Strategic Marketing Report: Analysis for Total Marketing Solutions

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of strategic marketing, focusing on the application of marketing principles to business ventures. It begins with an introduction to strategic marketing, emphasizing its role in differentiating businesses and providing customer value. The report explores the relationship between corporate and marketing strategies, highlighting the importance of aligning departmental goals with overall corporate objectives. It then delves into the development of effective marketing strategies, including the identification of business goals, market analysis, and the creation of marketing plans. The report examines internal and external environmental analysis, competitive positioning, and marketing communication strategies. Key concepts such as the 7 P's of marketing and Ansoff's matrix are also discussed. The report uses Total Marketing Solutions (TMS), a marketing consultancy, as a case study to illustrate the practical application of these concepts, offering insights into how businesses can gain a competitive advantage through strategic marketing. The report concludes by summarizing the key findings and recommendations for implementing effective marketing strategies within an organization.

STRATEGIC
MARKETING

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
ACTIVITY 1....................................................................................................................................1
1.1 Role of strategic marketing in the organization...............................................................1
1.2 Relationship between corporate strategy and marketing strategy....................................2
1.3 Analysis on developing marketing strategy.....................................................................4
3.1 Analysing decisions and choices to be made at corporate level.......................................5
3.2 Assessing decisions which are influencing at functional level........................................7
3.3 Analysing approaches for competitive positioning of organization.................................8
ACTIVITY 2....................................................................................................................................9
2.1 Internal environmental analysis of TSM..........................................................................9
2.2 External environmental analysis of TSM.......................................................................11
2.3 Integration of internal and external analysis..................................................................12
ACTIVITY 3..................................................................................................................................13
4.1 Identifying range of strategies that contribute business competitive advantage............13
4.2 Analysis of the marketing communication strategies for the business venture..............14
4.3 Analysing marketing strategies as how it can be implemented within business organization
..............................................................................................................................................15
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................16
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................17

INTRODUCTION
Strategic marketing can be defined as a process through which business organization
differentiates itself from their competitors by capitalizing their strengths. Further, they also
emphasize on providing best of the value to their customers as compared with their major
competitors which are working in the same industry (Hollensen, 2015). With good marketing
strategy, organization will be able to develop a good product policy which will help them in
achieving their goals and objectives as well as it will also boost venture morale to increase their
revenue and profitability. Further, effective strategic marketing will give firm a competitive edge
and with that, they will get best of the customer responses which will help them in building
superior brand image. Organization undertaken for the present study is Total Marketing
Solutions (TMS) which is a marketing consultancy business that provides support and advice to
other business ventures who are looking for developing their strategic marketing plans.
This present study will focus on understanding the role of strategic marketing within the
business organization. This report will also emphasize on analyzing that how an effective
marketing strategy is developed within the business enterprise. Further, this study will also look
towards the evaluation of different approaches in the respect of internal and external
environmental analysis.
ACTIVITY 1
1.1 Role of strategic marketing in the organization
Strategic marketing helps in ensuring that business venture must select the right output,
products as well as services to bring best of the outcomes for the customers. Apart from it,
marketing is also considered as a management process of identifying, anticipating and satisfying
the needs of different users. Further, there exists many roles of strategy within the business
enterprise. Some of these roles have been studied down under:
Major framework for operational planning:
Strategies generally provide framework for plans and by taking effective operative
decisions, firm will be able to achieve their goals and objectives in a significant manner (Proctor,
2014). Moreover, if strategies are developed by taking proper actions and if these strategies are
effectively understood by the managers, then it will provide consistent framework for the
operational planning. TMS considers the requirements of their business clients and accordingly,
develop their plans and policies.
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Streamlining the product development:
Marketing strategy will help the mentioned enterprise to develop services with an
optimum chance of making profit. This is genuine because marketing strategy starts with
undertaking the market research and by taking this thing into consideration, organization will be
able to satisfy the needs and demands of their customers. Further, cited firm should come to
know that what are the needs of customers and they should produce only those services which
give them maximum satisfaction and help mentioned firm to increase their revenue as well as
productivity.
7 P's of marketing
Strategic marketing can help TMS in ensuring that firm provides right quality of services
to the business ventures which will help it to achieve their goals and objectives in an effective
manner (Zhu and et.al., 2012). Different P's have their own significance in the success of
business firm and these P's of marketing have been discussed down under:
 Right product/service
 Right place as they should be available through right channels
 Right price as it needs to be served products and services at the best of price and there
should not be a burden on service users.
 Right promotion as it needs to be presented products and services in a right manner with
the help of different promotional techniques.
 With employment of right people, they give user a genuine experience and guide them
regarding all the positive forms of service.
 Physical evidence needs to be taken into consideration as business venture has to
consider business environment and different other factors.
