Marketing Strategy
A company’s marketing strategy is the long-term plan it draws up to accomplish its marketing goals. As such, it serves as a road map to these promotional goals. You can think of it as the foundation of your marketing plan. Full market analysis preceded its creation. A well-thought-out marketing plan can help a business maximize its limited resources by directing them toward the most promising sales opportunities.
Coordinating your marketing activities is key to minimizing interference and maximizing profits. A marketing strategy looks at all your selling activities and helps each one support the next, so all your departments know what each is doing. Creating an integrated marketing strategy will help you make better marketing decisions.
Importance of Marketing Strategy
Product Development is Simplified
A marketing strategy assists you in developing products and services with the highest profit potential. This is because marketing strategy begins with market research, which considers your ideal target customer, what your competition is doing, and what trends may be on the horizon. Using this data, you can determine what benefits your customers and clients want, how much they’re willing to pay, and how you can differentiate your product or service from the competition.
Determine Prices
Setting the right price for your product or service based on market research is part of a marketing strategy. If you discovered that customers want a high-end product in your category, your pricing strategy may necessitate selling at prices that create a high-end perceived value. If your target customer is price-conscious and willing to accept fewer frills on your product in exchange for a lower price, your pricing strategy will require you to sell at or below the competition’s price.
Ensures Effective Distribution
Once you’ve determined which product features you’ll offer, who your target customer will be, and what your price points will be, you can decide where you’ll sell to maximize your marketing effectiveness. Younger customers are more likely to use a smartphone or a website to shop and pay with PayPal or a credit card. Older customers may prefer to shop at retail establishments. If your market research indicates that you need to be in retail stores but lack a sales force, you can hire a wholesaler or distributor.
Contributes to Marketing Communications
The brand, or reputation you aim to cultivate for your company, will be informed by the data you collect during market research. Without market analysis and a well-thought-out marketing strategy, you risk sending out messages that don’t align with your brand’s established tone and voice. You can use a marketing strategy to see if advertising in a specific publication, on a certain radio station, or on a specific website is beneficial to your sales goals.