In our third expert guest interview we speak with Andrea Hardiman of All About the Message. This video examines the question “what is marketing strategy?” Andrea draws on 20 years of experience in marketing, working with a variety of businesses including Aviva and Heinz. She shares some of the tools she uses and her approach to marketing strategy.
One key area where we spend some time clarifying our thoughts is the difference between marketing strategy and tactics. It is common for tactics and strategy to be confused and this can create problems for a business. It is something I cover from a slightly different angle in “Doing Business Like a Grandmaster“.
"A strategy is a high level approach that sets the overall direction based on the evidence and our goals. Whilst it may take into account individual moves, the strategy should not get lost in the details of its implementation before it has been conceived."
Strategies "are verbalised intentions that clarify what our aims are and how we will go about achieving them."
Tools for Creating a Marketing Strategy
Andrea mentions several frameworks that she likes to work with. Here is a brief summary of them and the breakdown of what each acronym means:
SMART
- Specific
- Measurable
- Actionable
- Realistic
- Timely
SWOT
- Strengths
- Weaknesses
- Opportunities
- Threats
PESTLE
- Political
- Economic
- Social
- Technological
- Legal
- Environmental
Watch the video to find out how Andrea uses these tools to develop and evaluate a marketing strategy.
Andrea also mentions Ansoff’s Matrix, which she finds works well together with SWOT. It can be represented by something along the lines of the grid diagram below. The further down and to the right you go, the more risk tends to increase for the business.
"If we are tempted to think that all this assessment and then planning is too much hard work, then we must consider the alternative: not achieving our goals."
Please take a look at our other related videos on sales and customer data in our free business resources.Â
Do share your thoughts and questions in the comments below.