Rico Poon

            One of the classic definitions of strategic marketing can be construed as management at a business level and is determined by a set of principles that make clear the leading directives and decisions of the performance of an organization (Mongay, 2006). Strategic marketing aims to have direct communication with the functional strategy of marketing, manage the cost level and budgets for all marketing activities, allocate resources based on strategic needs, and incorporate marketing strategy within the overall score of the marketing plan. Strategic marketing adheres to a severe internal analysis to determine tangibles and intangible resources. (Accountants., McShane, P., & Accountants., 1988). Those resources are vital to consider in terms of marketing strategies merely because they provide the relevancy to negotiate resources at all means. (Gale, T., Branch, & Ben, 1980). From a marketing manager's perspective, resource allocation is crucial to recognize and enable managers to manage their financial statements and economic flows.

            A marketing strategy composes of multiple interconnected factors. The first and most essential factor is market selection because it is closely associated with selecting the kind of market an organization wants to enter (Brown, A., Sommers, & E., 1982). Products planning consists of particular products an organization wants to market, the design of individual offerings, and makeup. The next factor is the wholesale and retail distribution system through which products are transported to the consumers. The overall communications strategy includes multiple forms of advertisements that inform potential consumers about the products. Lastly, pricing the products is one of the most directed marketing strategies, and it is an essential factor of any marketing program (Mongay, 2006). An organization needs to determine the profit margins, commissions to compensate wholesalers, retailers, other agents, and the final pricing customers are willing to pay.

            In a market-driven strategy, competitive advantage is determined by customer satisfaction. An organization ought to surpass the consumers' contentment of the competition. Marketing strategy attributes to competitive advantage should incorporate the consumer-centric business strategies into an array of market-focused strategies (Mokwa & Day, 1987). Strategic marketing contains the measures of the businesses focused on consumer satisfaction. Furthermore, strategy development takes into account competitive advantage, business scope, and organizational efficiency. Strategic marketing furnishes the organization with the emphasis on marketing as an interrelated responsibility of the business as opposed to a particular function.

            The disturbance of the current business environment puts different importance on strategic marketing (Dobni & Brooke, 1998; Ennew et al., 1993). Strategic Marketing offers the knowledge base for economic environment monitoring, identifying and selecting what consumer groups to target, concerning product specifications, and determining what kind of competitors to position against. When considering the marketing environment, especially in strategic marketing, marketing executives should presume a change is always present even though the marketing management approach may see change as punctual and occasional. Therefore, it is undoubtedly for marketers to recognize and quantify the rate of change. In other words, the likelihood of coping with new competitors in the market, pricing competitions, new products, and the change of the market topography should be considered when they come to the market an organization is operating. As soon as an organization determined the change, the organization would better define and navigate through strategic marketing or marketing management.

            The corporate strategy consists of the basic direction for the organization's future. When considering how strategic marketing support corporate strategy in term of its economic, finance, purpose and how they integrate with the world in which it operates, every attribute of the organization plays an essential role in this strategy including its people, its finances, its environment, as well as its clientele (Mongay, 2006). It is relatively easy to mistake corporate strategy and strategic marketing. Both corporate strategy and strategic marketing focus on big decision-making; it takes an extended period to implement a strategy and utilize a considerable amount of resources by marketing executives or senior management. However, there is a settled difference between corporate strategy and strategic marketing. Corporate strategy composed of heterogeneous elements such as vertical integration, diversification, acquisition, and divestiture policy. The majority of these elements are centered according to the organization's orientation while things are related to business strategy. On the other hand, strategic marketing is all about a smaller array of decisions than strategic management. They target competitive strategy or at the business rather than at the corporate level.  

            In conclusion, strategic marketing requires a certain degree of flexibility and originality when considering that not all the aspects can be controlled and appraise—the key factors when articulate strategic determinations are adjoined with the personal interpretation (Piercy, 2016). If a business opportunity is identified, one should designate them as possible opportunities because those opportunities may or may not be certain. They may or may not be complete, indicating sustainable alternative control strategy of these opportunities like the impact matrix. Strategic marketing comprises a process of acting, thinking, and analyzing under potential and possible changes.

References

Accountants., C. I. o. M., McShane, P., and Accountants., C. I. o. M. 1988. Management accounting: strategic planning and marketing; stage 4. Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann.

Brown, A., J., Sommers, and E., D. 1982. Developing a Strategic Marketing Orientation in a Large Industrial Firm. Industrial Marketing Management, 11(3), 167.

Dobni & Brooke, C. 1998. Market orientation and market strategy profiling: an empirical test of environment-behaviour-action coalignment and it's performance implications in the telecommunications industry in the United States. Unpublished Ph.D. thesis. Typescript, Bradford.

Ennew, C. T., Wright, M., & Thwaites, D. (1993). Strategic Marketing in Financial Services: Retrospect and Prospect. International Journal of Bank Marketing, 11(6), 12–18. doi:10.1108/02652329310045710

 Gale, T., B., Branch, and Ben. 1980. Strategic Marketing: The Dispute About High-Share Businesses. The Journal of Business Strategy, 1(1), 71.

Mokwa, M. P., & Day, G. S. (1987). Strategic Market Planning: The Pursuit of Competitive Advantage. Journal of Marketing, 51(2), 137. doi:10.2307/1251137

Mongay, J. (2006). Strategic Marketing. A literature review on definitions, concepts and boundaries. Retrieved from https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/41840/1/mpra_paper_41840.pdf

Piercy, N. (2016). Market-led strategic change: Transforming the process of going to market. London: Routledge.