Marketing Strategy vs. Marketing Plan

It's not uncommon for people to confuse the difference between a marketing strategy and a marketing plan. I've found the easiest way to explain the difference is like this:

Marketing Strategy - Your marketing strategy is an explanation of the goals you need to achieve with your marketing efforts. (What) Your marketing strategy is

shaped by your business goals. Your business goals and your marketing strategy should go hand-in-hand.

Marketing Plan - Your marketing plan is how you are going to achieve those marketing goals. (How) it's the application of your strategy a road map that will guide you from one point to another.

The issue is that most people try to set out to achieve the "how" without first knowing the "what." This can end up wasting resources for a company, both time and money.

When it comes to marketing, we must always identify the what and then dig into the how. If you remember one sentence from this article, it's this one: Strategy is the thinking and planning is the doing. Here is an example of how the two work together

Example:

Objective: To gain broader market adoption.
Marketing Strategy: Introduce into new market segments.
Marketing Plan: Develop marketing campaign that reaches out, identifies with and focuses on that specific segment.

A successful formula that can be used to further explain the importance on marketing strategy and marketing planning looks like this:

Marketing Strategy ---> Marketing Plan ---> Implementation = Success

Your marketing strategy consists of:

The "what" has to be done -

Inform consumers about the product or service being offered -

Inform consumers of differentiation factors -
Construct marketing campaigns and promotions that will achieve the "what" in your strategy.
Your marketing plan consists of:

The "how" to do it -
Construct marketing campaigns and promotions that will achieve the "what" in your strategy.

Your implementation consists of:

Taking action to achieve items identified in marketing strategy and marketing plan.

If you are preparing your marketing strategy and your marketing plan to go into your business plan these are the components that must go into each section:

Components of Your Marketing Strategy

External Marketing Message
Internal Positioning Goal
Short Term Goals and Objectives
Long Term Goals and Objectives

Components of Your Marketing Plan

Executive Summary - High level summary of your marketing plan.
Your Challenge - Brief description of products / services to be marketed and a recap of goals identified in your marketing strategy.
Situation Analysis - This section should identify the following:
Goals
Focus
Culture
Strengths
Weaknesses
Market Share

Analysis of Your Customer - How many customers would you like to strive for? What type of customers are they? What are the values that drive them? What does their decision process look like? What customers will you focus on for the products or services that you offer?

Analysis of Your Competitors - What's your marketing position? What's their market position? What are your strengths when it comes to your competitors? What are your weaknesses? What market share are you going after? What market share has your competitor already tapped?
Identification of your 4 P's (Product / Price / Distribution / Place)
Summary - Summary of above and how you will use this information to achieve the goals you have identified in your marketing strategy. Be specific - the more specific actions you have the easier it will to follow through on the last step which is implementation.
As you can see your marketing strategy goes hand-in-hand in with your marketing plan. Without both you will find that you not only waste resources, but that you could also end up stuck without an idea of where to go.

Another key point is don't forget to measure any marketing campaigns that you launch in order to see what works and what doesn't. You can use this information to guide you in the future

By Laura Lake

Marketing Expert

What Does a Marketer Do? By Laura Lake - Marketing Expert

When considering jobs and employment opportunities, often times marketing comes into mind and you may ask yourself, just what does a marketing position consist of and what do they do?

A career in marketing is enjoyable and fun. Most people who work in marketing will tell you it provides them with the challenge they have always wanted. The reason being is marketing is always

changing; there are always techniques to learn, cases to study, and strategies to research. Do you have what it takes to be successful in a marketing career?

When a person tells you that they work in marketing, there could be hundreds of different types of jobs they may be talking about. Marketing jobs are plentiful and vary based on the company, structure, and type of position that you are seeking.

Marketing account managers and marketing account executives are just two types of marketing jobs. In these types of positions, a person would normally be one that has the day to day contact with a specific customer or client and is their point of contact for any and all issues.

Another job responsibility of one of these positions would be to design the marketing strategies for their company to help expand business and grow. They look to you as if you are their consultant, feeling confident that you know how to best market their business. When the customer needs you for something, they expect you to be there. There must be a good communication liaison between you and the customer at all times. Having people skills are critical to these types of positions because you are face to face with clients and customers constantly.

There are also marketing jobs that don’t consist of you working with customers all the time. Careers or positions what would be less people oriented could be ones such as a product marketing manager or a brand marketing manager. You would probably report into an account manager that would be the go to person with customers and you do the office work without the communication directly with the client. These positions would have a person being responsible for understanding a specific brand or product. You would have specific strategies based on your product or brand and have a solid understanding of how you can promote and market their products. You would look at the market, gain information on who wants to buy that specific product and what drives the product to sell. You may create presentations to validate your research that the manager could then in turn go to the client with. You may be responsible for scheduling a complete marketing plan from start to finish including the budget, communication, and organizing materials. These types of jobs give all around experience in the marketing arena.

Careers as a marketing manager are those that are the decision makers. They manage an entire marketing organization and have people under them who they are responsible for as well. Normally a position of marketing manager is going to entail some years prior with other marketing positions and one can be promoted into a marketing manager job after proving themselves.

A career in marketing can take you in several different directions. Marketing is comprised of many facets and activities. You will find that there are many opportunities in marketing, is there a career path that is right for you? Explore the different career opportunities and decide which one fits you best. Marketing jobs are out there, but the job market is tight. Do the proper research and find the one that works best for you. Once you find it you will need to market yourself in order to stand out from the crowd.

By Laura Lake
Marketing Expert