Strategic Marketing Definition- With Precise Details & 7 Examples

Strategic Marketing is the method a company effectively differentiates itself from its competitors by capitalizing on its strengths to provide permanently better value to customers than its competitors.

Strategic marketing is becoming a necessity for businesses to understand their consumers and the market and then create marketing strategies that propel their organization forward in these markets.

Strategic marketing is ensuring that all of your marketing efforts align with your overall plan to engage the information you have with the audience that needs to hear it.

Strategic marketing is incorporated in many different marketing and business careers to help companies make the most effective and profitable by understanding what the consumer wants.

A good marketing strategy includes how your business approaches the market and what you know about marketing to develop techniques and tactics that will achieve your marketing goals.

Strategic marketing aims to maximize a company’s advantages and strengths over competitors in the eyes of its target audience. It does this by answering three key questions; where, how and when should the business compete.

Strategic marketing starts with research, according to “Philip Kotler“. Effective market research enables us to discover new markets consisting of buyers with different needs or to recognize new requirements in the current market.

Strategic marketing states that the company should focus primarily on the target audience that is seen as having high sales potential. The company’s marketing strategy should distinguish its products and services from competitors and competitors. The marketing strategy should also be such that customers can perceive this difference. According to Kotler, the strategy is to be successful by making a difference.

How to Create a Marketing Strategy?

Companies should do a market analysis before determining a marketing strategy. Customer audience and potential customer behavior should be examined. The company and its brand should determine where it is in the market. An examination should be made to include details such as what the current product and service will offer to customers, what it will bring, and the features that differ from the rival product.

Product content, price, competition in the sector, sales strategies in strategic marketing; promotional activities, campaigns; Many factors such as the target audience that the product will reach, the specific characteristics of the audience and the accessibility to the product are discussed.

It makes sense to create a marketing strategy after preparing a detailed research report on the product, including the elements we mentioned above, and making a versatile evaluation.

Like a business plan, marketing strategies can be changed as needed to improve your results. After your business is operational, you will need to evaluate and adjust your marketing strategy from time to time as a result of your market research and performance to take into account changing market conditions, changes in demand and other factors that affect your sales.

Why is Strategic Marketing Important?

Strategic marketing puts emphasis on creating the right opportunity to reach out to the audience and meeting their requirements in the most optimal method. In the current economy, just creating goods and expecting to get buyers is certainly not going to work out.

If a company does not have a good marketing strategy, it has little chance of success in any line of business. It is impossible in sectors where competition is intense. Today, the development of digital marketing and the development of traceable data and analysis tools on physical sales enable us to monitor the effectiveness of marketing strategies better. When preparing a marketing strategy, companies should determine their goals, target audience and how they can compete.

What is Strategic Thinking?

Strategic thinking is to look for ways to take the right place with the right products at the right time, taking into account the opportunities and threats in the target market, the strengths and weaknesses of the business against the competitors. With strategic thinking, the business can create a sustainable competitive advantage and manage uncertainty.

Companies basically seek answers to three questions with strategic thinking.

a) Where we are: It examines issues such as the company’s strengths and weaknesses, the competitive situation, market opportunities and threats.

b) Where we want to reach: Usually in a period of a few years, the target point of my company is determined. This goal should be in line with the company’s goals.

c) How we can reach it: The marketing strategy and how this strategy will be implemented by whom and when is determined. Besides, the necessary budget, income and expenditure estimates are tried to be determined in order to achieve the goals.

What Is Strategic Marketing Planning?

The Strategic Marketing Plan is the management process that includes the strategies developed by companies regarding marketing in the medium and long term and the implementation of these strategies.

The Strategic Marketing Plan has a macro meaning for a company and is a management process that will benefit the business in the long run.

When writing your plan, be specific using detailed steps, visuals, and budget projections. Keep your promise to the customer in mind so that your marketing strategy matches what you want the customer to experience when doing business with you. Make sure you refer to your marketing strategy when developing, evaluating, or changing your marketing plan.

In recent years, the globalizing world, intertwined country markets and the increase in competition as a result of all these have caused the strategic marketing plans to be used more in enterprises.

The four main strategic parts of the strategic marketing plan are as follows.

a) Goals and Objectives

b) Growth Strategies

c) Strategic Direction and Mission

d) Business portfolio plan

a) Goals and Objectives

Qualitative goals: the company’s capacity, strength

Quantitative targets: Company’s sales, market share, return on investment, profit.

Company’s Position in the Sector: Developing new products, Developing distribution channels, Strengthening the position in the sector, Improving marketing and sales channels, Giving importance to training activities.

b) Growth Strategies

To improve product quality. Choose markets that are prone to growth. To carry out the long-term brand and product positioning studies. Create distribution channel options. Calculate the growth potential of the market correctly.

c) Strategic Direction and Mission

Determine the company’s areas of expertise. Predict the future of companies and products with medium and long term forecasts. To follow the changing market conditions, to predict the differentiation in the customer base. Adapt to new technologies. To predict consumer behavior, environmental conditions and competition conditions, to closely follow the course of the economy and to ensure the adaptation conditions of your company.

d) Portfolio Plan

Your company’s strategic marketing plans should be prepared in accordance with the four types of business portfolio plans listed below.

