and other businesses. Increasingly, we see organisations recognising
that they cannot do everything themselves and look to form joint ven-
tures and partnerships.
The formulation stage culminates with the development of a strategic
marketing plan.
3 Implementation
Consideration needs to be given to implementing the strategy.
Marketing managers will undertake programmes and action that
deliver strategic objectives. Such actions, will often focus on individual
elements of the marketing mix. Additionally, a process of monitoring
and control needs to be put in place. This ensures compliance and aids
decision making.
Figure 1.5 provides an overview of the process of strategic marketing
management. Additionally, it provides a template to the structure of this
text. The three components form a planning cycle (analysis, formulation
and implementation) and are interactive in nature, with information
being fed-back to enable objectives and strategy to be reviewed and
amended. Ultimately, the process will establish the organisation’s market-
ing mix – products, price, promotion and place, which underpins and con-
veys our marketing strategy.
■ Summary
Today’s business world recognises the importance of strategy and stra-
tegic management. Normally, any strategic process has three distinct stages –
analysis, formulation of plans and implementation. Increasingly, the
importance of implementation is recognised as an integral part of the
strategic framework. Strategy aims to define core competencies, under-
stand the external environment and offer an integrative, consistent
approach to decision making.
Any strategy is significantly influenced by environmental change. Political,
economic, social and technological factors drive change and impact on the
organisation. This results in a volatile, intensely competitive market place.
Organisations need to ensure that they fully embrace the opportunities
change brings and guard against complacency and strategic drift. To this
end, a ‘balanced scorecard’ approach is advocated, thus encouraging the
organisation to address wider strategic issues.
Marketing has a role to play within the strategic process. Namely, market-
ing can be adopted as a business philosophy. This sees commercial success
as stemming from a process of understanding and meeting customer needs.
Marketing strategy involves achieving a superior competitive position
within a defined market. Essentially, it involves segmentation, targeting
and positioning. This must address customers, competitors and internal
corporate factors. Strategic marketing management is the process of
ensuring our marketing strategy is relevant and sustainable.
The strategic perspective 15