Marketing Strategy as the Key to Business Success
Marketing strategy helps a company to meet it's objectives by finding
an ideal medium between the company's available resources and
opportunities that present themselves in the market.
A strategy would involve the creation of plans that would enable a
company to achieve its overall objectives. The idea of a strategy
portrays an image of a well thought out plan as it has had careful
evaluation of the market and the company to come up with a suitable
strategy to meet the goals and targets for the company's medium to
long term future.
The purpose of a strategy is to allow management to be aware of what
direction the company is heading in and for them to convey this to the
workforce so that the whole company is pulling in the same direction
so the objectives of the company can be met relatively easily compared
to if there was no sense of cohesion between one department and the
next.
A perfect strategy will take into account company objectives, customer
requirements, the activities of competitors and a well looked into
prediction of future market patterns that will affect the company.
Another integral part of a marketing strategy is that it must be
realistic. There is no point coming up with exaggerated plans that are
impossible to meet within the company's current limitations.
To assist with the development of a successful marketing strategy many
companies will turn to SWOT analysis. This involves a company
performing an internal audit to ascertain what are the strengths (S)
and the weaknesses (W) of the current system that company is using.
Once the company knows how it can improve within itself then the next
move is to perform an external review which will look at external
factors that may present the company with opportunities (O) or threats
(T) in the future, examples of these would be political, economical,
technological, legal, environmental and social factors all of which
can have a profound effect on the performance of a company in any
Successful marketing strategies are very important as it determines whether the organizations can materialize the benefits and strengths of their products and improve their revenue and profitability. Marketing strategies are heavily impacted by the external opportunities and weaknesses, as well as the internal strengths and weaknesses of the organization. Based on this information, companies have to segment the big market into small segments and divide their products into homogeneous batches to target each segment separately. Furthermore, the organizations have to design important marketing mix, including product, price, place, and promotion to make sure that their products are well received by the customers. All of these aspects are very important for organizations realize the potential from their products and achieve the competitive advantages in the competitive market.
In organization of any type, management should plan its long-term future. Corporate strategy is a management plan, which defines its business activities, prospects and development objectives. It also includes organization’s business strategy as a main choice of means and methods of competition (Griffin, & Pustay, 2005). This may be production of standardized products or delivery-on-order products/service, competition based on lower prices or rapid delivery of products. Corporate strategy provides overall direction, which provides the framework to perform functions throughout the organization.
After you have identified your goals, you need to prioritize, evaluate, and organize the combination of specific marketing strategies and tactics that will be best suited for you to use in pursuing your goals. Strategies are the ideas and approaches that are developed to achieve the goals. A well-constructed marketing plan is a perfect illustration of a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts. Marketing strategy includes all basic, short-term, and long-term activities in the field of
The scholarly article which I selected to review addressed the strategic implementation of marketing initiatives within international higher education entities (Naidoo & Woo, 2011). This article was of particular interest to me due to its specific focus on marketing within higher education entities (HEI’s). The authors focused their research on 10 universities which recruit international students; specifically, on 570 questionnaires from mid-level marketing managers responsible for strategic implementation of marketing initiatives. (Naidoo & Woo, 2011, p. 1117) The authors note the disparity in success between HEI’s in addressing the international student market, and raise the implied question of whether differences in successful strategic implementation could be contributory. This study focuses on strategic implementation, as contrasted with strategic formulation, as a driver for marketing success. The premise of the authors is that by focusing on the factors which influence successful strategic implementation, HEI’s can enhance marketing program success. In addition to highlighting strategic implementation as a marketing success factor, they emphasize the value of a higher education focus in their research. Although this business category has achieved prolific growth in recent years, most marketing research has been focused on a general business environment.
SWOT analysis is a basic, straightforward model that provides direction and serves as a basis for the development of marketing plans. It accomplishes this by assessing an organizations strengths (what an organization can do) and weaknesses (what an organization cannot do) in addition to opportunities (potential favorable conditions for an organization) and threats (potential unfavorable conditions for an organization). SWOT analysis is an important step in planning and its value is often underestimated despite the simplicity in creation. The role of SWOT analysis is to take the information from the environmental analysis and separate it into internal issues (strengths and weaknesses) and external issues (opportunities and threats). Once this is completed, SWOT analysis determines if the information indicates something that will assist the firm in accomplishing its objectives (a strength or opportunity), or if it indicates an obstacle that must be overcome or minimized to achieve desired results (weakness or threat) (Marketing Strategy, 1998).
