Marketing Strategy: Roadmap to Success

• Strategy is a well-defined roadmap for an organization which defines the overall mission, vision, and direction.
• The goal of a marketing strategy is to maximize an organization's strengths and minimize those of its competitors.
• A marketing strategy bridges the gap between the current state and the desired future state of a company.
• The strategy is concerned with the scope of an organization’s activities.
• A marketing strategy matches activities to the resource capability.
• Marketing strategies usually have major resource implications.
• Marketing strategies usually affect and inform operational decisions.
• Marketing strategies are usually complex and multi-disciplined in content.
• Each set of decisions has a knock-on effect on subsequent decisions and incorporates a review element.
• Strategic marketing planning discourages businesses from making ad hoc and impulsive marketing decisions.
• Strategic marketing planning involves collecting data systematically, integrates the data and then analyses it in detail to help project long-term marketing goals.
• Without a defined strategy, the business will not know the customers, won't be able to develop the right products, and promotes them ineffectively eventually wasting money.
• A solid marketing plan can make the difference between a successful marketing function and a failed one.
• A strategic marketing plan helps funnel funds and resources toward marketing goals.
• A strategic marketing plan minimizes the wasted time and funds on unproductive areas.
• Marketing strategy is the instigator of all marketing initiatives.

Marketing Strategy Planning Process

• Stage One: Defining Mission Statement and Strategic Marketing Objectives
• Stage Two: Determining Strategic Focus
• Stage Three: Defining Customer Targets
• Stage Four: Competitor Analysis
• Stage Five: Differential Advantage
• Stage Six: Marketing Mix (Four P's/Seven P's)
• Stage Seven: Implementation
• Stage Eight: Strategy Monitoring

Stage One: Defining Mission Statement and Strategic Marketing Objectives

• A company will lay out its mission statement and its marketing objectives for the years ahead.
• These elements set the tone for the company's ambitions and vision.
• Organizations with clear and coherent mission statements return more in terms of shareholder benefits compared to those without.

Mission Statement

• A written declaration of an organization's core purpose and focus that generally remains unchanged over time.
• The best mission statements offer guidelines by which a company operates.
• Most mission statements are between one and three sentences, usually never exceeding 100 words.
• The best mission statements are typically a single succinct sentence.
• Here are some good examples of mission statements:
• AirBnB: "Belong Anywhere"
• TED: "Spread Ideas"
• Nike: “Bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete in the world. *If you have a body, you are an athlete."
• JetBlue: “To inspire humanity – both in the air and on the ground."
• Tesla: "To accelerate the world's transition to sustainable energy."
• Disneyland Paris: "To bring families together and create the world's most magical smile"
• Mission statements sets the principles and conditions for the overall strategy.
• Ryanair's mission statement is to offer low fares that generate increased passenger traffic while maintaining focus on cost containment and efficiency.
• Ryanairs' objective is to firmly establish itself as Europe's leading low-fares scheduled airline.
• Tourism Ireland's mission is to successfully market the tourism attractions of Ireland to achieve an increase in overseas visitors, supporting the Northern Ireland industry in reaching its potential.
• St Patrick's Festival Galway's mission is a platform to showcase local artists and community groups, celebrate diverse culture and talent through an inclusive program of events, and create a carnival atmosphere.
• Key questions to answer in a mission statement:
• What does the organization do?
• Who does the organization service (i.e. customers)?
• What benefit does the organization provide? (Glen, 2013)
• IKEA's mission statement is 'To offer a wide range of well designed, functional home furnishing products at prices so low that as many people as possible will be able to afford them'.
• TU Dublin Strategic Intent: To support technological and innovative advances that will help society to thrive.

Objectives Definition

• Once an organization has developed its mission statement, its next step is to develop the specific objectives that are focused on achieving that mission.
• Marketing objectives provide specific targets to be met within a time-frame.
• The main purpose is to guide the organization's marketing efforts toward set milestones.
• The most effective objectives align with overall company business plan.
• There are many good reasons to develop marketing objectives for an organization.
• Objectives provide targets and benchmarks that allow the company to measure progress.
• Objectives help the organization to keep focused on marketing initiatives most likely to have an impact.
• Objectives keep members of the organization working toward the same long-term goals.
• Objectives lead to better Resource Optimization.
• Strategic Marketing Objectives need to be SMART.

S.M.A.R.T. or C. Model

• Stands for specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and timed.
• Specific - should tell how much (e.g., 10%) of what is to be achieved (e.g., what outcome) by when (e.g., by 2025)?
• Measurable - Information concerning the objective can be collected, detected, or obtained
• Achievable - the objectives themselves possible and it is likely that the organization can accomplish them
• Relevant - Objectives should fit in with the overall vision and mission of the group.
• Timed - There is a developed timeline for which the objectives willl happen.
• Challenging - Stretch the group to set its aims on significant improvements that are important to members of the organization.
• Examples of marketing objectives include; driving website traffic, increasing sales, customer retention, boosting brand awareness, and expanding market reach.
• Boost sales by 10% following our new digital marketing campaign.
• Increase the number of online bookings from customers 50 years plus by the end of 2025.
• Increase social media impressions by 30% in our new target audience by the end of the year.
• Decrease the customer turnover rate by 10% by the end of the year.
• Increase market share by 15% in 18 months following our new pricing strategy.
• Do A/B testing for two versions of a Google Display Ad to compare their ROIs.

Stage Two: Determining Strategic Focus

• Strategic focus is seen when an organization is very clear about its target markets a coherent and well-articulated strategy for reaching them.
• A clear vision includes of what business it is in and, just as importantly, what businesses it is not in.
• Being too ambitious and attempting to take on too much can cause an organization's efforts to be scattered.
• Strategic focus helps companies to stick to what they should be doing, i.e., 'stick to the knitting'.
• Dell Computer's strategy is focused around sale and manufacture of computers and computer peripheral devices.
• During the mid-2000's, Dell started branching out into other products and lost focus, but eventually got a turnaround by focusing on computer manufacturing
• Dell's CEO stated, "The results are early signs of our progress against our five strategic priorities.
• CEO continued that they plan to grow faster than the industry and increase revenue, profitability and cash flow for greater shareholder value, through focus.
• However, an organization must avoid engaging in 'marketing myopia'.
• Marketing myopia is when a business defines its market so narrowly that it misses opportunities for growth and may become more product-obsessed.
• Marketing myopia may result in overlooking the broader scope of consumer demands and failing to adapt to changing market dynamics.

Pitfalls of Narrow Focus

• Limited market awareness - May miss out on emerging market trends or untapped customer segments.
• Innovation stagnation - a myopic approach stifles innovation.
• Customer dissatisfaction - leads to reduced customer satisfaction, declining sales and damaged brand reputation.
• Kodak failed to recognize the growing importance of digital photography and filed for bankruptcy in 2012.
• Blockbuster underestimated the impact of online streaming services, leading to downfall.
• Nokia faced marketing myopia by clinging to traditional mobile designs, leading to decline in market share.
• BlackBerry underestimated the demand for touchscreen devices.