Essential Marketing Concepts and Strategic Planning

Core Concepts of Marketing Strategy

Defining Marketing

Marketing is a set of objective and subjective elements used by a company to decipher the needs of the population, facilitating an exchange where the company receives a benefit or utility and the consumer satisfies their needs.

It uses qualitative and quantitative knowledge of the environment and the market for planning and executing the conception, development, pricing, promotion, and distribution of ideas, goods, and services. The main objective is to know and understand individuals and organizations so that the product or service meets their needs.

Supply and Demand Fundamentals

Two concepts are closely linked:

• Supply: Refers to the amount of products and services the company can and desires to make available to potential consumers for a fixed period.
• Demand: Is the quantity of product or service that consumers require for a fixed period to meet their needs.

The Enterprise Mission

The Mission of the Enterprise is the reason why the organization exists. The mission determines the basic functions required to carry out its purpose. It marks the strategic route of the organization and thus must be clear, concrete, and understood by all people involved in it.

The mission must have the ability to change, be innovative, and very perceptive to market shifts. Example: To make available to the population different pharmaceutical products of the highest quality, with a view to improving their quality of life at lower cost.

Market Segmentation and Product

Behavioral Targeting

Behavioral Targeting is a division of the market based on knowledge, attitudes, usage, and loyalty regarding a product. These behavioral variables can be analyzed, interpreted, and used by the company to create market segments.

Key Segmentation Variables

Variables analyzed include:

• Occasions: When the buyer may be frequent, occasional, or medium.
• Benefits Sought: If they seek specific profits or advantages.
• User Status: If they are users, first-time users, or non-users.
• Loyalty Status: The degree of loyalty to the product.
• Buyer Readiness Stages: Stages of disposal of the buyer.
• Attitude: If the buyer's attitude is enthusiastic, positive, indifferent, negative, or hostile.

Product Definition

A product is anything that is offered in a market for attention, acquisition, use, or consumption that can satisfy a need or desire.

Strategic Planning Approaches

Planning Direction

Planning can be structured in two ways:

• Top-Down Planning: Management sets goals and plans for all lower levels of administration.
• Bottom-Up Planning: The different business units develop their own goals and plans and refer them to management for approval.

Strategic Business Unit (SBU) Strategies

Strategies for managing Strategic Business Units (SBUs) include:

• Building: Increase market share of the SBU, investing and giving up short-term gains.
• Maintain: Preserve market share to produce a large and positive flow of sales.
• Harvest: The objective is to increase the flow of sales in the short term, as a way of cornering the market in the short term.
• Looting (Divestiture): Liquidate the business or products because the resources can be better spent elsewhere.