What the hell in marketing strategy?
What is strategy? Strategy as the connection between goals and actions
Goals: desired future
Strategies: flexible game plan
Actions/tactics: tangible, short-term tasks that can be precisely identified, monitored and evaluated.
(1) Goals: operationalization:
E.g. a sporter: lose 10 pound in the next 3 months
Vodafone: beat Telekom’s NPS by 4 points within the business cycle
Zalando: growth with > 30% a year
Trainer: (re-)establish Borussia Dortmund among Europe’s top 10 clubs
Netflix: become the best global entertainment distribution service
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 and strategies are something different
Goals can be set on different organizational levels
Overall management objectives: at corporate level, e.g. shareholder value, overall growth rate)
SBU (strategic business unit: if you do not have just one product or service, e.g. consumer
business and b2b part) objectives: e.g. increase market share by 5%, start up 5 new countries
Marketing action objectives: e.g. product price, sell X units of coffee pads, increase newsletter
penetration by 10%. F: functional unit goals (e.g. ecommerce function vs. offline function)
Are there any conflicting goals?
,Strategies: flexible game(s) plan (Mitzberg, 1987)
Strategy is everything and nothing?
Strategy is the most overused word in business.
Strategies are a long term plan, not what you do just for one week.
(2) Strategy: strategy in sports as a game plan – but beyond the single game.
Everybody has some tactics for a specific game, but you also can have a long term strategy. E.g. think
about the Italian Plan, way of playing soccer long-term.
“Strategy is a game plan for getting there [achieving (long-term) goals].’ – Kotler and Keller (2009)
,Strategies can be implemented on three levels: corporate level, SBU level and function level
Corporate strategies: focus on fundamental decisions that influence the firm as whole, i.e. strategic
decision that cannot be decentralized, e.g.
Synergy between SBU’s
Selection of markets (and brand identities), and
Enabling & cultivating a marketing-oriented culture
Overall management strategy at a corporate level: e.g. create a luxury company, take the best care fo all
employees, create a more balanced portfolio of brands…
If you have just one product/service: 1 SBU, the overall strategy will be the same as the SBU strategy
Strategy: Volkswagen as a corporation with different SBUs
, They wanted to think how to separate Skoda and BMW. They repositioned of Skoda and included more
entry models that were not as premium as BMW.
What is strategy? Strategy as the connection between goals and actions
Goals: desired future
Strategies: flexible game plan
Actions/tactics: tangible, short-term tasks that can be precisely identified, monitored and evaluated.
(1) Goals: operationalization:
E.g. a sporter: lose 10 pound in the next 3 months
Vodafone: beat Telekom’s NPS by 4 points within the business cycle
Zalando: growth with > 30% a year
Trainer: (re-)establish Borussia Dortmund among Europe’s top 10 clubs
Netflix: become the best global entertainment distribution service
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 and strategies are something different
Goals can be set on different organizational levels
Overall management objectives: at corporate level, e.g. shareholder value, overall growth rate)
SBU (strategic business unit: if you do not have just one product or service, e.g. consumer
business and b2b part) objectives: e.g. increase market share by 5%, start up 5 new countries
Marketing action objectives: e.g. product price, sell X units of coffee pads, increase newsletter
penetration by 10%. F: functional unit goals (e.g. ecommerce function vs. offline function)
Are there any conflicting goals?
,Strategies: flexible game(s) plan (Mitzberg, 1987)
Strategy is everything and nothing?
Strategy is the most overused word in business.
Strategies are a long term plan, not what you do just for one week.
(2) Strategy: strategy in sports as a game plan – but beyond the single game.
Everybody has some tactics for a specific game, but you also can have a long term strategy. E.g. think
about the Italian Plan, way of playing soccer long-term.
“Strategy is a game plan for getting there [achieving (long-term) goals].’ – Kotler and Keller (2009)
,Strategies can be implemented on three levels: corporate level, SBU level and function level
Corporate strategies: focus on fundamental decisions that influence the firm as whole, i.e. strategic
decision that cannot be decentralized, e.g.
Synergy between SBU’s
Selection of markets (and brand identities), and
Enabling & cultivating a marketing-oriented culture
Overall management strategy at a corporate level: e.g. create a luxury company, take the best care fo all
employees, create a more balanced portfolio of brands…
If you have just one product/service: 1 SBU, the overall strategy will be the same as the SBU strategy
Strategy: Volkswagen as a corporation with different SBUs
, They wanted to think how to separate Skoda and BMW. They repositioned of Skoda and included more
entry models that were not as premium as BMW.