• Existing Products / Existing Markets (Market Penetration)
• New Products / Existing Markets (Product Development)
• Existing Products / New Markets (Market Development)
• New Products / New Markets (Diversification)

How Is Strategic Marketing Done?

Before you write your marketing strategy, you need to know how your product or service benefits others and how it is unique (unique selling proposition) to other businesses in the market. What’s more, you need to do market research to understand your competition, your target market, and other factors that will affect your ability to get people to reach your business and get them into your business.

How To Create An Effective Marketing Strategy?

1. Determine Your Target Audience

One of the most important points that will affect the success of a marketing strategy is to identify the target audience correctly. This is one of the basic principles that the marketing team must adhere to when creating a permanent marketing strategy. When determining the target audience, the question to ask is what are the expectations for any new marketing strategy.

2. Formulate Your Marketing Strategy

Marketing departments should constantly review their marketing strategies and make reassessments based on current developments and market conditions. Having a clear, straightforward and covering all phases of marketing can help reduce unnecessary communication with vendors or staff as well as keep the whole team on the same page.

3.Customize Your Marketing Strategy

Customizing the marketing strategy enables a one-on-one relationship with customers. Before it became a brand, marketing was all about making it personal. Staying personal is a challenge with marketing automation, but the basics still hold. One-on-one marketing to win and retain loyal customers and engage followers is no longer an option, but a necessity.

4.Develop Content Marketing Strategies

Content marketing strategy is one of the most critical factors that increase marketing and sales levels. However, developing quality content should become a system-dependent rule rather than a perceived process independent of the industry and your marketing strategy. Social media channels and your website are the most effective way to communicate directly with your customer base, but the main expectation of all users, including your customer base, is quality content.

5. Build Alliances for Effective Marketing

Marketing partnerships have several advantages for running a marketing campaign and building alliances. For starters, businesses tend to offer better content when collaborating with others. In addition, it is cheaper than traditional methods to create marketing partnerships, achieve success faster and present the brand to a new audience.

6. Collaborate with influencers

Another way to gain a new audience and increase brand awareness is to collaborate with popular influencers in the industry. For example, to popularize Microsoft’s streaming platform Mixer, it has formed a major partnership with renowned gamer publisher Ninja, increasing Mixer’s user base. On the other hand, many influencers with global or local reputation advertise many brands with their posts on social media channels.

7. Produce Solutions to Problems

One of the most important conditions for building brand loyalty is to provide effective and fast solutions to customers who have problems. It is a great way to make a lasting impression on the customer. In order to determine customer expectations in the fastest way, it is important to use social media channels effectively and to respond quickly and solution-oriented to incoming notifications.

5W1H – Comprehensive Marketing Strategy

Comprehensive marketing strategy gives clear answers to all questions such as who, what, when, where, why and how about the business. A successful strategy includes the answers to all these factors that we can shorten as 5N1K for a business to take place in the market.

• Who: The analysis of the target market and customers of the business.

• When: When the company meets the needs of its customers and when it offers value to them.

• Where: In what geography or where the company operates.

• What: The company looks for an answer to the question of what customer needs it meets.

• How: How the company meets the needs of customers and

It focuses on the distinctive capabilities and competitive advantages that make it different from its competitors.

• Why: Seeks an answer to the question of what is the primary purpose of the company. The most straightforward answer to this question is to be sustainable and profitable. In this context, it is vital to determine the business model that the business uses to make a profit.

Strategic Marketing Process Possible Problems

The strategic marketing process, from the moment it begins, has problems due to internal and external factors. Events that will happen sometimes require you to proceed without deviating from your strategy or changing your route, even if you are only cautious. However, sometimes it may be necessary to produce fast and effective solutions and revise plans.

a) Organizational Problems:

• Lack of resources and personnel during the implementation of marketing plans.
• Customer needs change, disappear or not be determined correctly.
• Change in consumer demography.

b) Problems Related With Marketing Department:

• Missing Inflexibility.
• Performance assessment problems.
• Lack of Coordination.
• Poor information management
• Communication problems within the department.

When you understand your market correctly and the competition in your market, your company will benefit greatly. Conducting a more effective sales process will reduce your costs. To be sustainable and competitive over competitors, you must have the highest level of knowledge.

Effective marketing is all about focusing on the goal. If you can reach your target audience, it means lower costs and higher profits. Effective market research is required for effective marketing.

• You must evaluate the comprehensive market opportunities.
• You should define your customers’ needs and segment the market in terms of maximum and least profit potential.
• It would be best if you researched how current customers and prospective customers evaluate your services.
• Identify legal, regulatory and demographic trends that may be problematic,
• You should analyze competitors comprehensively and periodically.