Effectively implementing an excellent marketing strategy is the best bet for profitable growth. Such a strategy will be founded on market needs and internal capabilities. It will have at its core, a valuable advantage over your competitors.
The whole company needs to understand what this advantage is. Each person needs to know how they contribute to this advantage.
Bear in mind that the marketing strategy is best if at least each function contributes to developing the plan. Then each department can provide input based on their market contact, as well as the practicalities and impact of the strategy on their department.
That being said, the marketing plan drives the strategy of each functional department.
The marketing strategy drives sales. It determines the customers to focus on – and the prospects to leave alone. It delineates the strengths to sell on, including the overarching advantage of buying from the company. Of course, sales will in turn provide essential feedback on how the plan is working in the field. So, this interaction is critical.
The marketing strategy drives operations. If the strategy is low cost, then ops needs to drive costs out of the product. If it is offering a continuous stream of new products, then ops needs to have the flexibility and expertise to do this cost-effectively.
The marketing strategy drives research and development. It determines whether new products need to be developed much, and the parameters of these products. It also determines the required timing of the product launches.
The marketing strategy also drives finance. It dictates the parameters that need to be monitored and measured. Again, if cost is king, finance needs to ensure the right metrics are being tracked, and to provide the analysis on the success of the strategy.
So, marketing strategy will drive the strategy in the other departments in a company that is geared to grow profitably. Promotional strategy is a piece of the marketing strategy, owned by the marketing department. But marketing strategy is much bigger than that, holding the keys to competitive advantage and therefore profitable growth.
Photo credit: Mr. Mystery Pat Guiney
For more resources, see the Library topic Business Development.