Please Click For; Developing Your Marketing Strategy-  Part 3/4

TC YEDİTEPE UNIVERSITY INSTITUTE OF GRADUATE STUDIES IN SOCIAL SCIENCES PH.D. IN BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION PROGRAM

BUSS 611- Advanced Seminar in Strategic Management and Corporate Governance / Spring 2015

STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT TOOLS & TECHNIQUES:

Developing Your Marketing Strategy-  Part 4/4

Market Communication and Promotion

Communication and promotion is the fourth element in marketing strategy.

Marketing communication helps companies to develop brand awareness, which means that consumers translate product information into perceptions about the product’s attributes and its position within the larger market. An effective marketing communication strategy may design with many marketing communication components.

Branding is one of the most important key for marketing communication strategy.

Brand Positioning can be defined as an activity of creating a brand offer in such a manner that it occupies a distinctive place and value in the target customer’s mind. Generally, the brand positioning process involves:

• Identifying the business’s direct competition
• Understanding how each competitor is positioning their business today
• Documenting the provider’s own positioning as it exists today
• Comparing the company’s positioning to its competitors’ to identify viable areas for differentiation
• Developing a distinctive, differentiating and value-based positioning concept
• Creating a positioning statement with key messages and customer value propositions to be used for communications development across the organization

There are three basic types of promotional strategies – a push strategy, a pull strategy or a combination of the two. In general, a push strategy is sales oriented, a pull strategy is marketing-oriented and a push-pull strategy is a combination of the two.

Push Strategy

A push promotional strategy works to create customer demand for your product or service through promotion: for example, through discounts to retailers and trade promotions. Appealing package design and maintaining a reputation for reliability, value or style are also used in push strategies. Push promotional strategies also focus on selling directly to customers, for example, through point of sale displays and direct approaches to customers.

Pull Strategy

A pull promotional strategy uses advertising to build up customer demand for a product or service. For example, advertising children’s toys on children’s television shows is a pull strategy. The children ask their parents for the toys, the parents ask the retailers and the retailers the order the toys from the manufacturer. Other pull strategies include sales promotions, offering discounts or two-for-one offers and building demand through social media sites such as YouTube.

Combination Strategies

Some companies use a combination of both push and pull strategies. For example create customer demand through constantly developing new products and offering these products in stores; and pull customers towards these products through advertising and promotion deals is a Combined Strategy. The amount that company spent on each type of strategy will depend on factors such as budget, the type of product, the target audience and competition.

 

New Trends

• Viral Marketing

A marketing strategy in which conventional media are eschewed in favor of various techniques designed to generate word-of-mouth publicity, in the hope of creating a fad or craze

• Real- Time Marketing

Real Time Marketing is marketing strategy that is based on up to date events. Instead of creating a marketing plan in advance and executing it according to a fixed schedule, real time marketing is creating a strategy focused on current, relevant trends and immediate feedback from customers.

• Inbound Marketing

Inbound marketing is a holistic, data- driven approach to marketing that attracts individuals to your brand and convers them into lasting customers. It’s opposite of cold call and direct marketing. Social Media usage, content management and SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) are very important concepts for this strategy.