Marketing strategy development

In simple terms, what is a marketing strategy and why does a business need it

Marketing strategy is an action plan that helps a business understand how to attract customers, build brand awareness, and increase sales. It answers the questions: “Who is our customer?”, “What do we offer?”, and “How will we promote it?”.

What does developing a company’s marketing strategy include and what are its tasks?

• analysis – to understand what the consumer wants, their “pain points,” what competitors are doing, and what needs to be changed in the company, product, or service
• positioning, USP (unique selling propositions), mission – to understand what to communicate to the consumer
• solution, model (the core of the strategy) – to understand how to address the customer’s “pain”
• pricing policy – to understand at what price to sell services to the consumer
• channels and communication tools – to understand where and how to reach the consumer
• goals, timelines, systems, responsible parties – to stay focused

All blocks are very important and interconnected. For example, choosing the wrong channels and tools will waste finances, and sales may be low. Even if communication is correct, but positioning or target audience is defined incorrectly, this can significantly affect sales.

Types of marketing strategies

According to Jack Trout’s classification:

• defensive (leader, №1) – attacking yourself (the leader), mathematics of defensive battle, working ahead
• offensive (№2 or №3) – follow the leader, find their weak spot (weakness as strength), and attack in a focused way
• flanking – capturing a market segment, acting unexpectedly, having the courage to finish what was started
• guerrilla – finding a small segment (with enough resources to defend), not behaving like a leader, being flexible

It is important to remember the complexity of “conquest” sales – convincing a client to switch from an established competitor is usually much harder than attracting a new client. And acquiring a new client costs 5 times more than retaining one.

By principle of approach to product/service creation, brand orientation can be on:

• product (first develop the product, then marketing is the tool to deliver information)
• advertising (marketing – creating good, “cool” content based on trend analysis)
• sales (marketing – supporting sales, simply put – lead generation)
• market (marketing – researching market and consumer needs and developing a strategy/brand based on this data)

We usually choose market (consumer) orientation as the most effective and predictable. Product orientation can also be successful, BUT it is important to remember that 90% of startups fail, and the main reason is the lack of market need for the product.

What should a company’s marketing strategy be like and why is it needed?

The strategy, including positioning, mission, values/principles, should be:

• simple
• clear
• concise

So that:

• the team and clients can easily understand it, since any tactical decision must be made quickly

• make correct strategic and tactical decisions, which requires understanding the breadth and depth of the situation and having up‑to‑date information

• focus actions on implementing specific marketing tasks. At the initial stage of a project, a huge number of tasks arise that require resources (time, money, effort). And all of them seem urgent. Without making decisions within the framework of the strategy, these resources are often spent before achieving the planned goal. Lack of focus is one of the biggest strategic mistakes in business. Once a company loses focus, it loses clients.

Developing a marketing strategy is a very labor‑intensive process that requires professionalism, certain experience, and deep immersion in a specific case.

Learn how we developed a marketing strategy for Ready to Fight – a platform for simple and effective search of sparring partners, opponents for matches, trainers, agents, and solving other tasks in boxing.