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STRATEGIC MARKETING MANAGEMENT

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Table of Contents
Introduction ................................................................................................................................ 4
Task 1 .......................................................................................................................................... 4
AC1.1 Discussion of the role of strategic marketing in an organisation. ...................................... 4
AC1.2. The processes involved in strategic marketing. ............................................................... 4
Planning phase ..................................................................................................................... 4
Implementation phase .......................................................................................................... 5
Concept phase ...................................................................................................................... 5
AC1.3 Evaluation of the links between strategic marketing and corporate strategy. ................... 5
Value chain .......................................................................................................................... 5
Core competency.................................................................................................................. 5
AC2.1 Assessing the value of models used in strategic marketing planning................................. 6
Strategic marketing planning ................................................................................................ 6
AC2.2 Discussion of the links between strategic positioning and marketing tactics. .................... 7
Strategic positioning ............................................................................................................. 7
Marketing tactics .................................................................................................................. 7
AC2.3 Analysis of the merits of relationship marketing in a given strategic marketing strategy. .. 7
Merits of relationship marketing ........................................................................................... 7
Task-2 .......................................................................................................................................... 8
AC3.1 Usage of the appropriate marketing techniques to ascertain growth opportunities in a
market. .................................................................................................................................... 8
Setting marketing objective & making Strategies ................................................................... 8
Target marketing .................................................................................................................. 8
Become valuable resources ................................................................................................... 8
AC3.2 Planning on using the marketing strategy options in a market ......................................... 9
Competitive strategy ............................................................................................................ 9
Cost leadership strategy ....................................................................................................... 9
AC3.3 Creating appropriate strategic marketing objectives for a market. ................................... 9
To create awareness among target consumer ........................................................................ 9
Produce healthier environment ............................................................................................ 9
AC4.1 Report on the impact of changes in the external environment on a marketing strategy .... 9
Environmental factors ........................................................................................................ 10
Competition ....................................................................................................................... 10
Customer’s attitude ............................................................................................................ 10
AC4.2 Internal analysis to identify current strengths and weaknesses in a marketing strategy .. 10
Strengths............................................................................................................................ 10
Weaknesses ....................................................................................................................... 10
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AC4.3 Strategic marketing responses to key emerging themes in a marketing strategy. ............ 11
Globalization ...................................................................................................................... 11
Technological ..................................................................................................................... 11
Conclusion ................................................................................................................................. 11
References................................................................................................................................. 12
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Introduction
The report is all about how an organization develops and manages a strategic marketing plan.
The second part explains how an organization applies the strategic marketing management
techniques in a market situation.In the first part, the role of strategic marketing is being
discussed, i.e. how strategic marketing helps in an organization. The variety of processes
such as planning, implementation and control phase involved in strategic marketing are also
explained here. The relation between strategic marketing and corporate marketing is also
being discussed. Apart from that, various models of a strategic marketing planning as well as
the relationship between strategic positioning and marketing tactics are included. The benefits
of relationship marketing is also being discussed here. In the second part, the strategic
techniques and options are discussed. And also how an external environment affects the
organization are discussed.

Task 1
AC1.1 Discussion of the role of strategic marketing in an organisation.

Strategic marketing is the identification of strengths of an organization which helps the

organization in differentiating itself from the competitor. Strategic marketing plays a vital
role in an organization as it helps the organization in achieving its goals by utilizing its scarce
resources in an effective way. Allocation and utilization of scarce resources in an effective
way that helps an organization in increasing its sales and competitiveness. It helps the
organization in increasing its capability and effectiveness from the competitor. Strategic
marketing confirms that the right materials are being chosen for the production of goods or
services. It also confirms that the productions are going as per the customer’s needs (Simerly,
1987).

AC1.2. The processes involved in strategic marketing.

Strategic marketing processes helps an organization to reach its target market with the
allocation of its marketing mix resources. The process consists of three phase which are
explained below:

Planning phase - This phase consists of three steps, i.e.

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1. Situation analysis: SWOT analysis helps an organization in increasing its strengths,

rectifying its weakness, grabbing opportunities and avoiding situation that can hamper
the organizations environment (Ahmad, 2013).
2. Market product focus and goal setting: First of all, marketing and product goals are
defined then it selects the target market with the help of market segmentation. The
next task is to find out the point of difference. Lastly, the product is positioned in the
market (Gilligan and Wilson, 2009).
3. Marketing programme: In this stage, the marketing mix, i.e. product, price, place and
promotion are developed and then the budget is being prepared with the help of
estimation of revenues, expenses, and profits.

Implementation phase - This phase consist of four steps, i.e. finding resources, designing
marketing organization, developing schedules and executing marketing program.

Concept phase - In this phase, the outcomes are compared with the plans in order to find out
the changes that has been occurred (Moutinho and Southern, 2010).

