A perfect strategy will take into account company objectives, customer requirements, the activities of competitors and a well looked into prediction of future market patterns that will affect the company.
Another integral part of a marketing strategy is that it must be realistic. There is no point coming up with exaggerated plans that are impossible to meet within the company’s current limitations.
To assist with the development of a successful marketing strategy many companies will turn to SWOT analysis. This involves a company performing an internal audit to ascertain what are the strengths (S) and the weaknesses (W) of the current system that company is using. Once the company knows how it can improve within itself then the next move is to perform an external review which will look at external factors that may present the company with opportunities (O) or threats (T) in the future, examples of these would be political, economical, technological, legal, environmental and social factors all of which can have a profound effect on the performance of a company in any given market.
There are 4 main approaches to marketing that can be defined. These are all shown in the Ansoff matrix below.
The first segment, ‘Market penetration’ involves consolidating your existing product in the existing market. This has a very low risk level. The next segment, ‘Product development’ involves bringing out a new range of products to appeal to your existing market. ‘Market development’ means making your existing products appeal to a new market and finally ‘Diversification’ is the riskiest of all marketing strategies as there are no securities because it involves creating a brand new product to take to a new market.
Marketing strategies must be continually reviewed and altered as needs be to ensure that the company’s strategy stays responsive to shifts in the market.
The idea that marketing strategy is the key to business success is interesting because it is an idea that has both negatives and positives. The marketing strategy of a firm will greatly affect the way in which a firm functions e.g. without goals for the company how do you judge if you are performing well or if you are underperforming? However it is not always necessary for all decisions to be thought out to the detail which is expected in a marketing strategy. This is because a marketing strategy is a time consuming process and for that reason will never be able to stay up-to-date for any long period of time so it would be necessary for someone in the firm to guide the company on his or her own knowledge of the market instead of some goals that were outlined in the past where market pressures may have been different.
In conclusion I believe that a marketing strategy is a useful tool to have because it helps you to see where you have been and where you’re going. However it is not something that should be strictly adhered to as the market is a changing thing and for this reason so should the strategy of the company. So in reference to the statement “Marketing strategy is the key to business success” I would have to say that it isn’t the key but just another important factor that a company must have in place if they want their company to be successful.
