marketing strategies

Strategy is the crafting of plans to reach goals. Marketing strategies are those plans designed to reach marketing goals. A good marketing strategy should integrate an organizations marketing goals, policies, and action sequences (tactics) into a cohesive whole. The objective of a marketing strategy is to put the organization into a position to carry out its mission effectively and efficiently. Marketing strategies are partially derived from broader corporate strategies, corporate missions, and corporate goals. They are also influenced by a range of microenvironmental factors. Marketing strategies are dynamic and interactive. They are partially planned and partially unplanned. See strategy dynamics.

Types of Marketing Strategies

Every marketing strategy is unique, but if we abstract from the individualizing details, each can be reduced into a generic marketing strategy. There are a number of ways of categorizing these generic strategies. A brief description of the most common categorizing schemes is presented below. For a more detailed explanation, follow the links.

Strategies based on market dominance - In this scheme, firms are classified based on their market share or dominance of an industry. Typically there are four types of market dominance strategies:

leader
challenger
follower
nicher
Only Producer

Porter generic strategies - Michael Porter assessed strategy on the dimensions of strategic scope and strategic strength. Strategic scope refers to the breadth of market penetration while strategic strength refers to the firms sustainable competitive advantage. He felt three types were important:

Innovation strategies - This deals with the firms rate of new product development and business model innovation. It asks whether the company is on the cutting edge of technology and business innovation. There are three types:

pioneers
close followers
late followers

Growth strategies - In this scheme we ask the question, How should the firm grow?. There are a number of different ways of answering that question, but the most common gives four answers: