Strategy and Context

Strategic theories found in every brand manager's toolkit are listed in this chapter. As you read, add the ten key terms to your key terms glossary and organize them by strategy, execution, or collateral. Then look at the Brand Pyramid Template, start this analysis with the Brand Essence, then choose a brand you are loyal to and examine how each engages you in the loyalty loop. Next, choose a close competitor to your brand, and run the same examination. The Brand Pyramid Template strategy is often used for evaluating brand initiatives that align with the commitment to ethical practices. Use the work you started in the activity above and choose a brand that has been certified for its commitment to societal business practices (https://www.bcorporation.net/en-us/find-a-b-corp). Again, look at the Brand Pyramid Template, and examine how the B Corp brand compares with a similar competitive B Corp brand. You can search the category to find the competitive brand. Use your notebook to create 2-3 sentence answers to the challenge questions for both exercises. This time, in this exercise, substitute the B Corp brand and focus on which ethical practices create the best strategic competitive advantage.

Introduction

Learning Objectives

In this chapter, you will learn:

  • How to define and distinguish business strategy and marketing strategy
  • How to think about digital audiences
  • The key building block concepts that are essential to any strategy
  • The questions that need to be asked when assembling a digital marketing

A strategy indicates the most advantageous direction for an organisation to take over a defined period of time. It also outlines which tactics and means should be used to execute this direction. Originating as a military term, strategy is about using your strengths, as well as the context in which you are operating, to your advantage.

In marketing, strategy starts with understanding what the business wants to achieve, or what problem it wants to solve. It then considers the context in which the business and its competitors operates and outlines key ways in which the business and brand can gain advantage and add value.
In the early days of TV, when the medium was new and not yet entirely understood, there were separate 'TV planners' who created a 'TV strategy' for the brand. Over time, this was incorporated into the overall marketing strategy (as it should be). The same has happened with digital. Digital thinking should be incorporated into marketing strategy from day one. This chapter considers digital strategy separately in order to highlight some ways in which digital has affected our strategic approach to reaching customers and solving marketing problems.

Key Terms and Concepts

Term Definition
Cluetrain Manifesto A set of 95 theses organised as a call to action (CTA) for businesses operating within a newly connected marketplace, published in 1999. While some of the book's claims have failed to materialise, it was an early source of guidelines for social media and obtained a cult- like following.
Market share In strategic management and marketing, market share is the percentage or proportion of the total available market or market segment that is being serviced by a company.
Metric A unit of measurement.
Pay per click (PPC) Pay per click is advertising where the advertiser pays only for each click on their advert, not for the opportunity for it to be seen or displayed.
Return on investment (ROI) The ratio of cost to profit.
Search engine optimisation (SEO) SEO is the practice that aims to improve a website's ranking for specific keywords in the search engines.
Short Message Service (SMS) Electronic messages sent on a cellular network.
Strategy A set of ideas that outline how a product or brand will be positioned and achieve its objectives. This guides decisions on how to create, distribute, promote and price the product or service.
Tactic A specific action or method that contributes to achieving a goal.

Source: Lina Manuel, https://pressbooks.nscc.ca/emarketing/chapter/chapter-1/
Creative Commons License This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.