Marketing: Planning and Strategizing

Sections of This Topic Include

Rules of Marketing: Old Vs. New
Makin’ the Marketing Strategy Happen!
Additional Perspectives on Market Planning

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Related Library Topics

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Rules of Marketing: Old Vs. New

(The following article also addresses public relations — the opinions in the
article apply to both marketing and public relations. Note that many people
would assert that public relations is a form of outbound marketing.)

What is Marketing? What is PR?

You’ve likely heard it before – in the digital world, “The
lines have blurred between Marketing and PR.”

What does that mean? How have the lines blurred? In order to answer these questions,
let’s take a look at the OLD versus the NEW rules of Marketing, as proposed
by David Meerman Scott in his bestselling
book, The New Rules of Marketing and PR.

The OLD Rules of Marketing

The message was delivered ONE-WAY, and CREATIVITY was the secret sauce that
commanded the audience’s attention. Among the fundamental concepts of
the OLD marketing paradigm:

Advertising was the core tool
The advertising message was generally crafted to appeal to the masses
Advertising INTERRUPTED the audience with a one-way message
Advertising engaged campaigns for a defined time period
Creators focused on creativity – and award-winning campaigns
Advertising and PR were different specialties, run by different people

The OLD Rules of PR

The ultimate goal: Spin a press release to capture reporters’ attention,
then get a clip of the story, to show that the message was viewed by the audience.

Media comprised the toolbox, in order to get the message out
A press release was the core tool
Only significant news commanded the attention of the media
It was all in “the spin” (or HYPE!)
Quotes from third parties were an important element of a press release
Press releases were meaningless unless a reporter decided that it was worthy
of a story

The NEW Rules of Marketing and PR

Since the internet is now one huge publisher, ANYONE can learn how to create
compelling messages and publish them. Getting found online is the science and
art. A few of the new rules include:

People don’t want “spin” – they want authenticity
People don’t want to be interrupted anymore (it’s now called
SPAM)
People don’t want to be ‘told’ (push marketing), they
want to be heard
People want VALUE (content), which develops relationship and trust
Marketing and PR can reach niche audiences online in a wider variety of
ways
Content is KING, and stays online, with no end to the campaign

The New TOOLS of Marketing and PR

It’s no longer TV, radio, newspapers, magazines, direct mail, etc. Meaningful,
valuable CONTENT is the vehicle that captures audiences’ attention. It
is now found on:

Websites
Blogs
Microblogs (Tweets)
Social Media platforms (Facebook.com, Myspace.com, etc)
Article Directories
Videos
Podcasts
Etc, etc etc!

Makin’ the Marketing Strategy Happen!

Implementing a marketing strategy is a multi-faceted activity. A good marketing
strategy is driven by a clear, simple positioning statement. This makes it clear
to your employees and market, where the company is superior to the competition.
The marketing strategy encompasses the product or service offering, pricing,
promotion and distribution – or delivery of the product or service to
your customers.

So, the marketing strategy is all-encompassing. It drives product features,
time from order to delivery, logistics, research and development, customer services
— in short, it drives what is key for all facets of the business.

Consequently, implementing a marketing strategy involves so much more than
marketing. It involves the whole company.

How you implement the marketing strategy depends who you are in the organization.
Are you the president or the marketing director? If the organization has developed
a marketing strategy, both need to be aligned with the strategy, on-board and
enthusiastic.

The implementation of the marketing strategy can begin with the development
of the marketing strategy. The organization can be involved or informed of the
status of the development of the strategy. The input of operations, regulatory
and sales can be part of the information that is used to develop the strategy.

Or the strategy can be developed by the management team, and rolled out to
the company once it is completed. The extent to which each approach works, depends
a lot on the issues involved with the strategy development, the culture of the
company, and the buy-in to the plan by the company as a whole.

If, for example, operations was asked for an opinion, it is very important
to close the loop, and let operations know what happened to the input. How it
was used in developing the plan and, if possible, how the input affected the
final strategy that was developed.

If the plan is being rolled out with no input, then it is critical for the
department heads to consider the expected response from their teams, and to
ensure the potential issues will be addressed. If unexpected issues are raised,
it is critical to research these issues and respond to them. However, the key
is to effectively demonstrate how the plan is in the interest of each department,
in particular, the growth of the company. Information that provides confidence
in this result is essential to provide, and an inclusive, enthusiastic, confident
tenor of the meeting is important.

However, it is much more than one roll out meeting, or several roll out meetings.
Implementation includes the informal discussions in the hall, during chance
encounters, in regular meetings. People will absorb the information, and come
up with excellent questions that need to be taken into account.

There is, of course, the formal implementation of the strategy as well. It
will translate into objectives for performance evaluations, possibly organization
shifts and changes.

As the company moves through the changes, focus on gaining some small wins
first. This increases confidence in the new strategy and increases momentum.
Keep it forefront in the company, stay positive and flexible.

Additional Perspectives on Market Planning

Definition of Strategic Market Planning
Planning Your Market Strategy
How to Write a Marketing Plan
Market Planning Worksheet
Sample Marketing Plan
Target
and Market to Your Audience
Makin’
the Marketing Strategy Happen!
Understand
your Buyers’ Behavior: The Key to Effective Promotion

Products and Market Planning
Revisiting and Revamping Your E-Marketing Plan
First Steps to Marketing a Small Business
Learning How to Make Market Segmentation Work Again
What
Gandhi taught us about business planning
Steve
Harrison: Publicity Power
Sample
Marketing Plan
Strategic
Marketing

Marketing Ideas

Inexpensive Marketing Ideas For Small Businesses
100 Awesome Marketing Ideas You Can Use Right Now
Why Nonprofits Need a Digital Marketing Plan (applies to for-profits, as well)

10 Best Digital Marketing Ideas And Strategies To Grow Your Business
Top 25 Digital Marketing Tips & Ideas From The Pros

For the Category of Marketing:

To round out your knowledge of this Library topic, you may
want to review some related topics, available from the link below.
Each of the related topics includes free, online resources.

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selected for their relevance and highly practical nature.