Marketing your products and services strategically will ensure you get the most out of all your business activities. You need to find the best fit in a market crowded with customers and competitors. Best fit will maximise the value of your product or service, maximising your profit. Maximising profitability is the aim of strategic marketing.

Understanding your marketplace, knowing your competitors and being aware of your business’s capabilities will help you find the best fit for your product or services. Markets are fluid and tend to change. Being aware and anticipating those changes can help you maintain a successful business.

I use a variety of simple tools to help you develop a successful market strategy. I believe in clear and simple. Marketing isn’t necessarily easy but it doesn’t have to be complicated.

Some of these tools include the 2 by 2 Ansoff Matrix which considers the four potential market strategies. The classic SWOT analysis considers your internal (your strengths and weaknesses) and external environment (the opportunities and threats). The 3C Triangular Model looks at your business in relation to your customers and your competitors.

The Marketing Mix

The marketing mix also needs to be considered. The classic 4Ps of marketing; Price, Product, Promotion and Place (distribution channels) are best combined with the 3Ps of service marketing; People, Process (business systems) and Physical Evidence (livery etc.). It is difficult these days to market just a product. The Core of your offering may be a product but what surrounds your product (what marketing theory often refers to as the augmented product) is often service orientated. So it isn’t just the services that need those 7Ps.

Brand Strategy

They say a brand is a promise you make to your customers.  The better you keep that promise the higher the value of the brand.  Your brand is not just your logo.  Your brand is the compelling reason why a customer buys your products or services.  A brand is arguably the most value asset a business has. Brands enable businesses to charge premium prices and increase market share.  Getting your brand right and increasing the value of your brand and the value of your business is an important part of your marketing strategy.

You need to satisfy your customers’ needs more successfully than your competitors (and make a profit). That will take understanding your customers’ needs, understanding your competitors’ strengths and weaknesses, understanding your own strengths and weakness and understanding what going on in the market that might influence you, your customers and your competitors.

Marketing takes a day to learn. Unfortunately it takes a lifetime to master.
Philip Kotler