Any marketing strategy has many elements that make or should make this strategy successful. Among these key elements, one of the most crucial parts is brand and branding. Here we will talk about the brand part in the context of the overall complex marketing strategy. What role does the brand play in the general marketing strategy and how is it connected to the other key parts of the promotion strategy? The answer to this question was prepared jointly with marketing expert Vianna Mitzy (StrateGate).
Targeted customer segment
Every marketing strategy needs to define the key segment of the market that this strategy aims at. The narrower this segment is the better. Nevertheless, there is a possibility to target a more broad segment but it’s typically used in a market testing approach or employed by start-ups.
Product
The product itself is a significant element of a marketing strategy. The strategy should be clear about the ways that the product appeals to the needs and requirements of the targeted market segment. The overall characteristics of the product decided and explored in advance to be matching the customer’s needs.
Marketing policies
The set of the marketing policies or marketing actions will be promoting the product in the targeted customer segment. Accordingly, this set of policies usually includes many various types of brand awareness increasing actions, customer informing policies, and purely sales-oriented measures.
Sales channels
Every meaningful marketing strategy needs to be aware of the sales channels that the product will be marketed to its customers through. There is a number of usual sales channels or marketing channels. This is not a full list but they can include TV and radio advertising, internet (various types of internet promotion), word of mouth, branches, sales through representatives, etc. So, a marketing strategy needs to understand both the potential channels and the channels employed at this particular time.
Brand
Then comes the brand. The brand itself is something that encompasses or encapsulates all the ideas previously listed.
Brand needs to put into the center of the complex of the marketing strategy measures. It has to incorporate the customer segment view with the product characteristics and the marketing policies as well as sales channels.
It is necessary to be done in such a way that the brand is equally efficiently pushed or promoted through all these key elements. Hence, branding is not the first thing to consider starting a marketing strategy. However, the brand is something that you make somewhere near the end of creating this strategy. It’s not that you have the best idea or concept for a brand first, and then put all the other elements in place later. Normally, it goes vice versa: the complex of all the marketing strategy elements supports and influences the creation of a brand.
In conclusion, there are several key elements of any successful and meaningful marketing strategy. These include agreeing on a targeted customer segment, defining product characteristics, listing a set of marketing and promotion policies, fixing sales channels, and, eventually, going with the brand. The brand plays the central role in the sense that it combines – glues – all the elements together into a meaningful word, phrase, or image that will be hitting customers’ minds making them buy your product.