AC1.3 Evaluation of the links between strategic marketing and corporate strategy.

Sometimes, both the terms strategic marketing and corporate strategy are used
interchangeably but the difference lies in the aim. The aim of corporate strategy is to earn
profit for the organization, whereas, that of strategic marketing is to increase the sales of the
products. Besides this difference, there are some link and interrelationship between the two
which are been explained below-

Value chain- It is the process of making, communicating and delivering a product as per the
customer’s needs and wants. It links strategic marketing and corporate strategy (Clegg,
2011). The first link is market sensing, i.e. identifying the target market, the next link is new
offering, i.e. making and delivering the product. After this comes the customer acquisition,
i.e. promotional activities are carried out to attract customers. The last link is fulfilment
management, i.e. related to supplying the product.

Core competency- It is the quality that an organization adopts in order to differentiate it from
the competitors. Core competencies are being developed as corporate strategy but advertise
as strategic marketing by an organization.
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AC2.1 Assessing the value of models used in strategic marketing planning.

Strategic marketing planning: - It is an operational and managerial process which helps an

organization in making and applying effective marketing strategies (Dess, 2012).

Models – The models used in strategic marketing planning helps the organization in
evaluating whether the business is doing better than its competitors or not and also helps in
identifying the growth strategies for the future. There are four models used in this process
which includes the following-

1. The Ansoff matrix - It is a matrix which identifies opportunities that will help in the
growth of the organization (McDonald and Meldrum, n.d.). It involves four growth
strategies i.e. market penetration, product development, market development and
diversification.
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2. BCG matrix - This model was introduced by The Boston Consulting Group (BCG). It
is also known as growth share matrix. It consists of four parts, i.e. question mark, star,
cash cow and dog.

AC2.2 Discussion of the links between strategic positioning and marketing tactics.

Strategic positioning – Positioning is the principle which shows how an organization

competes and serves its customers. Positioning helps an organization by creating awareness
among the customers (Proctor, 2000).

Marketing tactics – It is a set of methods which helps in promoting the products of the
business in order to increase its sales (Cohen, 1995). An effective marketing tactics helps in
satisfying the customers’ needs and assists the business in utilizing its scarce resources in
more efficient way to maximize the promotion of its products.

AC2.3 Analysis of the merits of relationship marketing in a given strategic marketing

strategy.
Merits of relationship marketing

 It helps in creating new customers

 It lessens the marketing and client services costs
 It helps in the expansion of business as the loyal customers suggest others to buy the
products.
 It increases market share, sales as well as competency.
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Task-2
AC3.1 Usage of the appropriate marketing techniques to ascertain growth opportunities
in a market.

The company that is chosen for this report is AB Cakes limited, which is located in
Wolverhampton, England. It is related to private limited company, involves in production of
different bakery items such as breads, cakes, flour confectionery and sugar confectionary
food products.

Marketing techniques are the tools used by the marketing department of the company in order
to attract more customers and make more profits towards business. As a marketing manager,
the below are some of the techniques used by the AB Cakes
Ltd.

Setting marketing objective & making Strategies:

Setting objectives and making strategies are the key roles of

the marketing management. Hence, AB Cakes Ltd had set
objectives to obtain growth, increase sales and maintain market
share. Same way, to accelerate the growth of the sales, it has adopted marketing strategies
that is, cost leadership (Iuso, 1975). Based on this, the company is getting sugar at low cost
from Africa and China.

Target marketing:

The company AB Cakes Ltd. has been focused on the people who are suffering from diabetes
and ignoring the sugar products. So, it started introducing the products of sugar free to attract
customers and increase the sales.

Become valuable resources:

AB cakes Ltd. made a strategy to promote their products in a valuable and unique way which
is liked by everybody. The strategies are made by the management to get the AB products
available at easier, less expensive, faster etc.
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AC3.2 Planning on using the marketing strategy options in a market

In order to be an efficient and effective business, AB Cakes ltd. has used different marketing
strategies in order to seek more customer attraction and increase the sales of the company.

Competitive strategy: The strategy is made by the management to create defendable position
in an industry, to cope with the competitive force and there by yield superior returns.

Cost leadership strategy: AB Cakes ltd. is a low cost producer industry which makes quality
products in a reasonable price. This strategy is only applicable when there is good
distribution channel and raw materials like sugar is getting at a least cost (Kotler and Cox,
1988). For this, company started importing sugar from China and Africa.

AC3.3 Creating appropriate strategic marketing objectives for a market.

Marketing objective are the goals set by the company in order to promote the products or
services to potential consumers during specific time period. AB Cakes Ltd. also had the
marketing objectives to reach the company’s goal such as –

To create awareness among target consumer:

The AB Cakes Company created the awareness among the target customer that it is UK’s one
of the popular companies which concerns about the Diabetic patients and introduced healthy
and tasty food products.

