Abstract
Marketing is dynamic and has been evolving since 1960s with the beginning of marketing orientation; this was during the initial stage of capitalism business whereby, initially, firms were concerned with only production and manufacturing of goods i.e. the focus was on producing effective products to meet the demands of the consumers. However, in the 70s companies realized that the needs and wants consumers were the one directing selling of products produced. Therefore, marketers and strategists expanded their knowledge too and came up with plans for there businesses in order to meet such challenges; this witnessed the drafting of marketing guidelines in the form of business strategies, marketing plan and marketing strategies.
Marketing plans forms the basis of drawing marketing strategies for firms. Marketing plan mainly entails crafting a business mission and vision that aids in guiding a business to achieve its goals. Therefore a good mission statement should consist some of the following features; the targeted clients, customer’s needs and wants, customer’s characteristics, the products, particular requirements of customers to be targeted and client’s attitudes among other factors. Also the marketing plan should clearly spell out the firm’s objectives, i.e. in what is referred to as SMART criterion; SMART stands for specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and time bound objectives.
Introduction
A good and sound marketing strategy of any firm should be derived from a good marketing plan that is outlined well. Usually a viable marketing plan includes list of activities to be undertaken; however, such a plan devoid of good tactical foundation may not be of great importance to any firm wishing to prosper.
Marketing Plan and Its Importance
A market plan can be described as a document that reveals the firm’s essential actions that it has to implement in order to attain its main business goals or objectives; usually product line, service or a brand. Marketing plans are usually prepared by the marketing department of a firm and ranges from plans of one year to five years. Marketing plan for one year is usually referred to as an annual plan. Businesses usually incorporate the marketing plan to be part of the firm’s overall business strategy what is normally referred to as business plan. A good marketing plan should usually move from general objectives to specific objectives. The plan aids the concerned management on how to improve business performance stage by stage and provides room for any amendments if it arises in the ordinary course of the business in order to achieve the set objectives (Carter and Lee, 2005).
The most important aspect that a marketing plan covers is that of the firm’s corporate mission statement. The mission statement usually highlights the basic existence of any business; i.e. what really the firm does and how it intends to achieve such goals. The mission statement should not be too narrow or too broad in order to provide room for development of a firm in terms of performance; for instance, if the mission is too broad it may become meaningless to the firm because it may lack clear directions and guidelines to follow. In essence a good mission statement should cover three main topics i.e. the customers who are the most important to any business, needs and wants of such customers to be addressed and also customer groups to be focused on. Other contents of a good marketing plan entails; description of the good s or services to be offered plus the particular features of such products that are distinctive from what is in the market already, market segmentation strategies, the location of the desired business clearly carving out the merits and demerits for marketing, strategies for pricing and the annual budget for marketing that incorporates product launch and promotional activities (Dole and Lowe, 2003).
MARKETING STRATEGY COMPONENTS
Business research reveals that the chief goal of any business is to increase its market share in its undertaking i.e. to increase sales which in turn lead to an increase in profit levels. For firms to attain such objectives it should formulate an efficient marketing strategy. Marketing strategies can be referred to as tactics that a firm intends to utilize in order to better its performance with particular reference to attaining a large market share and enhance its business survival. The components of a marketing strategy include the following;
Overview of the Business
The first component of any firm’s marketing strategy is the general outline of the business undertaking in question. Under this section the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats are clearly spelt out in order to assist in future endeavours. Strength can be defined as a particular skill or distinctive competence that a company can do relatively better than other companies especially its competitors and which the organizations have and contributes to the achievements of the stated goals or objectives. A weakness can be defined as any aspect of the company which may hinder the company from attaining its objectives or goals. Usually, it covers the firm’s assets, resources, and capabilities. An opportunity in this aspect can be defined as any event, development, or a feature of the external environment which creates conditions that are favorable or advantageous to the business in relation to a particular objective or set of goals to be attained. It is an attractive venture for a company’s operations which if exploited will lead to a significant upward change with desired results such as increase in profits margins and growth. A threat can be referred to as an environmental development or event which will present problems or challenges likely to hinder the achievement of organizational objectives, for example, competition, high interest rates, government legislations, declining real income among other factors (Kottler, 1996).
