Influences on Marketing Strategy
Marketing strategy is a set of choices made by an organization to maximize the potential use of its products and services. The choices are influenced by its mission, target market, environmental assessment and goals. Ultimately, these factors determine how marketers will use the key tactics in the marketing mix: product, promotion, price and place.
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Mission
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An organization's mission is a statement of why it exists and what it hopes to contribute to the marketplace. It is forward-looking and future-oriented, designed to chart a course beyond immediate sales toward enduring success. Both businesses and nonprofit entities can benefit from developing a mission. For example, a hospital could frame its mission as helping to improve public health for the community it serves, not just providing care for sick patients.
Target Market
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A target market is a group of consumers with high potential to buy the firm's brands. Some targets are chosen because they share demographic characteristics, like age, sex or income. Others embrace a distinctive lifestyle, like fitness buffs or frequent travelers. Whatever its profile, the needs and wants of this group influence a wide range of tactical decisions. For example, a cruise operator targeting honeymooners might choose to advertise in brides' magazines and promote its product at wedding industry trade shows.
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Environmental Assessment
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An environmental assessment, also known as a SWOT analysis, helps the firm evaluate its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. Strengths and weaknesses are under the firm's control, including positives like a strong brand image and negatives like outdated warehouses. Opportunities and threats arise from the outside world, like the emergence of a new market or the collapse of an existing one. This information is incorporated into the marketing strategy through resource allocation as well as marketing-mix decisions.
Goals
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The goal of an organizational strategy is like the destination of a trip: It establishes a direction and encourages coordination among different kinds of activities. In marketing, goals are most often expressed in numerical terms, like profit, revenue, return on investment and/or market share. But a qualitative objective, like trying to improve ethical decision-making, can also influence marketing strategy, as long as it is realistic and achievable within a specific time frame.
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