Strategic marketing principles and applications

Strategic Marketing

In answering the question of what role marketing plays in the overall strategic planning process, the foundational elements of what lead to enterprise formation, systemic and highly integrated people, process and systems need to be taken into account. The coordinated and tightly synchronized aspects of people, processes and systems need to be governed by a vision and objective if any enterprise is going to stay unified in the pursuit of its goals (Anderson, 1982). This orientation of coordinated activity across all series of resources, processes and both automated and manual systems requires that the compelling vision of an enterprise have a customer-centric purpose (Payne, Frow, 2005). As the purpose of an enterprise stays centered on the customer, all ancillary and related systems will also reflect the prioritization on the delivery of value first above any other. At its most fundamental level, marketing plays the crucial role of galvanizing all people, processes and systems into a unified platform designed to meet and exceed customer needs (Cravens, Piercy, Baldauf, 2009). This approach to organizational design by way of strategic planning is unlike any bureaucratic or institutional approach, as a market-driven strategic planning process will yield a market-driven enterprise. At its most fundamental level, the contribution of marketing to the strategic planning process is to unify the diverse elements of a corporate strategy so they all combine to deliver excellent customer value and experiences. The continual evolution of a market-driven strategic plans within a business also bring a more unified focus on customers 'needs.

When a strategic plan is based on internal requirements or is inward focused on costs or only a series of internal metrics, over time the entire enterprise will evolve to reflect those main attributes (Anderson, 1982). The overriding goals, mission and values of a strategic plan must be outward facing to ensure all processes, systems and resources stay aligned and support the goal of winning new customers and keeping existing ones.