 Under process, cited firm has to be taken into consideration that products and services
should be user-friendly (Blythe and et. al., 2010).
1.2 Relationship between corporate strategy and marketing strategy
Corporate strategy
An organization strategy shows that where corporate wants to go and how they are
planning to go there. This definition of corporate strategy is applied to both the overall strategy
of venture as well as to the strategies to major sub-units of organization as well. Apart from it,
major attention is given to strategy formulation at the corporate level as compared to business
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level. Moreover, for TMS, concept of strategy management includes different activities which
consist of determination of strategy, implementation of strategy and evaluation of strategy.
Furthermore, corporate refers to the organization and it defines as the overall strategy for
the company (Frankwick and Ward, 2010). It can be also treated as a long-term planning for the
venture which includes directions and goals. Direction is termed as a way through which firm
plans to achieve their final objectives. Moreover, in the corporate strategy, management of TMS
can plan to enter into a new market or can come out from the existing market as per the
possibilities of corporate strategy along with due justifications.
Moreover, corporate strategy is influenced by the culture, stakeholders, resources,
environment, mission and vision. Apart from it, in order to achieve the goals and objectives,
cited organization can focus on different areas like organization structure, profitability, change
management and diversification. Along with this, it can majorly increase their business
operations with the help of joint ventures (Difference Between Corporate Strategy and
Marketing Strategy, 2015).
Marketing strategy
Marketing strategy is an important function within the business organization which is
handled by different departments. Sales is considered as a part of marketing function and major
role which sales people have to play is that they need to increase the sale of services and should
focus on achieving corporate advantage over their major competitors (Leisen, Lilly and Winsor,
2010). In relation to this, marketing strategy can be defined as a process of increasing the sales
and enhancing the corporate advantage in a sustainable manner. Further, TMS venture implies
marketing mix techniques to develop their future plans. Earlier, only four major elements were
the part of marketing strategy and these were product, price, place and promotion. But after some
time, people, process and physical evidence were also given priority and they have been added in
the conventional toolkit of marketing strategy.
Marketing strategy also involves different aspects of marketing planning which includes
day to day functions, short-term objectives, new product development, customer care, etc.
Relationship between these two strategy
Business enterprise is made up of many departments and function major operations like
marketing, finance, human resources, production and different others. Organization is considered
effective when all the department works in a better way. Moreover, corporate strategy is also
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similar as departments within the venture need to work together in order to achieve their desired
targets which are as a part of corporate strategy. Moreover, corporate strategies of TMS should
not violate the departmental strategic goals and should not impact the customer aspirations as
well. Marketing strategies are formed on the basis of the corporate strategies and organization by
using cheap materials and other irrelevant activities can hurt these marketing activities (Feng,
D’Amours and Beauregard, 2010). Further, the corporate strategy focuses on covering the whole
organization but the marketing strategy emphasizes on single department function and future
cause of action.
1.3 Analysis on developing marketing strategy
To develop an effective marketing strategy, TMS need to identify their business goals
and on the basis of this they can set up their marketing goals as well. These goals might include
increasing awareness of the services in which they are dealing. With more consumer awareness,
more will be the revenue and productivity and with that business venture will be able to achieve
their goals and objectives. Further, effective marketing comes up with a well informed marketing
strategy. A well defined marketing strategy will help TMS to define their mission, vision along
with short term and long term goals. Further, these marketing strategy at times can affect the
overall functioning of enterprise. Therefore, these activities should be developed and planned in
consultation with all the employees who are working within the venture (Maier, 2012).
Moreover, for developing a marketing strategy, following steps should be taken into
consideration and these are:
 Describe business and their services
 Evaluate the role and position of service in the marketplace
 Customers profile mas well as of the competitors
 List of marketing tactics which will be used
 Build the marketing plan and measure their effectiveness
Marketing strategy emphasizes on setting overall direction and goals for marketing and
this is because it is considered as different from the marketing plan. Marketing strategy is
developed for next few years but the marketing plan describe the tactics which need to be
achieved within the current year.
Successful marketing strategy
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A successful marketing strategy for TMS will increase their revenue as well as
productivity. Further, with that firm will be able to realize their business goals and also will be
able to build strong goodwill for the services they render. Moreover, the top manager of the cited
firm should emphasize on one or two major ideas which will raise awareness for the services in
which venture deals and sell those to improve their organizational goals and objectives Márcio
Tavares Thomé and et.al., 2012). Apart from it, when setting goals for the venture, it is necessary
for firm to measure the outcomes which is necessary to achieve. In order to meet this, TMS can
set the SMART objectives. These SMART objectives having great importance and need to be set
with the realistic measures as venture can achieve all the components within the set time period.
