands as they are referred to in the play), a phony-French-Irish-Belgian priest, and French POW’s.
Their adventures in a 24-hour period of time include flirting with the bar maid, making love to the heiress and the wife, fighting off the bandits and exposing the French POW’s.

One critic in 1707 noted, “This is Farquhar’s most beloved play, which dances between comedy of situation and wit and manners.” The play list (list of actors/actresses) is lengthy. There are 25 players and sometimes it gets a little confusing. But the two beaux, Archer and Aimwell (appropriately named) run into Scrub (the servant), Cherry (the daughter “plucked” by the guys at just the ripe moment), Lady Bountiful (needs no explanation) and of course, Foigard, the priest.

GF’s play is often called a “restoration comedy.” I now know “The Restoration” era was the historical period following the restoration of the British monarchy in 1660. Just in case it comes up one night on Jeopardy, I also know the period represented a flourishing English arts scene that produced lots of poets and play writes like GF. Think a mini cultural revolution.

The Beaux Stratagem captured the essence of this flourishing creativity among writers and also the brutal economic times. GF sums it up best in a line in his play, “There is no scandal like rags, nor any crime so shameful as poverty.”

GF’s wit, like stratagem, is deceptively hidden in the most peculiar places. In the end, the play truly is a dramatic comedy. A funny story of how two guys out to have a great time with no money get it done through zany, crazy and cunningly smart ways.

It is stratagem at its best.