Firm’s Objectives and Achievements
Under this section the question regarding the generation of profits will be addressed; for instance the current profit levels will be highlighted as well as the anticipated profits and how it can be achieved. Questions regarding to firms performance particularly on its sales is highlighted; here how to market the products is outlined particularly focusing on new marketing strategies(Winer, 2007).
Situational/Business Analysis
Business analysis too is conducted whereby too under this carried out whereby PESTLE analysis is performed in order to know the limiting factors. Political factors: These are factors that relates to political system and political instability of countries where firms wish to market its products. This will involve scrutinizing the system of government that such target countries have preferred to market its products. The firms can therefore decide whether to invest in communist or capitalist countries after careful consideration of each political system in terms of carrying out business in the chosen country of interest.
Economic Factors: This will involve a firm analyzing the economic factors that may hinder or augment its operations in the target countries. Such trade barriers like restriction of imports and exports as well as foreign exchange rate systems should be carefully evaluated by the management of the company in order to carry out its operations without economic constraints. Other economic factors of importance to be analyzed by the company will include, inflation particularly anticipated inflation, balance of payments, counter trade, fiscal and monetary policies among other significant factors (Carter and Lee, 2005).
Social Factors: This will involve the management of a company analyzing income level, social structures, religion, educational backgrounds, and family units before selling its products to the customers. History reveals that social factors play a major in role in consumption of products in the society for example some religious beliefs may not allow consumption of some products. Therefore, it will be prudent for the company to clearly identify the right products for the right consumers as well as for the right markets.
Technological Factors: Technology and innovations have taken centre stage in trying to achieve a considerable market share by firms in many industries. Technology provides an opportunity to the firm of expanding through utilization of advanced technologies but at the same time it may contribute negatively to market participation for example where businesses use technologies to compete unfairly. Firms have to utilize advance technologies for example the use of internet marketing while trying to explore new markets in the target market. Such technologies will be useful in that it will save time and financial resources that could have been spent and therefore the management can use the surplus resources in further expansion or pay back its shareholders returns thus getting shareholder confidence in the process.
Legal Factors: All businesses must operate in a business environment deemed to be legal by the target market and the host government. Firms will therefore have to ensure that the sale of there products are allowed by the host country in order to avoid unnecessary legal battles. Also it should observe other legal aspects such as the areas of corporate social responsibility (Carter and Lee, 2005).
Market Position
This analysis will aid the firm to get to know more of its customers and its competitors in the market place. Therefore description of the firm’s customers will be carried out in order to clearly meet their needs by producing products of high quality to them. This implies that the customers needs have to be evaluated in order to avoid future setback in terms of product performance. Under this section too, the firm should outline the main distinctive reason why the customers should choose there products for their use and not those of the competitors (Winer, 2007).
Market Analysis
This will entail outlining the basic goals that the firm wants to achieve after implementing the strategies adopted; for instance a firm may wish to improve its market share or augment its sales. The question of business viability i.e. how a firm can enhance its business operations will be addressed in order to better the performance than the way it is currently. Under this too, the current marketing strategies utilized should be reviewed in order to determine there feasibility and if it can be retained or done away with. Further the issue of funds is addressed with clear budgets drawn in order to avoid shortage or misappropriation of funds in due course of the business undertakings (Dole and Lowe, 2003).
Marketing Strategy
This will involve the tactics that the particular firm in question needs to employ in order to be successful in the market. Such strategies may include the following;
Porter Generic Strategies: Porter generic strategies rely on the dimensions of the strategic scope; meaning the market penetration and strategic strength referring to the firms or sustainable competitive advantage such as cost leadership, product differentiation and market segmentation which are required to meet the challenges of the competition. These strategies include; growth strategies, innovative strategies, among others. Although they are believed to be the best in the market so far, they are yet to be applied by most companies because of the costs involved in their implementation (Kottler, 1996).
Encirclement Strategies: This strategy is also called the envelopment strategy and is a more subtle, gentle, broader and a bit non-offensive but harmful way of attacking the competitor. Normally, this kind of attack is undertaken in two ways. One, introduction of a broader range of products that are similar to the competitor’s products and each of these products will get a share of the same market the competitor is. In the long run, the competitor will be demoralized, weakened and discouraged leading to a state of siege of the competitor. This first method will ensure that full scale confrontation is avoided between the attacker and the target competitor. Secondly, the encirclement can also be based on market niches rather than the products themselves. In this case, the market share is liberated from the target competitor via the expansion of market niches that surround it (Winer, 2007).
