Marketing strategy: how to achieve your objectives?
Definition
marketing strategy aims to establish your company on its market, define its positioning in the mind of your target group and create value that meets their needs, desires and expectations.
Your strategy must indicate how to achieve your marketing objectives. It is first built on the long term (5-10 years) to be applied over the medium (3 years) and short term (1 year). Your marketing strategy may focus on a particular product and not necessarily on your entire offer.
And to establish it on a really solid basis, you always want to base it on a clear, precise and complete analysis of your market. Without this, you risk setting objectives in a completely random way and ultimately...not achieving them!
This is our added value within the success marketing team: to carry out complete market audits for our customers, to enable them to have objective, quantifiable and verifiable data on their market. To do this, we use an exclusive method using Google's ultra-powerful tools that allow you to scan your prospects' expectations in detail. If you are interested, first ask for your free diagnosis.
Example: Mc Donald's marketing strategy
Imagine that McDonald's wants to reach a new target, adults. The company does not only want to attract children but also active teenagers and young people.
Once this objective has been determined, the famous fast food chain must redefine the design of its hamburgers to adapt them to the tastes and desires of adults. Once the new hamburgers are designed, you have to communicate to'lure' customers. McDonald's then broadcast commercials on television and in movies. The broadcast is made during programs and films watched by adults, its target market. The channel displays a more sophisticated image. An image in which the adult identifies himself.
You can see in this example that the marketing strategy goes from the definition of a new target group, adults, to communication, broadcasting of advertisements.
Development of your marketing strategy
Your company must create value while generating a profit from its activity. Previously, a product was created and then marketed, without initially determining who the target customer was. The markets were far from saturated and it was known that the supply would be sold.
Today, in a very competitive economy, there is an overabundance of supply. The customer has a wide choice of similar products to meet his needs. Demand then explodes into micro markets to which you must offer a targeted offer. Marketing now takes place at all levels of the value creation chain:
- before production, to determine your target audience and how to reach it (strategic marketing)
- during creation, to determine your product, price and distribution method
- after, to communicate with your prospects and customers
Value creation: a succession of strategic and tactical marketing steps
- Your choice of value is determined by your strategic marketing which will segment your market, determine your target audience and define your positioning.
- Once these points have been defined, implement your strategy by creating your new product, determining its price and means of distribution. These points correspond to value creation.
- Finally, with the help of your sales, promotion and advertising force, you must communicate your value, make it known and attract your customers.
It is clear that marketing is involved throughout this process of defining, creating and communicating value.
Your marketing strategy must be defined before your product is created. Your business activities then take place in the context defined by this strategy.
The development of a marketing strategy consists of 5 steps:
- Analysis of the opportunities in your market (existing or to be created)
- Targeting your customers
- Positioning your offer
- Determination of action plans (marketing mix)
- Control and review of your offer.
Your strategy should not be a succession of isolated decisions but a general orientation. It must determine all the efforts to be made to achieve your objectives. It should be described as clearly, precisely and concisely as possible.
Important point: always think about developing your marketing strategy by involving all your employees (finance, production, communication, etc.). All your departments must be involved in this work because everyone is concerned about your marketing.
Examples
- Check with the production department to see if you can meet your business needs
- Talk to your sales representatives to guide their efforts
- Ensure that all your communication is consistent with your marketing strategy
- Avoid any lack of productivity and motivation with your 1st force, your staff
- etc.
Attention: as mentioned above, in the 5 steps of a successful marketing strategy, the first step is absolutely essential because it conditions all the others. So you always want to start by analysing your market in detail and with a high degree of precision, otherwise you risk going in the wrong direction. The result: you will lose a lot of time, money and...credibility in the eyes of your customers and prospects.
To help you analyze your customers-your competitors and your opportunities, we can perform a complete audit of your market. You will get ultra-reliable data that will be an extraordinary resource to build your entire marketing strategy from A to Z.
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