Marketing Strategy – Planning And Control

The company’s marketing strategy allows you to plan and effectively implement an enterprise development plan in a particular market. A marketing strategy once drawn up determines what types of products and promotion methods to use in a given market, how to organize logistics, communications with the target audience, and other aspects of the company’s activities.

The marketing strategy of the company is created to determine the ways and means that will allow in the long term to increase the company’s profits, consistent with the development strategy of the enterprise.

“Marketing strategy planning” means: planning, implementation, and control programs you’ll use to achieve goals.

Marketing Strategy: Theory and Practice

There is a well-developed marketing theory that classifies marketing strategies. They can be used as basic ones when developing a promotion strategy, but they always require changes and additions in the conditions of a given market and the situation at the enterprise.

Briefly, basic marketing strategies can be divided into several groups depending on the goals of the company, its size, and the situation in the market. The most common and numerous is the group of competitive strategies. The basis of such a strategy is the difference from competitors, which is called competitive advantage:

• the price advantage is achieved by minimizing the cost of production and delivery of the product to the buyer. Thanks to such a strategy, it is possible to capture and maintain a significant market share, but it is available mainly to large companies with mass production;
• a differentiation strategy is to distinguish your products or services from other market participants by some factor that is important to the target audience. These may be technologies, services, or special achievements in the quality and durability of products;
• the focus strategy is to focus on a specific market segment, and may also be called a niche. This strategy is good for small companies that can offer the target audience something that large market participants do not have.

Another group is growth-oriented strategies. They evaluate the growth prospects for individual products, identifying those that should be eliminated and those that will replace them. Depending on the growth opportunities, the following types of strategies are distinguished:

• an intensive growth strategy involves the promotion of an existing product in an existing market or new markets. Some modifications of the main product are possible, taking into account the needs and changes taking place in the markets;
• diversification strategy for growth uses new products in the same markets as the company’s main product. It can be either a related product or a completely new product or service;
• growth through integration can occur in various ways – through vertical integration up or down (acquisition of companies lower or higher in the marketing chain), as well as horizontally (acquisition of competitors).

In addition to acquisitions and acquisitions, the integration uses the creation of joint companies with other enterprises. The choice of one or another growth strategy is made based on estimates of the market size, competitive environment, growth prospects, or risks when leaving a particular market segment.

Positioning strategies focus on the company’s market share. On this basis, all companies are usually divided into the following groups:

• market leaders;
• leadership contenders;
• followers;
• niche companies.

Depending on the position and size of the company, a strategy is developed, aimed in some cases at maintaining the position, and in others – at increasing the occupied market share.

Segment-oriented strategies can focus on one or more segments. The first option is used when it comes to one product or the company’s specialization in one market segment. In the case of multi-segment focusing, it is possible to promote one product in several segments, as well as several.

In practice, several approaches to developing a marketing strategy can be used simultaneously. The final decision on the choice of strategy is determined based on the company’s profit growth opportunities, the prospects for changing the competitive environment, as well as the resources necessary to achieve the goal.

Marketing Strategy Development

The development of the marketing strategy of the enterprise takes place with the participation of marketers, other specialists, as well as the first persons of the company. The strategy is created as a result of a thorough analysis of the company’s position in the market, desired goals, and available resources. It is necessarily drawn up in the form of a document that employees of various departments of the enterprise must adhere to.

The marketing strategy for the development of an enterprise contains a list of necessary measures, determines the budget for their development and implementation, and also outlines the time frame and criteria for assessing the effectiveness of the strategy implementation.

Such a document allows stakeholders in top management to monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of marketing activities that are carried out as part of the implementation of the strategy.

For mid-level and lower-level marketing professionals, the strategy is the document that they are guided by in their daily professional activities. The main provisions of the marketing strategy are also brought to the attention of the rest of the employees of the enterprise, so that they, to the best of their ability and their positions, contribute to the creation of the necessary image of the company.

It is impossible to develop a detailed marketing promotion plan for a company without the help of qualified marketers. They will help conduct a qualitative and complete analysis of the current state of affairs, develop and implement the necessary marketing activities, and create objective criteria for assessing the effectiveness of the strategy implementation.