Marketing Strategy

Marketing Strategy Development

  • Marketing objectives: Goal-setting is vital in marketing strategy planning. Objectives should be SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bounded).
  • Target market identification: Knowing who the potential customers are, understands their needs, aspirations, and behaviour, is a crucial first step.
  • SWOT analysis: Diving deeper into the company’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats - helps design the strategy tailored to make the most of company’s strengths and opportunities while mitigating weaknesses and threats.

Marketing Strategy Elements

  • Product strategy: This talks about what is being sold, including aspects such as design, features, quality, packaging.
  • Price strategy: Decisions related to pricing of the product, considering factors such as costs, demand, competition and ability of the targeted customers to pay.
  • Promotion strategy: This involves the communication tactics used to reach and persuade customers, consisting of advertising, public relations, direct marketing and sales promotions.
  • Place strategy (Distribution): This strategy relates to how the product gets to the customer; it involves managing supply chains and considering logistics and channels of distribution.

Marketing Strategy Implementation and Modification

  • Action plan: After creating the strategy, an overall action plan is developed which outlines the specific steps to be taken to implement it.
  • Monitoring and control: Once the plan is enforced, it’s essential to track the progress and effects of the strategy over time, to ensure it’s working as intended.
  • Marketing strategy modification: Be ready to adapt and modify the strategy based on customer feedback, market changes or economic factors, to ensure the marketing efforts stay relevant and effective.

Marketing Strategy and a Company’s Performance

  • Marketing return on investment (ROI): Analysing the effectiveness of marketing strategy also includes measuring financial return against marketing spend.
  • Customer acquisition and retention: Successful strategies will attract and keep satisfied customers, which directly impacts the company’s growth and profitability.
  • Market share: A company’s percentage of total sales in a specific market - a vital indicator of market competitiveness. A competent strategy should inevitably lead to an improvement in a company’s market share.