Marketing Mix Strategies: A marketing mix is usually used especially on branding and advertising as argued by Jerome McCarthy. The populous four Ps of marketing mix strategies are utilized, these are; Product: Product marketing and management aspects deal with the specifications of the actual good or services and how it relates to customer needs. The products produced by any firm should be diverse and meets the expectations of the customers. The characteristics of the products should be well defined to meet the needs of the consumers; the packaging of the product should also be attractive to entice the customers to buy the products (Kottler, 1996).
Pricing: Pricing is the process of setting a price for a product to be sold in the market. It is not necessarily fixing a monetary value but simply what is exchanged for the product or service at stake e.g. attention, time etc. Firms may adopt the following pricing strategies to enable product reach its marketing standards. Premium pricing is where the uniqueness of the company product is defined such as a fixed online fee; Penetration pricing whereby, once the company achieves the market share, it increases the price of its product. Other strategies may include regional pricing strategy which defines the price according to the regions where the products are sold.
Promotion: Promotion strategy comes in various forms; personal selling, publicity, sales promotion or advertising and it refer to the various marketing strategies of convincing the customers to buy the brand, product or company. Firms should come up with various and best suitable channels of distribution to enable there products reach the targeted market.
Place: Place is also the distribution modes which refer to how the product gets to the customer. Firms should ensure that products are available to customers in time and in convenient places in order to satisfy their needs. The utilization of computer technology for instance can aid a firm to get access to a wider market thus boosting its business performance (Dole and Lowe, 2003).
Implementation, Evaluation and Control
Under this, implementation will simply require the company to carry out its laid down tasks in order to achieve its objectives. Implementation will involve the company putting in practice its planned activities as well considering identifying alternatives and choosing from those alternatives the best options which yield excellent outcomes for the company. The implementation process will entail the company allocating resources to the strategic business units to carry out the marketing strategies adopted. The use of financial forecasting techniques such as those of seasonal trends and cyclical variations should be utilized by the company’s staff in order to determine the appropriate amount of funds, human resource and other materials required for the successful completion of implementation of the adopted marketing research.
Evaluation should also be done constantly by the management of the company. The target markets that the company gets in to should be constantly assessed in order to know there productivity. Such evaluation should be based on profits levels that each target market identified contribute to the company. Under control strategy, the management of any firm should constantly monitor the activities of the company in terms of its productivity. It is the duty for the management concerned to ensure that all production activities are in order, the human resource recruited are competent and that the products manufactured are availed to the market without further delay. Controlling activities will also provide an opportunity to the company to compare the actual results with the expected outcomes and thus identify the areas that need to be addressed urgently (Carter and Lee, 2005).
Conclusion
It should be noted that any marketing tactic should be in line with business strategies formulated. Research indicates that business strategies take in to account the essence of the business existence i.e. what to accomplish, how to conduct business undertakings, what products to produce, location of the business and the target audience. Marketing on the other hand entails selling of business, mainly linking the business with its potential consumers. Therefore we can conclude that business strategy have a closer link with marketing strategy in that at one point they focus on how to improve performance of a business based on some tactics i.e. strategies. On the other hand the marketing strategy is concurrent to a well written marketing plan since it outlines how to implement the action plans chosen (Winer, 2007).
Reference
Carter, S. and Lee, K. (2005): Global Marketing- Changes, New Challenges and Strategies. 1st Edition, Oxford Press, London
Kottler, P. (1996): Principles of Marketing: – Stages of customer relationships. 4th European Edition, Prentice Hall, Harlow
Dole, I. and Lowe, R, (2003): International Marketing Strategy; Analysis, Development and Implementation. 4th. Edition, Thomson Learning,
Hollensen, S. (2004): Global Marketing, a Market-Responsive Approach, 2nd Edition, Essex, and Pearson Education
Winer, R.S., (2007): Marketing Management. 3rd Edition; Upper saddle River, Prentice Hall
