Marketing Strategy! More Exciting than Situation Analysis

Strategy. The term evokes great inspiration, perhaps due to it's military origin. Alas, Julius Caesar you are not, but you do have a business to run. Skip the MBA and the ancient world philosophy. Instead, lets break it down and get your focus group thinking in productive terms (last week was Situation Analysis).

Segmentation: A Fortune 500 Marketing Director said that during interviews for marketing analysts, the interviewee gets 10 minutes to mention segmentation - its that important. Segments, which your business and your competitors are concerned with, are groups of customers who will respond to identical marketing efforts in a common fashion (e.g. laptop owners who check their personal email regularly). If customers within the segment don't respond in a similar fashion, let me clue you, this is a poorly defined segment. Back to the drawing board.

Targeting: Your business can't please everybody. Those segments, which are your sweet spot, mean everything, ditch the rest. Here is an example. If your business offers Quality and there is a segment that only cares about Price, ditch 'em. You should get a sinking feeling from segments demonstrating elastic demand. No marketing expert can help you with those price-sensitive folks! You are an extractor, in the no man's land of operational efficiency and price wars! I pity you! Sorry about that, I get a little emotional around commoditized services.

Positioning: "You are the one I've been looking for all my life"! Okay, that's dramatic; hopefully, you see the analogy: Your company's brand occupies a place in the hearts and minds of the customers (if it's strong) who comprise your targeted segment. Your company's brand compels a purchase decision (if it's positive, "BP" = "oil spill" to most people, not exactly warm and fuzzy).

As Julius said: "People worry more about what they can't see (understand), than what they can". So, understand your business marketing strategy.

Next week is about Strategy Execution. I must leave you with a Julius quote that happens to coincide with this blog's 3 part series: "I came, I saw, I conquered. Veni Vidi Vici."

Part 3 - Conquest!