Detailed explanation of the steps to develop a marketing strategy and useful frameworks

Formulating a marketing strategy is essential to effectively promote the value of your company's products and services to your target audience. Formulating a marketing strategy makes it easier to effectively utilize internal resources and quickly correct course.

In this article, we will explain the overview of marketing strategies, and introduce the steps for formulating a marketing strategy and useful frameworks. If you want to formulate an effective marketing strategy for your company's products and services, please read to the end.

Free download of case study

A collection of on-off integrated analysis cases useful for formulating promotion strategies

Download Now

What is a Marketing Strategy? Its Meaning and Importance

A marketing strategy is an effort to decide "what kind of customers (targets) to provide what value (benefits) and how to provide them." This strategy is necessary to encourage the purchase and continued use of your company's products and services.

Another benefit of formulating a marketing strategy is that it allows you to optimize and utilize the four major management resources: people, things, money, and information. Since people are particularly essential for effectively utilizing other management resources, human resources can be said to be the lifeline of a company. Formulating a marketing strategy makes it easier to visualize the tasks that need to be focused on, allowing you to allocate resources without waste.

Market uncertainty has increased in recent years, so being able to smoothly correct course when unexpected events occur or the market changes is an important point for stable corporate management.

[5 steps] How to develop a marketing strategy

Here we will look at the process of formulating a marketing strategy in five steps.

(1) Analyze the environment

When analyzing the environment, it is important to tackle the "internal environment" related to the situation within the company and the "external environment" surrounding the company separately. The subjects of analysis for each are as follows:

As shown in the table above, analyzing the internal and external environments makes it easier to organize information for formulating a marketing strategy. Please refer to the framework that can be used for environmental analysis later.

(2) Identify your target persona

Next, we will target customers from within the market. Targeting is the process of determining the customer segment to which we will appeal our products and services.

By determining your target in advance, you can understand your customers' needs, which can lead to improved sales efficiency and success rates.

It is important to note that targets defined by rough attributes such as age and gender are not very accurate. In order to increase the accuracy of your targeting, it is important to design a "persona" that takes into account occupation, residential area, family structure, hobbies, and preferences.

However, if you design a persona based on preconceptions or subjectivity, you will end up with a customer image that is far removed from the actual user. When designing a persona, create it based on objective data, user interviews, and sales representatives.

(3) Finding your position

"Positioning" refers to finding out where your company stands in the overall market and what you should aim to be. The key is to find a position that sets you apart from your competitors and that you excel in.

In addition, it is also important that customers empathize with your company's positioning and that your products and services are consistent with your positioning. In order to steadily provide your company's products and services over the medium to long term, it is important to have a multifaceted perspective and improve the accuracy of your positioning.

(4) Find the value you want to provide

Once you have decided on your position, consider what value (benefit) you can provide to your target audience and find your "value proposition." A value proposition is the "value that your company can provide" and "value that customers want" that "is not being offered by competitors."

In other words, it is a unique value that customers cannot obtain from competitors' products or services.

In recent years in particular, as user needs have become more diverse, the number of companies offering niche products and services has been on the rise. However, you cannot expect to increase sales by offering products that are outside of the original market needs.

A value proposition also takes into account the "value that customers are looking for," making it easier to provide products and services that meet their needs.

(5) Plan and implement measures

Based on the steps above, we will make a final decision on the target, benefits, and delivery method. It is especially important not to forget the customer's perspective when providing benefits.

Even after you have actually begun implementing your initiatives, continue to evaluate and improve them in order to refine them into something even better.

However, even if you follow the steps, there are cases where the analysis and identification of issues do not go well or take a long time. In such cases, one option is to consult a marketing strategy consulting company.

For more information on marketing strategy consulting, please see the following article:

The role of marketing strategy consulting, how to use it, and points to note

A framework that can be used to formulate marketing strategies

Next, we will introduce a framework that can be used when formulating a marketing strategy. We will introduce it by category, such as environmental analysis and policy planning, so please use it as a reference.

A useful framework for environmental analysis

There are three main frameworks that can help with environmental analysis:

PEST Analysis

PEST is an acronym for the following factors used to analyze the external environment:

As shown in the table above, PEST analysis analyzes the external environment based on four business-related factors. For example, in terms of technology-related factors, selecting marketing tools that can be used by your company can lead to measures such as setting an optimal promotion budget.

When conducting a PEST analysis, collect information about P, ​​E, S, and T related to your company from newspapers, other mass media, industry magazines, etc.

SWOT analysis

The characteristic of SWOT analysis is that it classifies the internal environment/external environment and positive/negative factors of the business into four categories:

The key point in SWOT analysis is that one fact can be either a positive or negative factor, so there are cases where it can be placed in both frames. For example, if you are sourcing raw materials from overseas, a weak yen will be a "threat" of increased costs, but a strong yen will change it to an "opportunity" of reduced costs.

In addition, by conducting surveys of users to obtain objective opinions about your company's strengths, you can use the information to help plan your initiatives.

3C Analysis

3C analysis is an analytical methodology that takes its name from the initials of the following three elements:

As shown in the table above, it allows you to analyze your company's position along with external factors such as customer needs and the strengths and weaknesses of your competitors, making it a useful framework for positioning.

A framework to help with targeting and positioning

The main frameworks that can help with targeting and positioning are:

STP analysis

STP analysis is a framework consisting of the following three steps:

• Segmentation: Dividing the market into smaller parts
• Targeting: Narrowing down the target audience
• Positioning: Clarifying your company's position

The process involves segmenting the market, narrowing down the target demographic, and finally clarifying your company's position. As mentioned above, when positioning, it is important to find a position that is unique to your company, so don't forget to compare it with your competitors.

Specific comparison criteria include price, quality, sales channels, and number of stores.

A framework to help with policy planning

There are two main frameworks that can help you develop policies:

4Ps Analysis

4P analysis is a framework that uses four perspectives: Product, Price, Place, and Promotion. It is used from a company's perspective to determine how much to charge for their products and services, and through what channels and promotions.

For example, when deciding on a price, you need to take into account the market price and set a strategic price that will generate profits for your company.

It is also important to diversify or limit distribution channels depending on the product/service concept and your company's brand image.

4C Analysis

While 4P analysis is a framework for identifying elements from a company's perspective, the method for analyzing from a customer's perspective is called "4C analysis." Below, we compare the elements in 4C analysis and 4P analysis.

When conducting a 4C analysis, it is important to be careful not to stray from the objective of analyzing from the customer's perspective. By using it properly in conjunction with a 4P analysis, you will be able to use a meaningful framework to formulate your company's marketing strategy.

Summary

By formulating a marketing strategy, you can increase the effectiveness of sales promotion for your products and services while minimizing your company's resources. There are certain points to keep in mind when analyzing and setting targets, and it is also essential to utilize various frameworks to increase efficiency.

In addition, after implementing a marketing strategy, it is necessary to regularly measure the actual effects and impacts and make improvements.MAGELLANWith Magellan, you can visualize the sales impact of all your marketing activities. You can also see the optimal budget allocation to maximize sales, which can help you reduce costs.

If you are looking for a more effective marketing strategy,Please consider introducing "MAGELLAN".

Free download of case study

What is "MMM" that all marketers should know about?
~ Benefits of Implementation: Insights from Three Company Case Studies ~

Download Now

Author information

XICA Co., Ltd. Marketing Team