Do we need a strategy?

Do we need a marketing strategy? Do we need to have a market intelligence competency?

Yes, it is essential nowadays:

• strategy,
• tactics,
• detailed plan,
• fast implementation,
• fast reaction to changes
• and most boring – process analysis, testing and optimization, and once again implementation into actual operations

Is it something more challenging than commercial creation or any promotional gadget preparation?

The answer is YES.

Why is it so important?

Because it gives short and long-term strength to your company.

Why is it so unique, and most marketing agencies don’t want to propose it to their clients?

Because they want to present fast solutions for marketing departments – a beautiful commercial on the first newspaper page. But what about customers? What do they need?

Yesterday, I read a great article about Generation Y, born 1980-1996, and “Cool brands stay hot”

It looks like not only me and my friends are overloaded with information, the same marketing tactics, and push sales.

Digideo’s marketing strategy process looks following:

1. questions and questions

Every industry has its specifics. Every company has a different situation – internally and externally, its age and development potential. It means every company is unique and needs unique solutions:

• What did you do previously? How?
• What results did you achieve from specific actions?
• How much is the new customer acquisition?
• What is the retention?
• How much does your client pay you on average?
• What is the cost of serving this customer? – it is scarce knowledge. Simply, many companies don’t know this cost. I can analyze it as well.
• What services do you have?
• What services did your customers use more often?
• Did you try to contact your previous customers who used your services?
• Who else is in your environment? contractors, subcontractors, the supply chain, etc?

2. meeting with key employees

3. clarifying the goal and the scope of strategy after interviews

4. analyzing the situation: including competitors, SWOT

5. building strategy for a particular goal with measures and KPI for processes

6. creating the high-level strategy implementation plan = like a project plan with measures

It will take 2-4 weeks for small companies and 2-3 months for huge multinational companies.

Why is it essential to spend time on marketing strategy planning?

1. it gives you a direction, vision, and knowledge about yourself and competition, the environment around you

2. it sets goals and plans how to achieve them

3. it can look at your processes from outside and help in better performance and cost cutting, for example

4. it will help in analyzing your current activities – ROI, efficiency, quality, and results for the company

5. and many others

MINUSES:

1.  TIME – yes – you need to find time for me for this job

2. COST – yes – it costs

3. changing environment – yes – it has to be reviewed after a particular period – half a year or quarter.