Экономические науки/6. Маркетинг и менеджмент Filipenko D.E., Usachev V.A. Donetsk National University of economics and trade named after Mikhailo Tugan-Baranovsky THE ROLE OF MARKETING STRATEGY IN BUSINESS Every time you speak to someone about your business you are involved in marketing. Marketing strategy is a long-term plan to achieve certain objectives. It's therefore a marketing plan designed to achieve marketing objectives. For example, marketing objective may relate to becoming the market leader by delighting customers. The strategic plan therefore is the detailed planning involving marketing research, and then developing a marketing mix to delight customers. Every organisation needs to have clear marketing objectives, and the major route to achieving organisational goals will depend on strategy. It is important, therefore, to be clear about the difference between strategy and tactics. Marketing is now accepted as a strategic discipline or general management function and in this respect must care for the health of a business in the future - especially against competitive influences. This is because it is increasingly realised that although making a profit is important, an organisation should also develop its market share and search for brand leadership as well. So the marketer must monitor the profitability of the business and attempt to anticipate the likely trends. At the same time rival companies should be monitored and examined for vulnerable points. [ 1 ] Successful marketers must therefore be concerned with every aspect of their business, including future project and other areas of their industry. Successful companies plan five or ten years and more in advance and often know as much about their competition as they know about themselves. Marketing is not just a series of business-related functions, but more wide-reaching than this. It is a business philosophy designed to develop an attitude of mind which should be shared by everyone in an organisation and is often enhanced by both frequent and open communication. Developing such an attitude of mind reduces the likelihood of crisis and contributes to the development of the overall future of an enterprise at both strategic and tactical levels. Having established its strategy, an organisation can then work out its day-to-day tools and tactics to meet the objectives. Marketing can thus be seen as the process of developing and implementing a strategy to plan and coordinate ways of identifying, anticipating and satisfying consumer demands, in such a way as to make profits. It is this strategic planning process that lies at the heart of marketing. Any conversation about your firm is an opportunity to promote your business and increase sales. A marketing strategy will help you focus. It will identify the different ways you can talk to your customers, and concentrate on the ones that will create most sales. It tells you what to say, how to say it and who to say it to in order to make more sales. Because timing is critical, it will tell you when to say it, too. Your marketing objectives will focus on how you increase sales by getting and keeping customers. The marketing function is therefore an essential ingredient of corporate strategy, and this marketing focus should be communicated through marketing planning into all aspects of business activity. In choosing a marketing strategy a frequent distinction that is made is between undifferentiated marketing and differentiated marketing. Undifferentiated marketing is where a single marketing mix is offered to the total market. In contrast differentiated market is the process of attacking the market by tailoring separate product and marketing strategies to different segments of the market, for example, the spectacles market can be broken down into fashion segments and functional segments, high price and low price segments, and segments for individuals with different types of vision problems. [ 2 ] To explain how to do this, experts talk about how best to package your products and services, how much to charge for them and how to take them to market. A marketing strategy will help you tailor your messages and put the right mix of marketing approaches in place so that you bring your sales and marketing activities together effectively in an effective marketing plan. A successful marketing strategy depends on understanding your customers, what they need and how you can persuade them to buy from you. There's no substitute for knowledge. Experience and regular two-way communication will tell you a lot about your customers. But targeted market research will build a more detailed picture of customer segments with similar needs. It will help you understand how to target these people so you're not wasting time on people who aren't interested in your offer. But you'll also need to understand how your market works - where do your customers find out about your offer, for example? Your strategy should even tell you how you measure up against the competition and what new trends to expect in your market. A marketing plan explains how to put your strategy into action. It will set marketing budgets and deadlines, but it will also tell you how you're going to talk to your target customers - whether that's through advertising, networking, going to trade shows, direct marketing, and so on. Crucially, it will tell you when to talk to your customers. Timing your activities to fit their buying cycles will save money and maximise sales. Finally, your marketing plan should look to the future: it should outline how you follow up sales and what you're doing to develop your offer. As with any plan, progress should be regularly measured and reviewed to see what's working and what isn't, so you can set new targets as your market changes. Literature: 1. The Times 100: BUSINESS CASE STUDIES : // Business theory / Marketing, 2012 : [ Electronic resource ]. URL: http://businesscasestudies.co.uk/business-theory/marketing/marketing-strategy. 2. The Marketing Donut: // Marketing strategy, 2012: [ Electronic resource ]. URL: http://www.marketingdonut.co.uk/marketing/marketing-strategy