A successful business strategy will identify changes in the external trends in the market place. Plan out what the company’s future direction is. Set out the goals for the management team. It will identify a vision of where the company wants to be in the future. Keep all employees informed of the direction of the company.
Conduct a SWOT analysis can help a firm identify the strategy-related factors that can have a major effect on the firm. The ultimate goal is to identify the critical factors affecting the firm and then build on vital strengths, correct flaring weaknesses, exploit significant opportunities, and avoid disaster-laden threats. The ultimate goal is not simply to develop the SWOT analysis but to translate the results of the analysis into specific actions to help the firm grow and succeed. It serves as a solid foundation to identify subsequent actions in the marketing plan.
Capon (2008) reckons that “strategy is to provide organizations with directions” to have a clear idea of the paths that a company choose to achieve its aim is very much necessary, and thereby success which is considered as the ultimate goal of any company. Strategy provides focus and overview for managers and other workers in an organization, includes management of internal as well as external stakeholders, creates competitive advantages and allows organizations to foresee the challenges to be dealt with in future regarding competitiveness and sustainability (Capon, 2008).
An organisation strategies that combine all of its marketing goals into one comprehensive plan. A good marketing strategy should be drawn from market research and focus on the right product mix in order to achieve the maximum profit potential and the business. marketing strategy is one way to achieve the goal of a company. The destination marketing is the first and best in class in meeting the needs and aspirations of consumers. Besides that, being a key partner for our customers, consumers and communities. Eliminating non-value added activities of the process. However, the aims to increase the target profitable growth and provides benefits above average employees and shareholders. There is an example of marketing strategies that used in Rejoice company. The 4P’s are influence the marketing strategies.
When strategy is formulated and implemented the decisions of the strategic management team must set realistic goals. They need to consider the current market and the direction that the market is navigating towards, the competitors of the business, as well as the resources afforded to the business. Strategic management spends a lot of time and resources balancing the objectives of the organization, the stockholders, and the desires of the consumer.
Too often, a marketing function is misunderstood, because many people do not understand what is meant by ‘Marketing’.
"The strategy formulation can develop competitive advantage only to the extent that the process can give meaning to workers in the trenches." —David Hurst (David, 2011). Strategic management can be defined as the art and science of formulation, implementation, and evaluation of cross-functional decisions that enables an organization to achieve its objectives. So, strategic management focuses on integration management, marketing, finance, operations, R&D and information systems to achieve organizational accomplishment. Strategic management is all about gaining and maintaining competitive advantages. When an organization can do something that rival cannot do, or owns something which competitor desire, that is referred as competitive advantage.
Promotional Strategies and Advertising are very important when it comes to marketing for a firm. One of the methods used to determine the internal and external environment in the organization business strategies is the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT) analysis. This is the matrix platform for most business firms and it is effective for organizations. When people are talking about promotional strategies and advertising; marketing is basically what business firm wants to be successful in.
Marketing is a fundamental aspect of all businesses, whether they are set out to make a profit, or charitable organisations - they will have to carry out marketing research of some description. It has been described as being, “the management process responsible for identifying, anticipating and satisfying customer requirements profitably.” (Chartered Institute of Marketing) This essay will explore the role of marketing in a marketing oriented business and different aspects of the external environment that a smartphone company should be aware of. The points raised throughout will be supported using relevant journals, textbooks and newspaper articles.
Marketing is a core pillar of an organization and contribute significantly in its prosperity through attaining the laid down targets as well as scope of development. The position of an organization is hugely based on its competitiveness and capacity to capture a significant portion of the market in relation to the prevailing needs of consumers. Interaction of the organization with the consumers and the potential consumer in the market arena is attained through the marketing wing of the organization (Ferrell& Hartline, 2012). The preferences of the consumer and avenues of satisfaction are aligned to the established marketing frameworks. However, the success of organization marketing is highly inclined to the marketing strategies formulated and adapted towards coping with competition and eventually enhancing firm competitiveness.