Defining your marketing strategy

Now that you have gathered a full view of your company, customers, and competition, you can develop the marketing strategy. Start by summarizing the results of the three C’s. In each section, you created a few pages of key findings and implications. Put all of these together and evaluate them as a whole. What do can you take away from them?

Did you learn from the company analysis that your organization has the largest market share, and one segment of your customers values buying from a stable supplier? If so, perhaps one of your main marketing messages should be that your company is the largest supplier of your product or service and, as a result, you provide stability and economies of scale.

If you identified through your analysis that no company has established a leadership position in a particular market, there may be an opportunity for your company to become leader. One tool that is helpful in clarifying your marketing strategy is a SWOT framework. Here are a few questions to consider in assessing your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats:

These exercises are the practical approach to developing an effective marketing strategy. You should be able to present your strategy in ten to fifteen PowerPoint slides—or six to nine pages of text. If it’s longer, you need to continue refining it.