Marketing Strategy and Innovation
Marketing is both strategic and tactical. Great strategy without
effective execution is wasted. A business' competitive position and its industry's maturity determine the
appropriate emphasis on each.
These pages provide a starting point and some guidance on reviewing marketing strategy.
They also offer some specific advice and tools for implementing and executing marketing in the real-world.
Marketing Mix and Marketing Strategy
The most familiar aspects of marketing - the so-called
marketing mix and marketing communications areas
- are marketing's tactical elements. To be
most effective these tactical areas must themselves be organised
around a strategic approach.It is through marketing strategy that a business can most directly steer its fortunes. Focusing on strategic marketing innovations will establish a business' competitive advantage, through which it will ensure its future growth and prosperity.
The strategic marketing approach focuses on things which
will have a fundamental, usually long-term impact
on a business' performance. These include manoeuvring
the business for sustainable competitive advantage
and profitable growth, instigating transformational
market change, setting the basis of competition, brand strategy,
and the development and integration of internal
capabilities for sustained market strength.
Marketing strategy also encompasses the definition of which
business a company is in and where and on what basis the company
invests long-term in a defensible customer franchise
with its selected markets. This includes definition
of target customer groups, of the value propositions for products and brand promises, and of the delivered
customer experience. In other words, market positioning.
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In-Depth: Key Marketing Issues |
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Special Features |
Market Positioning for the Future
The best way to predict the future is to create it. Companies which anticipate,
and indeed shape market trends through their positioning strategy have
the best opportunity for long-term prosperity.
Read about market positioning strategy.
Branding
Branding, establishing a brand's identity and communicating the key benefits and attributes which it represents, has become vital in many business situations.
Brands should be based on knowing what really
matters to customers, the cues they use, and which brand attributes provide real competitive differentiation.
Read about branding strategy.
Delivering Customer Experience
Brands are delivered by at all the points consumers interact with a brand.
These touch points of customer experience, and the relationships delivered
through them, occur right across an organisation.
Delivering the optimal customer experience requires a clear vision
of what will attract customers to the brand,
long-term effort, and management focus.
Read about designing customer experience and brand touch points.
Demand Generation and Marketing ROI
Creation of interest and triggering purchasing decisions are the oxygen of business.
Which ever channels are used, demand generation takes place against a backcloth of factors
a business can use to condition the market.
Weak preparation of these market conditioning factors for demand generation can lead to a poor return on marketing investments (marketing ROI) and a failure to attract new customers or retain existing ones.
Read about demand generation techniques. |
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Marketing Gurus
Most of the biggest ideas shaping how business
approaches marketing have come from a surprisingly
small group of people.
Here, with links to their own websites and
other resources, is our selection of perhaps the
greatest thought leaders in marketing over
the last decade.
Our marketing gurus report is a subjective list, and one which is perhaps
a little wider than might be expected. However,
marketing in the broader sense goes to the
heart of business strategy, so no apologies.
Also, no apologies for leaving out a number of pop-gurus.
While some are highly visible, it can be argued
that others experts make stronger original
contributions.
The Marketing Gurus Report
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