Strategic marketing is an important method for a company to use as part of its overall business strategy. The term strategic marketing is sometimes used interchangeably with advertising, but the two actually are very different. Advertising is actually a tool used by companies to create awareness, while strategic marketing is a specific and focused way of using media to get a particular message out to the public.
Marketing strategy is actually a planning process which will help an organisation to focus its limited resources in on the most promising opportunities to improve sales and reach a sustainable competitive edge. As such, a company needs to develop a detailed strategy which identifies the goals of the organisation, the target market it intends to penetrate, the methods it plans to use in order to achieve those goals, the range of people it intends to communicate with, the type of media it intends to advertise its wares to, and the proportion of expenditure which should be spent on each of these various aspects.
It also needs to have a solid measurement programme in place so that the effectiveness of a company’s strategic marketing can be monitored. This planning process is then integrated with other elements of the organisation’s management system such as planning, developing and operating a marketing strategy, implementing that strategy, monitoring the results, and periodically reviewing the results – just to name a few of the key strategic marketing elements.
In order to ensure that a company is on the right path towards reaching its strategic marketing objectives, it is imperative that a swot analysis, or series of strategic marketing plans, is carried out by the organizer or management committee of the company. A swot analysis is an assessment of the strength and weakness of a company’s marketing position. Its strength is determined by several factors, including the type of products the business provides, its market position, and its competitors. A weak point might be the marketing strategy, or the range of products the organisation offers.