FLETCHER WEIR
MARKETING STRATEGY
WHEN MARKETING ISN'T ADDING UP TO IMPACT
Everyone agrees marketing matters. (well, almost everyone.)
They don't always agree what it is there to do.
Marketing can be tasked to do an extraordinary number of things.
Find growth. Build preference. Generate demand. Understand customers. Enter new markets. Support sales. Protect margin. Launch products. Strengthen the brand.
Often, the problem isn't that marketing isn't doing enough.
It's that the organization hasn't made clear enough choices about where marketing can make the greatest difference.
IT MIGHT LOOK LIKE
The business has ambitious growth targets, but no clear view of where the growth will come from, or what needs to be overcome to gain it.
Marketing and sales often see the market - or the customer - differently.
Everyone agrees the customer matters, but different parts of the business are working from different definitions of who that customer is.
The brand is well known, but now it isn't creating enough preference.
Marketing is being measured on what's easy to count rather than on what the business most needs it to change.
Resources are spread across too many audiences , markets or priorities.
Or marketing has become responsible for delivering a strategy it has had too little role in shaping.
THE MARKETING PROBLEM MAY START OUTSIDE MARKETING
Sometimes marketing is being asked to solve a problem that hasn't been resolved elsewhere.
An unclear growth strategy. An undifferentiated value proposition. Competing business priorities. A sales model and customer reality that don't quite match. Or a brand that gives marketing very little distinctive material to work with.
In those situations, optimizing the marketing plan won't solve the underlying problem.
We help work out what marketing can change, what it can't, and where it should place its bets.
WHAT WE LOOK AT
We look at what the business is trying to achieve - and what role marketing can realistically play in getting it there.
Where growth could come from. Which customers, audiences and markets matter most.
How marketing and sales work together - or don't, if that's the case.
And whether the metrics it depends on actually tell the organization what it needs to know.
Then we make choices.
Who matters. What needs to change. Where to compete. What marketing should do. And what it should stop doing.
WHAT THAT CAN LEAD TO
Often, a sharper view of the market. Different priorities for growth. A more useful segmentation. A stronger proposition. A different balance between brand building and demand generation.
And yes, sometimes it means investing more.
But equally, sometimes it means stopping quite a lot of things.
THE POINT
Marketing shouldn't have to justify its existence by producing more and more activity.
It should be judged by what it contributes to the business.
CONTACT
Not sure whether all your marketing is adding up to business impact?
Let's talk.
Marketing Strategy · Growth Strategy · Segmentation Strategy · Go-to-market Strategy · Communications Strategy · Content Strategy · Creative Strategy · Behavioural Insight