Strategic Marketing: Introduction, Purpose, and Phases

Developing a product will be successful only if you know the correct marketing techniques. It is a well-known fact that most of the companies do great marketing but very few of these companies had created customer loyalty and brand attachment.

In this article, let’s dive into the complete process of strategic marketing and explore the concepts in detail with real life practical examples.

What is strategic marketing?

Strategic marketing defines the process of planning the goals, developing a marketing plan, and implementing the desired objective to obtain a competitive edge in your chosen niche.

Purpose of strategic marketing

The purpose of strategic marketing is to outline and simplify a direct map of the company’s objectives and the ways to achieve them. The company should clearly identify its mission, take a survey regarding the industry’s situation, and evaluate a plan with a guarantee that they can provide their customers with the desired products when they need them.

It is obvious that any company will first give preference to customer satisfaction in order to dominate the markets and be the leaders in their respective industry, thus providing substantial business satisfaction.

Every company must follow the three phases of strategic marketing to create a perfect delight for the customers and beat out in the competition.

Three phases of strategic marketing

Let us consider the three phases that are must for any company to follow the strategic marketing process. Let’s explore each of them in detail:

1. Planning Phase
2. Implementation Phase
3. Evaluation on Control Phase

#1 Planning phase

The very first important phase is the planning phase for strategic marketing. It analyses internal strengths and weaknesses, external competition, technological changes, cultural differences, thereby providing the overall picture of the organization.

The planning phase has four more components that shows a clear overview of what your company is doing and where it is up to?

SWOT Analysis:

SWOT analysis as the name suggests determines the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of your company. It also reveals the company’s position with respect to other competitors in the market. One must perform the following functions in order to maximize the strengths and minimize weaknesses.

• Analyze competitors
• Researching the current and prospective customers
• Assess company
• Identifying trends in the industry

After analyzing the above goals, the determined results should be used as a basis for developing the marketing plan of a company that must be achievable.

Marketing program:

After determining the customers’ needs, a marketing program or marketing mix must be developed. It is also called as the how aspect of the planning phase, that focuses more on the 4Ps of strategic marketing.

Set marketing and product goals:

1. Once the customer needs are decided and understood, the next step is to set the goals, thereby increasing the chances of success with new products.

2. The next step is to find the key differences such as company’s unique selling point. Each product should have certain characteristics that make the products superior to the competitive substitute.

3. It is best to position the product so that your product will be a “go to “desire for the customer problems. Through psychological marketing the customers will eliminate the other products and prefer to choose yours than others.

4. The last step in marketing is to set the target markets where the needs and goals are met together.

Market products and focus on goal setting:

After solving all the questions and knowing where your company stands, the next planning process is to determine the allocation of resources, and turning the plans into focused action.

To achieve this, the customers are divided into segmented groups and experiment which marketing technique will reach the targeted group and what each group needs. Here come the most important 4Ps of marketing which are:

1. Price strategy: It focuses on the list price, price allowances, discounts, payment periods, and credit contracts.
2. Place (distribution) strategy: It focuses on the distribution channels, outlets, and transportation to get the product to the customer when they are in need of it.
3. Promotion strategy: It focuses on direct marketing, advertising, public relations, and sales promotions creating brand awareness.
4. Product strategy: It focuses on features, packaging, branding, and warranty period of the product.

#2 Implementation Phase

This phase of the strategic marketing is the action portion of the process. If the company cannot evaluate the plan during the early stages, then the hours of planning would be wasted. However, if the planning is structured competently and systematically, then the process will move further through a sales forecast using the following components:

1. Obtaining resources: It gathers the resources for marketing new products.
2. Designing marketing organization: It should place the marketing hierarchy to see the plants to fruition.
3. Developing the schedules for planning: It is the process of developing schedules so that tasks can be accomplished.
4. Executing market plan: It focuses on attention to details and tactics defined in the marketing plan.

#3 Evaluation or control phase of Strategic Marketing

The evaluation phase is also called as the checking phase where it ensures that the results of the program are in line with the goals set. The marketing team will check for any deviations and quickly correct them to get back on course.

The following ways is to understand the effectiveness of marketing strategy:

• Strategy versus tactic: Strategy defines goals and tactics defines actions for achieving goals.

• Measurable versus vague: It achieves goals that define your milestones.

• Actionable versus contingent: A strategic goal should be achieved through the marketing tactics rather than achieving from uncontrollable outside forces.

Wrapping up

In this article we have learned about the basics of strategic marketing and its three important phases. In the next blog you will be learning about customer value mapping and three bundles also known as three principles.

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