21Jun

Marketing Strategy and Mission Statement Sample Essay

Marketing Strategy and Mission Statement

                Planning is an important component of every business. Designing a plan begins with a deep analysis of an organization’s internal and external environment. The situational analysis helps the business determine its existing resources, strengths, and capabilities compared to those of its customers. The situational review also helps the company form its mission, vision, goals, objectives, and strategies in a number of key areas of operations. One of the key areas that the situational review assists in is in designing customer oriented marketing strategies that will help the business to achieve its marketing objectives. A marketing strategy is therefore an important component of the overall business strategy because it helps the business to gain a competitive advantage by differentiating its products and aligning the marketing activities to the mission of the organization. 

            The marketing plan is a document that outlines how the business will implement, evaluate, and control its marketing efforts. The marketing plan serves a number of functions. First, it outlines the goals and objectives of the company’s marketing efforts. Therefore, the plan serves as a roadmap to help the managers to implement their marketing strategies. Secondly, the marketing plan outlines the tasks involved in design the marketing strategy as well as the resources to be assigned to each of the tasks. The marketing plan also gives the timing of all the marketing activities (Schnaars, 1998).

According to Schnaars (1998), the main focus of marketing strategies is manipulate the variables of the marketing mix, that is, the product, price, a place, and the promotion strategies so as to achieve the objectives of the organization. There are four steps in setting the marketing strategies: defining the business, setting the mission, selecting the functional plans, and budgeting. Defining the business involves setting the vision of the business. The vision outline the broad goals that the company would like to achieve in future. Secondly, the process of setting the mission tries to define why the business exists and how it will meet the needs of its target market in order to meet its long-term objectives (Schnaars, 1998). Thirdly, developing functional plans is involved with outlining the tasks that will help the business in achieving its objectives. Finally, budgeting is concerned with the resources that the marketing department will have to implement the marketing plan. As outlined above, managers must make the marketing decisions within the boundaries of the company’s vision, mission, goals, and objectives (David, 2001).

A good strategy must outline the marketing mix objectives that it wants to achieve. The four elements of a marketing mix are the product, price, a place, and the promotion strategies. Firstly, product strategy is involves deciding the product or services that the business will offer to the customers and the need that this will satisfy. For restaurants, the marketing mix will involve determining the menu mix that the business will offer to its clients. The product mix should also take into considerations like the customer service and quality to satisfy all the needs of the clients (Percy, 2008).

Secondly, the place involves determining how the customers will access the business so as to consumer its services. The business must locate the business in a convenient place so the customers can access the restaurant easily. The managers must also look at the location of similar business in order to come up with a good location for the business (David, 2001).

Thirdly, the price is concerned with the price that the customers must pay to acquire the service. Pricing is an important component of the marketing strategy because it helps the business in its branding and positioning efforts. For example, a luxury restaurant will price its services above those of its competitors in order to position itself in the market. Finally, promotion is concerned with the strategies that the business will use to bring clients to its business. This will involve determining the appropriate promotion mix. Some promotion strategies include advertising, personal selling and sales promotion (David, 2001).

In conclusion, the marketing strategy is an important strategic undertaking. This is because the plan outlines the actions plans through which the business will achieve its marketing objectives. The marketing strategies must take place within the mission, vision, and objectives of the business. The strategy also involves determining the marketing mix that the business will utilize in order to achieve its marking goals. The four elements determine the product, price, place, and the promotion strategies that the business will use to achieve its marketing efforts. Finally, a business should use the four elements of a marketing mix to position and differentiate it from its competitors. This will give it a competitive advantage over other restaurant businesses.

References

David, F. R. (2001). Strategic management: Concepts and cases. New York, NY: Pearson – Prentice Hall.

Juin, S. С. (2000). Marketing planning & strategy. New York, NY: Thompson Learning .

Percy, L. (2008). Strategic Integrated Marketing Communications. London: Butterworth-Heinemann.

Schnaars, S. P. (1998). Marketing strategy. New York, NY: Simon and Schuster.