Key part of the general corporate strategy

Marketing strategy is a method of focusing an organization’s energies and resources on a course of action which can lead to increased sales and dominance of a targeted market niche. A marketing strategy combines product development, promotion, distribution, pricing, relationship management and other elements; identifies the firm’s marketing goals, and explains how they will be achieved, ideally within a stated timeframe. Marketing strategy determines the choice of target market segments, positioning, marketing mix, and allocation of resources. It is most effective when it is an integral component of overall firm strategy, defining how the organization will successfully engage customers, prospects, and competitors in the market arena.Corporate strategies, corporate missions, and corporate goals. As the customer constitutes the source of a company’s revenue, marketing strategy is closely linked with sales. A key component of marketing strategy is often to keep marketing in line with a company’s overarching mission statement.

Basic theory:

1. Target Audience
2. Proposition/Key Element
3. Implementation

Tactics and actions

A marketing strategy can serve as the foundation of a marketing plan. A marketing plan contains a set of specific actions required to successfully implement a marketing strategy. For example: “Use a low cost product to attract consumers. Once our organization, via our low cost product, has established a relationship with consumers, our organization will sell additional, higher-margin products and services that enhance the consumer’s interaction with the low-cost product or service.”

A strategy consists of a well thought out series of tactics to make a marketing plan more effective. Marketing strategies serve as the fundamental underpinning of marketing plans designed to fill market needs and reach marketing objectives. Plans and objectives are generally tested for measurable results.

A marketing strategy often integrates an organization’s marketing goals, policies, and action sequences (tactics) into a cohesive whole. Similarly, the various strands of the strategy , which might include advertising, channel marketing, internet marketing, promotion and public relations can be orchestrated. Many companies cascade a strategy throughout an organization, by creating strategy tactics that then become strategy goals for the next level or group. Each one group is expected to take that strategy goal and develop a set of tactics to achieve that goal. This is why it is important to make each strategy goal measurable.

Marketing strategies are dynamic and interactive. They are partially planned and partially unplanned. See strategy dynamics.

Types of strategies

Marketing strategies may differ depending on the unique situation of the individual business. However there are a number of ways of categorizing some generic strategies. A brief description of the most common categorizing schemes is presented below:

• Strategies based on market dominance – In this scheme, firms are classified based on their market share or dominance of an industry. Typically there are four types of market dominance strategies:
  • Leader
  • Challenger
  • Follower
  • Nicher
• Porter generic strategies – strategy on the dimensions of strategic scope and strategic strength. Strategic scope refers to the market penetration while strategic strength refers to the firm’s sustainable competitive advantage. The generic strategy framework (porter 1984) comprises two alternatives each with two alternative scopes. These are Differentiation and low-cost leadership each with a dimension of Focus-broad or narrow.
  • Product differentiation (broad)
  • Cost leadership (broad)
  • Market segmentation (narrow)
• Innovation strategies – This deals with the firm’s rate of the new product development and business model innovation. It asks whether the company is on the cutting edge of technology and business innovation. There are three types:
  • Pioneers
  • Close followers
  • Late followers
• Growth strategies – In this scheme we ask the question, “How should the firm grow?”. There are a number of different ways of answering that question, but the most common gives four answers:
  • Horizontal integration
  • Vertical integration
  • Diversification
  • Intensification

A more detailed scheme uses the categories:

• Prospector
• Analyzer
• Defender
• Reactor
• Marketing warfare strategies – This scheme draws parallels between marketing strategies and military strategies.

[via: Wikipedia]

What is social media and why is it important for your business?

Social media provides you with a free way to communicate with your clientele, it also provides you with a great place to gather information about how your customers view your products and services.  You can interact with your clients, giving them a real sense that you care about their input and feedback.  Social Media also helps your sites ranking in search engines, and is the best way to promote via virtual word of mouth.

Marketing can get pricey, although 63% of consumers and small business owners turn to the internet first for information about local companies and 82% use search engines to do so, only 44% of small businesses have a website and half spend less than 10% of their marketing budget online, according to research from Webvisible and Nielsen.

Social Media can also help generate leads for your business, potential clients may find your interactivity with your customers to be an attractive attribute that will move you ahead of your competition.

Here’s the Social Media sites that we will integrate with your website…

		Facebook.com We create a Facebook pages and integrate it with every site we build. Connect “Facebook is a powerful networking tool that connects you with your prospects and customers in new and engaging ways. There are conversations, events, and networking opportunities that are only happening there; if you’re not on Facebook, you’re missing these opportunities. Every small business owner and entrepreneur should invest some time to determine how Facebook fits in with the rest of his or her marketing efforts.” – flyte.biz
		Twitter.com If you don’t already have a Twitter account, we will create one for you that automatically integrates with your website. We will also integrate it with your site so that when you update your website it updates your twitter! Express “For you, the small business owner, Twitter is an amazing tool that can expand your reach to customers and potential customers. It can allow you to stay in touch and connect with thousands and thousands of people instantly. It can help drive your brand and communicate with customers in a way that you’ve never been able to before. And so much more.”
		LinkedIn.com Business Class Once you (or your company) are a member of LinkedIn and are participating in the community, you can create a “group” for your business or industry and invite people to join. It’s likely anyone you’ve become connected to is interested in the same things you are, so having a group dedicated to your industry where you can send out mass messages, arrange get-togethers or keep members updated makes sense. – searchenginewatch.com
		digg.com Go Viral Digg is a quicn and effective way to reach a large audience with your message.  Articles are ‘dug’ on Digg, and with enough interest your site or blog post may make it to the front page of Digg.com, where it can get 100,000′s of views!  Every site we construct has Digg integrated, and you have the ability to submit all of your content to this site!
		Your Own Network Interact Each site has user log in and the ability for anyone to comment on your sites blog or even its pages!  You can build a community of your clients, and even use your site to help refine your content by asking for feedback!

]]> http://www.resonatemarketinggroup.com/651/feed/ 0 http://www.resonatemarketinggroup.com/649/ http://www.resonatemarketinggroup.com/649/#comments Mon, 28 Mar 2011 16:25:43 +0000 admin http://vezign.secur3host.com/sites/resonate/?p=649 There is a great debate on whether to use images (photographs) or icons (simple graphic illustrations) in communicating through imagery in marketing.  Our response to this is that striking the right balance between both is the correct answer.

When To Use Each

Its good to use icons when you’re conveying information.

Icons are traditionally used in these assistive technologies because of their simplicity and clarity. Because they are painstakingly designed and engineered, icon-based systems remain unable to handle a large number of topics to the depth that a user might want.

It’s good to use images when you’re seeking an emotional response from your audience.

Body language, eyes, and expressions are effective ways of evoking emotion in marketing. This is why imagery/photography is used. It creates impact and drama which connect the message with the audience.  Icons do not command an emotional response.