Further, TMS majorly focusing on recruiting the additional business and by stating these
goals to the team members, they feel motivated and they start working with best of the efficiency
to achieve the organizational goals and objectives. Moreover, these goals will be benchmark for
the firm's success as well. These goals can be long term or short term and they need to decide the
exact duration in order to achieve them within the significant time frame. Further, the marketing
strategy should be modified from year to year because the marketplace is dynamic and it changes
continuously with change in technology and other relevant factors (Wang, Chen and Chen,
2012).
3.1 Analysing decisions and choices to be made at corporate level
Total Marketing Solution firm focuses on providing support and advice to business
ventures who are looking towards developing the strategic marketing plans. Further, there are
different marketing strategies which business venture can adopt and maintain and promote their
business (Angelo and et.al. 2014). Moreover, cited firm can emphasize on Ansoff's matrix to
expand their business operations along with increasing their revenue and productivity. Further,
this matrix emphasize on giving four different growth strategies. These are:
 Market penetration- In this, firm focuses on achieving growth with their existing
products in the current market segments. Here, firm also emphasizes on increasing their
market share.
 Product development- In this strategy, cited firm develops new services for the existing
market segments.
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 Market development- Here, cited firm will focus on targeting their existing services in
the new market in order to increase their brand awareness and also to achieve their
desired goals and objectives.
 Diversification- Here, organization grows diversifying new business by developing
brand new services for new market.
In this, mentioned business venture can focus on market development where organization
will try to seek more of the organizations trust and will give them best of the consultancy
services which will develop their strategic marketing plans (Lee, Kim and Park, 2012).
Apart from it, cited firm will also develop different marketing strategies which
organization can adopt in order to promote and maintain their business operations. They can
emphasize on Segmentation, Targeting and Promotion (STP) approach.
Segmentation:
Marketing process can be defined as a process of dividing the market into different
groups of customers who has different traits, characteristics and behaviour that might require
separate products or marketing programs. Further, cited firm will segment their customers on the
basis of characteristics of the business organization (Develop a marketing strategy, 2016). As
cited firm emphasize on providing necessary guidelines to the venture, they emphasize on the
same.
Targeting:
Target market can be defined as a process of evaluating each market segment and
selecting one of the best segment to enter which improve the organization productivity as well as
their revenue. Further, being a consultancy firm, organization with whom they are in contact are
not the same and differ from one another. Moreover, cited firm have to emphasize on particular
segment to focus on (E. Dobbs, 2014). Here firm who has higher productivity and revenue been
focused as by giving them best of the consultancy service, they will give firm best of the amount
which will improve their revenue generating activities.
Positioning:
TMS need to position themselves at a position where many of the business organization
can approach them in order to improve their business operations. With that much of the brand
image, firm will be able to make a base of their loyal customers which will improve their
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revenue as well as productivity. Apart from it, it will give them a competitive edge over the
organizations who are working in the same industry.
3.2 Assessing decisions which are influencing at functional level
There are various decisions which might be influencing at the functional level and TMS
have to consider all these factors in order to develop effective policy and procedures for the
business venture. Corporate strategies are those which differs from one business venture to the
another and cited firm focuses on giving their best to achieve their goals and objectives. Further,
manager of TMS has to make various decisions both at corporate as well as functional level.
Moreover, for better decision making, there need to be some factors which business
organization have to identify. At very first, cited firm has to identify their current business
strategy, their long term corporate planning, different functions which fits resources and finally
need to analyse the entire supportive factor (Uhrenfeldt and et.al., 2014). TMS has to perform all
these functions and need to function significantly well in order to improve their productivity as
well as revenue. Further, there exists different departments namely marketing, finance, human
resource, research, etc. and all these departments having their own role and responsibilities
within the business venture. These departments employees different human resource who gives
their productive services and focuses on achieving their individual as well as organizational
goals and objectives.
Finance tells business firm that what sort of financing comes at lower cost and which
maximizes their profit rate. This is eventually identified by the finance manager and the persons
working in these departments. TMS focusing on keeping their administrative cost as low as
possible with an intention of increasing their revenue and profitability. On the other side, Human
Resource department allocate the job responsibilities which ensures the employee's performance.
This activity is followed by the HR manager of the business venture and they emphasize on
boosting the employee's morale so that they can work with their best of the efficiency to achieve
their individual goals and objectives. Employees are boosted up through different motivational
and non-motivational techniques (Zott, Amit and Massa, 2011). Further, HR manager also
implement different motivational theories so that they can identify the needs and demands of
individuals for growth and prosperity of the enterprise.
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Research also plays a crucial role in the development of the business enterprise and
technical department of the venture emphasize on conducting various research so that they will
find more of the business venture and by adding them in their tally, they will be able to improve
their revenue and profitability.
