Joe Smith
Special to The Record
Over the past few years, there has been much emphasis placed on the use of various platforms to deliver messages. This deluge of tools at times seems to be driving marketing decisions. Perhaps it is time to take a fresh look at what you are trying to accomplish in reaching out to current or potential customers.
No matter what era or age of marketing you grew up in, the process of developing a plan follows a set of guidelines that has and will withstand the tests of time.
Prior to going down the path of social media, virtual reality, artificial intelligence or any other medium, it is essential to understand that these elements are tactics used to achieve objectives. Before implementing them it is crucial to have a good reason for using them.
This can only happen if you build a proper plan based on having a clear understanding of who you are, and, most importantly, awareness of whom you are trying to reach. These are the fundamentals of all marketing and communications strategies.
Developing a marketing strategy comes first, for the simple reasons that it identifies your target audience, outlines your objectives, defines how and what mediums you will use to convey your messages and will keep you on track.
Having an extensive social media campaign on Facebook, for example, may not be the best way to reach your most likely customer because they are heavy users of Instagram or another social network. Perhaps they are more prone to search out information through print or by searching the web. They might even have a narrower sphere of influence through reliance on specialty publications, blogs or subscriptions to unique media that cater specifically to their interests.
There is concern amongst certain marketing professionals that strategy is taking a back seat to tactics. Highlighting this concern that interest in marketing strategy has been declining in the past five years, a recent article which appeared in Marketing Week UK reported that a Google search on trend data shows a nine per cent decline in searches related to marketing strategy.
There is no question that developing plans and strategies is the most challenging it has ever been and it will be even more challenging as more and more interactive devices, platforms and new channels of communication come on stream. The only thing that can make life simpler is to remember that before you can apply any tactics you must have a solid strategy first.
Sun Tzu was a great strategist, writer and philosopher of several millennia ago, whose observations in his book, The Art of War, have influenced Eastern and Western military thinking, business tactics and legal strategy right up until today. In one observation he said “Tactics without strategy is the noise before the defeat.”
Certainly something to think about as we move forward in 2019.
Joe Smith is a communications consultant and an accomplished fine artist. He can be reached via email at joesmith@shaw.ca
