Taught by: Nico Schauerte
Table of Contents
Lecture 1: What the hell is Marketing Strategy?................................................................................................... 2
Lecture 2: Guest lecture about entrepreneurship................................................................................................. 6
Lecture 3: Guest lecture Marketing & ethics........................................................................................................ 7
Lecture 4: Dynamic strategy adaptation.............................................................................................................. 9
Lecture 5: Exam preparation.............................................................................................................................. 14
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, Lecture 1: What the hell is Marketing Strategy?
What is strategy?
It is the connection between goals and actions
1) Goals (desired future)
e.g., “Grow with 30% per year” or “Lose ten pounds in the next three months”.
- Goals need to be clear in content and time horizon.
- Sometimes goals are formulated in absolute terms, sometimes relative to a fix point (e.g.,
competitor).
- Goals can be set on different managerial levels. Sometimes they are conflicting.
2) Strategies (flexible game(s) plan)
Strategy: a game plan for getting there (achieving (long-term) goals).
Strategies can be implemented on 3 levels:
- Corporate strategies: focus on fundamental decisions
that influence the firm as a whole (e.g., create a luxury
company, take the best care of all employees),
i.e., strategic decisions that cannot be decentralized
(e.g., selection of markets).
- Strategic Business Unit (SBU) strategies: seek to
gain competitive advantage in an SBU. It must be in
line with the corporate strategies. E.g., Netflix: offer unique value through exclusive
content.
- Functional strategies: fundamental decisions in areas such as pricing, promotion,
distribution, product, procurement, finance, sales, production, etc. E.g., stay below
biggest competitor’s channel price, seek advertising alliance with retailer).
3) Actions
Tangible, short-term tasks that can be precisely identified, monitored, and evaluated.
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