Marketing Plan : Choice Of Marketing Strategies

Marketing Plan : When we talk about marketing strategies within a Marketing Plan, we refer to a set of decisions about actions and resources to use that will allow us to achieve the final objectives of the company or organization.

A digital marketing strategy consists of adapting our internal factors to external factors, in order to obtain the best competitive position. We should not classify this phase of the Marketing Plan as “rational”, but on the contrary, the definition and selection of strategies is the most useful exercise for marketing planning.

The definition of a marketing strategy is something very simple, it is nothing more than the plan to achieve the objectives of a business.

For the design of our strategy, it will be of vital importance to know the objectives and resources that our company has. Another aspect to keep in mind will be the competition in the market, which will be decisive when choosing our marketing strategy.

Types Of Marketing Strategies

Introduce you to the different types of digital marketing strategies most used, in order to help you with your marketing plan;

Portfolio strategy

The first marketing strategy that we present to you is the portfolio strategy. This strategy is responsible for setting the course to be followed for the establishment of each business strategic unit, detailing for them the different product-market combinations that the company must develop.

To define the portfolio strategy, we have the following tools:

The BCG matrix (Matrices of the Boston Consulting Group).

The Ansoff matrix (Growth direction matrix).

The competitive position matrix.

Strategic positioning method.

From the application of these tools, we will obtain the necessary conclusions to determine a penetration strategy, development of new products, entry into new markets, diversification.

Within the examples of marketing strategies, the segmentation strategy is in charge of deciding on which of the segments in which we have classified the market the company is going to act. Segmentation can be of three types:

1) Differentiated: 

when we address each of the market segments with a different offer and positioning.

2) Undifferentiated: 

when the company decides to target, despite having identified customer segments with different needs, with the same product offering and the same positioning.

3) Concentrated: 

It consists of adapting the offer to the needs of various specific segments.

The company will try to identify the segments in different categories, called: strategic segments, priority strategic segments, and non-strategic segments.

We define the strategic segment as that segment to which the company is going to target or concentrate knowing that we have an advantage over our main competitors.

Positioning strategy

The following marketing strategy is known as a ” positioning strategy“. It consists of defining, in a global sense, how we want the decided strategic segments to perceive us, that is, with what attributes we want them to identify us in the mind of the consumer.

We have many ways of considering positioning: in comparison with the competition, due to an advantage provided by the product, using the image of the company, the characteristics of the use of the product, a consumption situation, or some type of consumer. 

It is convenient to respect a certain number of rules:

• Know the current positioning of our brand as well as the main consumers.
• Decide the position to adopt and identify the most important elements that allow us to claim the position.
• Evaluate the interest in that position.
• Analyze the components of the product or brand that lead us to position in the mind of the consumer.
• Estimate the degree of vulnerability of that position.
• Ensure the coherence of the desired positioning of the elements of the marketing mix.

When we talk about positioning strategy as a concept, we have to bear in mind that we are designing and coordinating three different strategic marketing keys: the positioning of the company, the product, and the positioning with the customer.

a) Positioning of the company

Digital marketing is a process of building markets and positions, not just promotion and advertising. Marketing must be qualitative and we must not forget that many of the customer’s decisions have to do with service, trust, image, etc.

b) Product positioning

The position of the product in the market must be significant and for this, we must focus on intangible positioning factors such as service, quality, leadership, image, etc. (we must look for the intangible and be good at it). We must direct our products to a specific audience and be excellent in it, this will undoubtedly help us to better understand our customers, have less competition and know it better.

c) Positioning before the client

Fixing our eyes on the client, we stress the importance of a key value in the entire positioning process: credibility. This concept is associated with other equally positive signs, such as trust, prestige, fidelity, etc.

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