Talking about marketing strategy

The purpose of a marketing strategy is to help a company deliver its business objectives.

It follows that first of all there should be a business plan that sets out what these objectives are accompanied by a strategy for achieving them. In many companies the business plan can often be dominated by financial projections including revenue forecasts and investment in capital expenditure.  Both revenue and capital expenditure is relevant to marketing. Sometimes the business objectives are purely financial such as to achieve percentage growth target  and hit profit goals.  Although companies put a lot of effort into forecasting and budgeting it is still easy to be too optimistic in forecasting high revenue, then spending as though that forecast revenue is actually being achieved when often it isn't. The impact of new product introductions can also be  over estimated, particularly as they have usually been developed with the expectation of rapid market uptake which if the marketing is wrong may not be achieved.

There are two important elements to the marketing plan - new product development and marketing communications. New product development is an essential part of the marketing plan that will incur investment in both R&D resource and in production equipment such as custom tooling to develop and manufacture the product. New products will typically require independent testing and authentication against standards and there may also be intellectual property costs such as patents and trademarks to consider as well. Product management of both new development and product maintenance of the total  portfolio will strategically aim to maintain a competitive market position. Competitive factors will include the specification and performance of the product, its price and availability.

Communicating product messages will work together using a range of integrated marketing communications techniques in a comprehensive and 'joined up ' plan . The 'marcoms' part of the marketing plan should describe the rationale for the methods being deployed, identify on-going issues such as developing brand values and awareness, specific campaigns such as new product launches, events such as exhibitions and include media schedules and timescales. Supporting the marketing communications plan should be a budget which will in turn be a component of the company budget.

It is this attention to strategic planning and detail  that distinguishes marketing from sales. Sales will have a focus on more immediate matters resulting in the closure of a sale and achieving targets. Indeed the personalities of people in sales and marketing can be quite different as well.