Strategic vs Tactical Marketing: Ansoff Matrix & Growth
Strategic vs. Tactical Marketing
Strategic Marketing: Core marketing decisions about segmentation, target market, and positioning. These are the foundations of tactical plans. It has cost consequences and is not easy to reverse.
- Long-term approach
- Analysis of market needs
- Analysis of market segmentation
- Competitive analysis
- Choosing development strategy
- Analysis of the needs to be covered
Operational (Tactical) Marketing: It operates within a short timeframe, no longer than a year. Subordinate to the Strategic Marketing Plan (SMP). Consists of marketing mix actions (4Ps). For instance, a campaign designed to fill rooms during the shoulder period (to produce specific behaviors in the targeted audience in the immediate term).
- Short-term approach
- Establish action plans
- Decisions on Product, Price, Promotion, and Placement
- Establish budgets
- Implementation and control of action plans
Ansoff Matrix: Growth Strategies
Ansoff Matrix: A strategic marketing tool representing four growth strategies, based on matching existing/new products with existing/new markets.
| Market | Existing Products | New Products |
|---|---|---|
| Existing | Market Penetration | Product Development |
| New | Market Development | Diversification |
Market Penetration
Market Penetration: The safest option, focusing on expanding sales of your existing product in your existing market. You know the product works, and the market holds few surprises. So, you should (e.g., Caldea 2 for 1):
- Develop a new marketing strategy to encourage more people to choose your service or to use it more.
- Introduce a loyalty scheme.
- Launch price or other special offer promotions.
- Increase your sales force’s activities.
Product Development
Product Development: In the upper right quadrant, is slightly riskier because you’re introducing a new product/service into your existing market (e.g., car companies, Booking, Netflix).
- Extend your product/service by producing different variants or “repackaging” existing products/services.
- Develop related products or services.
- Shorten your time to market or improve customer service or quality.
Diversification
Diversification: Is the riskiest of the four options because you’re introducing a new product into an entirely new market that you may not fully understand. This strategy is risky: there’s often little scope for using existing expertise or for achieving economies of scale because you are trying to sell completely different products or services to different customers (e.g., BMW).
Market Development
Market Development: In the lower left quadrant, you’re putting an existing product/service into an entirely new market. You can do this by finding a new use for the product/service or by adding new features/benefits to it (e.g., Adidas, Nike – same product, different market).
- Target different geographical markets at home or abroad. One should conduct a PESTEL Analysis to identify opportunities and threats in this different market.
- Use different sales channels (such as online or direct sales if you are currently selling through agents or intermediaries).
Which is the riskiest strategy? Diversification because it is all new.
And the safest strategy? Market penetration because you are working with the same product and the same customers.
Buyer Persona & Customer Journey
Buyer Persona: An ideal customer with real data. Represents the needs of the company.
Customer Journey: Experiences that customers go through when interacting with your company, from the moment the client knows about the brand until he purchases a product or service.
The buyer persona focuses on the user, whereas Jobs To Be Done (JTBD) focuses on their needs. JTBD treats data in a much colder manner, as the buyer persona is about creating empathy.
VRIO: Product lifecycle.