3.3 Analysing approaches for competitive positioning of organization
TMS has to identify their marketing objectives and by comprehensively defining the
plan, firm will be able to achieve their set goals and objectives. Apart from it, these marketing
objectives are formulated on the basis of the marketing plan and firm emphasizes on achieving
that so that they can increase their revenue as well as profitability too (Slack, 2015). Moreover,
there exists four type of the marketing strategy which will determine the competitive positioning
of the business enterprise. Some of them has been discussed down under:
Market leaders
Business organizations who has the largest market share eventually leads other ventures
who are working in the same industry in terms of price changes, new service introduction,
distribution coverage and promotion is termed as the market leaders. Further, market leaders
always focuses on increasing or defending their existing market share (Campbell and Rahman,
2010). With more of the customer's trust, firm will be able to increase their market share and
with that they will give a stiff competition to their major competitors who are working in the
same industry.
Market challenger
Market challenger is type of runner up position in venture where organization fighting
hard and emphasizing on giving their best to increase their market share. Further, market
challengers emphasizes on following points:
 Expanding their market share
 Identify their potential competitors and tries to get ahead of themselves
 Selects general attack strategy which might now directly harm the corporate goodwill,
but it pampers through their good performance in the eyes of the competitors.
Market followers
Market follower focuses on holding the market share without impacting the brand image
of the cited business enterprise. Moreover, market follower follows the market leader and walks
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on the path in which the leader is moving (Salem Khalifa, 2012). If the market firm offer low
price for the services than the leader will focus on cutting the price further.
Market niche
Market niche generally works on small targeted market where other firm either overlook
or ignore that. A niche can be defined as a process of dividing the segment into sub-segment and
worked by different set of people which comes from combination. In this, mentioned
organization can also emphasize on attracting the lower business organization and make a base
of large business firms so that they will be able to improve their revenue as well as productivity.
ACTIVITY 2
2.1 Internal environmental analysis of TSM
Total quality management solutions is an eminence marketing consultancy business firm.
The managerial team of mentioned organisation focuses on accomplishing goals and objectives
set by them. For this purpose, there is need to make proper analysis of internal and external
environment of the company. The concept of internal environment can be understood as those
factors that work within or outside an enterprise and directly or indirectly influences its
performance. They have active participation in decision making process of the company
(Uhrenfeldt and et. al., 2014). They generally consist of shareholders, suppliers, customers,
management and employees.
The stakeholders of TMS plays crucial role in determining outcomes of business
decisions. In order to understand internal environment of concerned organisation primary step is
to identify and evaluate roles specific stakeholders. First of all, shareholders are major element
for the company. TMS started its functioning with huge amount of funds that is acquired from
shareholders. They are liable to invest funds and avail capital to the organisation at regular
intervals. In response, TMS provides huge profit, growth and development prospects to the
shareholders. Secondly, management and employees altogether make efforts to achieve set
targets for business enterprise (Lee, Kim and Park, 2012). Management plan, direct and control
various marketing and production activities of TMS while, employees are given authority to
execute these plans in proper manner. Another group is of suppliers and creditors, those who
provide raw materials or unanalysed information to the company. Their presence causes
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continuous flow of unfinished goods and funds that helps in achieving targets of management.
The last key stakeholders are consumers that acquire finished services of TMS. The mentioned
company is ranked on the basis of level of satisfaction acquired by society through its
consultancy services.
Now, the secondary step to determine internal environment of TMS is performed through
SWOT analysis. It is useful technique for understanding strength and weaknesses of concerned
company. It also identifies both threat and opportunities of an organisation, that can be
understood below:
Strengths
This factor determines positive aspects about the internal environment of the company.
TMS is a marketing consultancy firm and its main strength is specific professional knowledge,
skills and strategies to help their clients in establishing their brand image in market (Gillam and
Siriwardena, 2013). It has excellent and qualified marketing workforce that implies current
trends and techniques to their respective projects.
Weaknesses
It is considered as negative aspect of internal functioning of an organisation and reduces
its productivity. The major weakness of mentioned firm is limited access to investment capital to
launch its significant marketing campaign. Also, it has to incur high expenses for maintenance
of corporate offices established in centre of city.
Opportunities
Now, this factor analyses growing aspects of TSM as an international entity in global
market. It is an external factor that includes political, social, environmental and demographic
elements influencing mentioned business industry (Craig and Campbell, 2012). The company is
abounded by high profile business entities at the time of excellent economic conditions.
Threat
Here, the concerned company evaluates challenges faced in successfully establishing
itself in the market. Periodically, technological change creates many threats for TMS to execute
different marketing policies. Also, it is endangered by presence of few eminent competitors in
the market. The managerial team needs to focus on improving USP of its schemes and policies in
order to achieve success.
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