Marketing Strategies

Strategizing is about planning smart. It’s the game plan of ‘how’ to achieve the business objectives

  • Strategy formulation involves identifying, evaluating and selecting from alternatives.
  • Strategies can either be at social, functional, corporate, and business levels.
  • In either case the idea is to make a mix that best fits the organization’s strengths and weaknesses to opportunities in the environment while also taking care of the threats.
  • The process involves understanding the business mission, business objectives, marketing objectives then developing the marketing strategy
  • A marketing strategy is thus the mix of programs required to achieve the marketing objectives while addressing the overall business goals and objectives.
  • Designing the business mission
  • Looking at the business objectives
  • Analyzing existing business strategies
  • Defining strategic issues
  • Develop new strategies
  • Determine critical success factors
  • Prepare plans
  • Implement plans
  • Monitor plans

Broad Issues in the Development of the Strategies

  • There are different marketing strategies for different firms and even within the same firms
  • Strategies are based on;
  • Business levels (start-up, growth, maturity and expansion)-Each of these stages      demands unique strategies
  • Market growth rate – low or high
  • Market share/size – low or high
  • Growth and expansion rates- innovations, improved product, new/diversified products

Factors influencing Market Strategies Decisions

 

1) Market Segmentation and Targeting

Segmentation: Dividing the market into distinct groups of buyers who might call for separate   products or marketing mixes. Strategies;

  • Market aggregation- single marketing mix for one mass undifferentiated market
  • Single market concentration- single marketing mix for differentiated markets (segments)
  • Multiple segmentation; a marketing mix is made for each market segment.

2) Marketing Mix Strategies

Pricing strategies

  • Cost oriented pricing
  • Mark up pricing
  • Break even pricing
  • Demand oriented pricing
  • Market prices
  • Determined by forces of supply and demand
  • Consumer oriented pricing
  • Psychological pricing
  • Discriminatory pricingCompletive oriented  pricing

Product Strategy

  • Product Classification: Consumer goods & Industrial goods
  • Product Mix, Product line
  •  Product differentiation: Using marketing mix activities such as advertising and product features to make the product appear unique to customers
  • Branding
  • Packaging and labelling
  • Image building
  • Product development 

Distribution Strategy;

  • Intensive
  • Selective
  • Exclusive

Positioning strategy ​

The marketing mix should help place them in the minds of the customers- low price, unique features and image building

Promotion strategy ​

  • Promotional tools and channels
  • In any case the strategies should explain the how, who, when, where and the budget.
  • Others People, Place and Physical evidence

Group discussion

What are marketing strategies?