Marketing Strategy: Introduction

What is strategy?
How does marketing contribute?
- The marketing concept
- Market orientation

Marketing Strategy: Introduction

What is strategy?
A fundamental pattern of present and
planned objectives, resource deployments,
and interactions of an organization with
markets, competitors, and other
environmental factors

the search for a favourable

competitive position
(Porter, 85)

Marketing Strategy: Introduction

Corporate strategy
-organizations scope and resource deployment

Business-level strategy
-competitive strategy of a business unit in its
industry

Marketing strategy
-targeting, segmenting and positioning for a
product. Figuring out the marketing mix

Marketing Strategy: Introduction

What is the marketing concept?
determining the needs and wants of target
markets and delivering the desired satisfactions
more effectively and efficiently than competitors
do.
(Kotler et al, 96)

Marketing Strategy: Introduction

What do marketers mean when they say

their firms are market oriented?

Marketing Strategy: Introduction

What are advantages and disadvantages of
market orientation?

Why do some firms lack orientation towards

the market ?

Marketing Strategy: Introduction

Market oriented in not marketing oriented
- information on all important buying influences
permeates every corporate function
-Strategic/tactical decisions are made interfunctionally and inter-divisionally
-divisions and functions make well-coordinated
decisions and execute them with commitment

Marketing Strategy: Introduction

Which should come first the customer

need or the product idea?
- Marketing myopia

Discussion questions
Q.1 : In defining their strategies, should companies
pursue broadly or narrowly defined missions?

Q. 2: What are the advantages of each approach?

Characteristics of Effective
Corporate Mission Statements
Broad

Specific

Functional
Based on
customer needs

Transportation
business

Long-distance
transportation for largevolume producers of lowvalue, low-density products

Physical
Based on existing
products or
technology

Railroad business Long-haul, coal carrying

railroad

Ansoff Strategies

Current Markets

Current Products
Market penetration
strategy

New Products
Product development
strategy

New Markets

Market development
strategy

Diversification
strategy

The BCG Growth Share Matrix

High

Stars

Question marks
5

Market
growth
rate
10%
(in
constant
dollars)

6
Cash cows
9

Low

10

11

Dogs
12

3
7

10

1
Relative market share

Source: Adapted from Barry Hedley, Strategy and the Business Portfolio, Long Range Planning 10 (February 1977).

13
0.1

Growth rate (cash use)

Cash Flows Across Businesses in the

BCG Portfolio Model
High

Question
marks

Stars
Cash
Flows

Low

Cash cows

High

Dogs

Relative market share

Low

Desired direction of business development

Businesss
competitive position

The GE Nine-Cell Matrix

Industry attractiveness
High
Medium
Low
High

Medium

Low

1 Invest/grow
2 Selective investment/ maintain position
3 Harvest/divest