Strategic Marketing Objectives and Analysis: A Comprehensive Guide

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Assessment Task 1- Written Questions

1. Explain three common strategic marketing objectives.
Three common strategic common marketing objectives involves:
 Selecting a target market: It is really important for the company at the initial level to
identify the target market before planning the strategic markets. Also, there is a requirement
to check the competition level which will be helpful in the identification of strengths and
weaknesses related to business. Also, it will be helpful in the identification of specific targets
and specific groups.
 Specification: It is really important for the company to be sure about what specific aim or
position the company has to achieve in the market. The company should behave like it is a
leader in the market and not a follower of some ongoing trend. This leader can be created by
keeping in mind the specification.
 Developing marketing mix strategy: Once the target market is selected and specification is
clear to the company, the next objective is to develop the marketing mix strategy which
involves 4P’s related to the product which makes sure that product developed by must fulfill
these 4Ps (McDONALD, 2016).
2. Explain the innovation/value matrix and its application to strategic marketing
Innovation matrix is developed with the purpose to simply help the company to understand the
complexities of the environment and make sure better ideas and suggestions are developed
keeping in mind the requirements. Strategic marketing can be quite helpful with the application
of the innovation matrix as this innovation consists of the four pillars that include:
 Radical ideas
 Smart ideas
 Strategic ideas
 Smart ideas
All these ideas are related to the products and the main aim of the innovation matrix is to make
sure that better improvement and innovation is done by the company keeping in mind to achieve
the objective of strategic marketing (Gaigné, et. al., 2017).
3. Explain how portfolio analysis can be applied to strategic marketing

Strategic portfolio analysis is basically a method which involves secure identification and
evaluation of the products which are being delivered by the company by keeping in mind the
product mix strategy. It also involves the development of the strategies for all the groups of the
company so that the sale of the products can actually be improved with this analysis. The
portfolio analysis involves:
 Ensuring optimum utilization of the resources.
 Ensuring the share of the market.
 Identifying market growth.
 Analyzing the elements related to the products which the company is delivering.
This portfolio analysis can be applied to strategic marketing which will be helpful in shaping the
present as well as the future related to the company product. It is also helpful in reducing the risk
level which is associated with the business because of growing complexities and changing the
business environment.
4. Explain the benefits of branding in relation to improving marketing performance?
Branding is considered to be important for improving marketing performance as:
 Developing the products on the basis of the consumer preferences: It is helpful in
delivering the products as per the consumer requirements which will be helpful in improving
the overall performance of the market.
 Generating the revenues and improving the market share: It is helpful in increasing the
market share and also it is helpful for the company to enter into some new geographical
markets which will be helpful in improving the overall performance of the brand in markets.
 Helpful in sustaining competition: This can be helpful in keeping the competition away
from the market and providing the benefits to the company by identifying the specific market
segments.
 Attract new customers as well as distributors: Branding will be helpful in attracting new
customers and distributors by maintaining the level of loyalty and maintaining the level of
demand and returns of the company (Propa, et. al., 2015).
5. Explain each component of the acronym SMART in relation to objectives

5 elements of SMART involve:
 Specific: The goal and objective of the business or organization should be quite clear and
specific because this will be helpful for the company to be focused towards its goals and
manage the resources according to specific objectives.
 Measurable: It is important that the specific goal or focus of the company should be
measurable in terms of some specific outcome because it can be helpful for the company to
keep a track record of the activities.
 Attainable: The goals set by the company should be such that it could be easily attainable
because it will make sure that the company is growing realistically and it is also based on the
 Relevant: The business goals should be relevant enough for the achievement because if the
market conditions and competition of the market are not in a favourable situation that it is
completely irrelevant to achieve the organization goals.
 Time-based: It is important that all the specific goals or objectives are achieved within the
specified time frame which will be helpful in the successful completion of the business
objectives.
6. Explain why there may be some tension between long-term and short-term marketing
objectives.
There consist some tensions among the long term and short term marketing objectives because
long term objective is considered to be internal parts of the organizations which will be achieved
eventually after 3-5 years. On the other hand, short term goals of the company are based on the
operational activities of the company which can be achieved within a few days or months.
Budgets and targets are usually considered to be the short term goals and it is important for
management to control these goals timely. It is important to maintain the balance between the
short term and long term goals of the company because it can lead to disrupting the normal
functions of the business.
7. Explain the balanced score-card strategy performance management tool.
Balanced scorecard strategy is the strategic tool which can be used for the systematic
measurement of the performance in an organization. This tool is enabling the manager of the
company to strictly monitor the performance and activities of the staff members on multiple

levels. This can be eventually helpful in having knowledge about the performance of the
employees and how this performance can be helpful in taking the required decision related to the
business (Wollmann & Tortato, 2019).
8. Explain the concept of a product differentiation strategy.
Product differentiation strategy is basically a strategy developed by the manager keeping in mind
the product delivered by the company for its respective customers by choosing where the product
should be completed, defining the entire product cycle and using the specific product
differentiation tool that will help in delivering all the requirements related to products. This
product differentiation strategy is usually adopted by the company to keep the product of the
company distinctive from the other company.
9. Explain two common sources of differentiation within a product differentiation
strategy.
Two common sources of differentiation which can be applied within a product differentiation
strategy involve:
 Performance and Quality: It is really important to maintain the quality of the product by
keeping aside the standard quality of the product because it is really important that product
should be performing and delivering the good quality to the consumers.
 Features and Pricing: It is important that feature of the product should be distinctive than
the usual product because these features will be the key attraction for the customers and also
the pricing is the major factor which should be thought properly before using the product
differentiation strategy (Buxel, et. al., 2015).
10. Explain two disadvantages of using a product differentiation strategy.
Two disadvantages of using a product differentiation strategy are:
 Cost: There is involvement of investment with the application of product differentiation
strategy which usually cannot be afforded easily. So, in order to target the specific markets, it
will be quite expensive for the company at the initial level.
 Losing the customer opportunities: With the additional cost and expenses associated with
the product differentiation, there will be the elimination of the customers who cannot afford

to buy the products at high rates which will eventually lead to losing some of the important
customers of the company.
11. Explain the concept of competitive advantage.
Competitive advantage is basically a superiority gained by an organization by providing the
products to its customers on the lower value in comparison from the other competitive
organization or the companies. This change in value will be helpful in delivering better value by
bringing out the differentiation in the product. The end result of the competitive advantage is to
match the competencies by providing opportunities to the business organization.

References
 McDONALD, M. A. L. C. O. L. M. (2016). Strategic marketing planning: theory and
practice. In The marketing book (pp. 108-142). Routledge.
 Wollmann, D., & Tortato, U. (2019). Proposal for a model to hierarchize strategic decisions
according to criteria of value innovation, sustainability and budgetary constraint. Journal of
Cleaner Production, 231, 278-289.
 Buxel, H., Esenduran, G., & Griffin, S. (2015). Strategic sustainability: Creating business
value with life cycle analysis. Business Horizons, 58(1), 109-122.
 Propa, G., Banwet, D. K., & Goswami, K. K. (2015). Sustainable operation management
using the balanced score card as a strategic tool-a research summary. Procedia-Social and
Behavioral Sciences, 189, 133-143.
 Gaigné, C., Blanchard, P., & Mathieu, C. (2017). The International Strategy of Firms: the
Role of Endogenous Product Differentiation.