Building a successful Marketing Strategy is more than churning out a glossy brochure…it needs to be a living “Road Map”

Marketing guru Philip Kotler said “When marketing is very successful and people like the new product, word-of-mouth spreads fast and little selling is necessary.” This sounds simple enough, and is certainly the desire of probably every business owner. To have a product that takes off without investing boatloads of time and money into sales is a dream come true. The reality, of course, is that many businesses don’t necessarily understand what goes into building a successful marketing strategy and underestimate the required complexities and thought that needs to go into building such plans.

“Vision without action is daydream. Action without vision is a nightmare.”- Japanese Proverb

Whether you’re a small or large business, your corporate business plan is likely doomed to failure in the long term without a solid marketing strategy.  The term “marketing strategy” is unfortunately often used as a blanket term that can have many different meanings and interpretations for different people: is it a brand plan? a sales strategy? an operations plan? a customer service plan? product development plan? market analysis?  The answer to all of these questions is a definitive “yes”.

A strong marketing strategy needs to be more than just a glossy brochure and a nice website.  What’s required is an understandable and executable plan that distils all this information into a strategy that the entire company – sales, marketing, engineering, operations, finance, etc. – can rally around and help move forward.  I prefer to call this strategy a “Road Map” for your business.  Your company’s Road Map should be a living, ever-improving and collaborative window on your business at any given time. A corporate Road Map, then, is more than just a marketing strategy, it is a comprehensive plan that engages your entire company.  A solid Road Map defines your corporate values and personality, it identifies you brand message and brand icons, but it also puts into play a “real world” action plan that accounts for the critical inputs that affect the “customer experience” across various departments of your company.

To effectively you tell your story and build a cohesive, memorable brand you need to deploy a team with “real world” corporate experience in helping build a solid Road Map for business growth, a Road Map that accounts for the daily realities of your company and your industry.  It’s a necessarily comprehensive process, but the end result will be well worth the effort!  I welcome your comments and discussions in the Road Map process.

Chad Wiesner