A corporate marketing strategy is a plan for communicating the benefits and value of a business' offering to potential clients. Large companies and the most successful small companies develop such strategies and review them periodically. Tips for effective strategy development include understanding the target audience, funding the plan appropriately and maintaining consistency in communications.
When developing a corporate marketing strategy, the most important factor is to understand the target audience. This may require conducting extensive market research, including surveys or focus groups, or information may be gleaned from industry publications. In order to effectively market to a potential customer, however, a company must first understand who the customer is, what he wants and how he shops.
Understanding who the customer is can be critical to activities such as merchandise planning. Advertising targeted toward children, for instance, must include colorful, attention-grabbing activities that engage a child's mind. Such ads often use upbeat music, repetitive themes and people or characters to whom a child can relate. An ad for life insurance, however, would be unlikely to produce effective results if it followed this format.
Knowing what a customer wants is also critical to the success of a corporate marketing strategy. Companies all too often make the mistake of marketing what they want to sell rather than what the customer wants to buy. For example, a company might be selling a riding lawnmower, but what the customer wants to buy is a quick, labor saving way to cut his grass in relative comfort. The best marketing strategies consider not only the product itself, but how it benefits to the buyer's life.
Understanding how a customer shops is a good way to maximize the effectiveness of a marketing campaign. For example, if 80 percent of buyers regularly purchase a specific item online, Internet advertising is likely to be more effective than signs placed within a retail store. Likewise, products that usually require buy-in from more than one decision maker should be marketed in a way that appeals to the needs of all stakeholders.
Adequate funding also is essential for an effective corporate marketing strategy. The best marketing plan in the world will be ineffective if the money to make it happen is not available. Well-thought-out budgets also are important, as spending too much or too little on campaigns can be equally damaging.
A planner should also take care to ensure that all portions of his corporate marketing strategy work together. This means using recognizable fonts, graphics and phrases, and communicating a consistent message through mediums such as print and online advertising, press releases and social media campaigns. The more recognizable and distinct a product becomes, the more effective each additional marketing effort will be.
