Why you NEED a Marketing Strategy

The Marketing Strategy process

A Marketing Strategy is very important for any business and it is imperative for any business to succeed. First of all you might want to know what a Marketing Strategy is and why you actually NEED one. Basically a Marketing Strategy defines the way you are going and to if your business/website is going in the right direction or not. It helps defines objectives and goals to keep your business on track. Many people think they do not need a Marketing Strategy but there are many reasons to why you need a Marketing Strategy. In this article we will look at the different types of strategies you can use and why you need a strategy.

Having a good Marketing Strategy in place helps your business go in the right direction. It also helps you focus on the correct thing. It helps you find out who your target audience are and therefore serve your customers/clients better. To succeed it helps to know who your target audience are. Knowing your audience helps you market better towards them.

To develop a great Marketing Strategy for your business it is necessary to answer these questions. These questions help you define your business. You should answer questions like:

1. Who is your target audience and How do you Market to them?
2. Do you post good content and What kind of Content do you post?
3. What Resources does your business use and What kind of resources do you have access to?
4. Set KPI's (Key Performance Indicators - A KPI helps you understand if your business is actually reaching your business objectives and monitors your performance)

Answering these questions will help you understand your business better and therefore market your products better and make higher profit.

Do not follow the normal rules, Break the Rules

 

Market Segmentation

Market Segmentation helps choose a broad target market audience for your business and helps you segment or narrow down it down into different groups who have mutual needs, so it is easier to market to the groups of customers. Market Segmentation is the process of splitting a larger target market into a smaller more focused target market.

There are many smaller target audience segments you can split them up to. For example you can split them up by Demographics, Geographic, Behavioural, etc. So for example you could market to all the people in a certain country like New Zealand. Or you could market to people of a certain age range like 18-25 year olds.

When choosing a Market Segmentation for your business there are some things you need to consider. You would need to consider some things like your target market being large enough to make profit from. It must be able to be consistent and something that your chosen market segmentation must be interested in and be responding well to.

Marketing Warfare Strategies 

Marketing Warfare strategies are different types of strategies that are used in business and marketing that are very similar to strategies that are used in warfare. There are many strategies you can use to overcome your competitors.

Offensive marketing warfare strategies - are used to secure competitive advantages; market leaders, runner-ups or struggling competitors are usually attacked

Defensive marketing warfare strategies - are used to defend competitive advantages; lessen risk of being attacked, decrease effects of attacks, strengthen position

Flanking marketing warfare strategies - Operate in areas of little importance to the competitor.

Guerrilla marketing warfare strategies - Attack, retreat, hide, then do it again, and again, until the competitor moves on to other markets.

Deterrence Strategies - Deterrence is a battle won in the minds of the enemy. You convince the competitor that it would be prudent to keep out of your markets.

Pre-emptive strike - Attack before you are attacked.

Frontal Attack - A direct head-on confrontation. (IBM vs Apple in the PC Market)

Flanking Attack - Attack the competitor’s flank. (Japanese cars in the US)

Sequential Strategies - A strategy that consists of a series of sub-strategies that must all be successfully carried out in the right order.

Alliance Strategies - The use of alliances and partnerships to build strength and stabilize situations.

Position Defense - The erection of fortifications.

Encirclement Attack - Cut of the competitor from critical resources and support, access to supply and market (Japanese Pick-up trucks, luxury and Sports Cars in the US)

Hold Strategies

Market leaders seek to hold market share and hold position from competitors. This is when the market leader uses any tactic to maintain their leadership of the market and make sure they are not overtook.

Position Defence Challenger - Plug the gaps and fill the holes. Make sure new competitors cannot have a barrier to entry. (Tesco acquisition of One Stop and Nite and Day Corner Shops in 2002)

Flank Defence - Defend the flanks against attack by extending the defence to cover any weakness. Make sure your company does not have any weaknesses.


Do you have any of your own strategies that you use? What do you do to improve your business? Share it with us in the comment section! Thanks for reading and we hope you enjoyed the article!