Produce healthier environment:

This is one of the objectives set by the organization to create healthier life style through their
products. It has also been working with many environmental caring trusts to avoid pollution
in the process of production (Cohen, 2006). Hence, it is associated with Carbon Trust for
more improvement in the production process.

AC4.1 Report on the impact of changes in the external environment on a marketing

strategy.

Every business external environment has strong impact on making decision for strategic
planning as the business is operated in states. The external environment consists of many
important factors (Kotler and Armstrong, 2012) such as.
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Environmental factors:

As the company AB involves in supporting the positive changes in the environment and had
made the policies and strategies, safer. It has the highest standards for environmental
protection and sustainability.

Competition:

The huge completion in the market also impacts on the marketing strategies. Based on the
range of the competition, the management has to make changes in marketing objectives and
strategies (Burkholder, Edwards and Sartain, 2004).

Customer’s attitude:

It comes under social economic factors which plays key role in influencing the marketing
strategy. The attitude of people, such as health consciousness, makes changes to the
marketing strategies.

AC4.2 Internal analysis to identify current strengths and weaknesses in a marketing

strategy

An internal analysis is done to find the strengths and weaknesses of an organization. These
factors illustrate the advantage and disadvantages of the company.

Strengths:

 AB Cakes Company is number one supplier of the UK retail sugar and sweetener
market and the food service which produces low calorie sugar products.
 It is the one of the company which works with carbon trust and committed to reduce
carbon emission (Thomas, 2007).
 It produces some unique products like sugar syrups, sugars for drinks and sprinkling,
sauces etc. along with the bakery items.

Weaknesses:

 The production of sugarcane and sugar beet is mainly based on the climate. Due to the
impact of global warming, the production is gradually decreasing and cost of the
sugar beets increasing (Thomas, 2007).
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 To meet the customer requirements, the company uses the combination of destocking
and supplies from third parties which is affecting the company’s image badly.

AC4.3 Strategic marketing responses to key emerging themes in a marketing strategy.

Globalization:

Globalization is one of the important themes which influenced the marketing strategy for
which the organization is now able to export the products and services throughout the world.
It makes changes in the strategies of marketing in order to promote the products worldwide.

Technological:

As the technology is growing rapidly, the growth of the AB Cakes company is also involved
in growing the sales of the company by adapting new changes to the marketing strategies.
The company involves in promoting products by using the TV, social networks etc. to grab
the more opportunities of sales (Verbeke, 2009).

Conclusion
Today, the global market has seen immense competition in the market but the AB Cakes Ltd.
has occupied the position in the market by applying right marketing strategies at right time.
Hence, using the marketing strategies and techniques helped the company in reaching
objectives of the company and satisfying customers with their unique services.
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References
Ahmad, M. (2013). Marketing Case Studies and Swot Analysis. Saarbrücken: LAP
LAMBERT Academic Publishing.

Burkholder, N., Edwards, P. and Sartain, L. (2004). On staffing. Hoboken, N.J.: Wiley.

Buttle, F. (1996). Relationship marketing. London: Chapman.

Clegg, S. (2011). Strategy. London: SAGE.

Cohen, W. (1995). The marketing plan. New York: Wiley.

Cohen, W. (2006). The marketing plan. Hoboken, NJ: J. Wiley & Sons.

Dess, G. (2012). Strategic management. New York: McGraw-Hill/Irwin.

Gilligan, C. and Wilson, R. (2009). Strategic marketing planning. Amsterdam:

Elsevier/Butterworth-Heinemann.

Iuso, B. (1975). Concept Testing: An Appropriate Approach. Journal of Marketing Research,

12(2), p.228.

Karlöf, B. and Lövingsson, F. (2005). The A-Z of management concepts and models.
London: Thorogood.

Kotler, P. and Armstrong, G. (2012). Principles of marketing. Boston: Pearson Prentice Hall.

Kotler, P. and Cox, K. (1988). Marketing management and strategy. Englewood Cliffs, NJ:
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McDonald, M. and Meldrum, M. (n.d.). The complete marketer.

Moutinho, L. and Southern, G. (2010). Strategic marketing management. Hampshire, U.K.:

Cengage Learning EMEA.

Proctor, T. (2000). Strategic marketing. London: Routledge.

Simerly, R. (1987). Strategic planning and leadership in continuing education. San

Francisco, Calif.: Jossey-Bass.
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SwaanArons, H. and Waalewijn, P. (1999). A knowledge base representing Porter's five

forces model. Rotterdam: RIBES, Rotterdam Institute for Business Economic Studies.

Thomas, A. (2007). Direct marketing in action. Westport, Conn.: Praeger Publishers.

Verbeke, A. (2009). International business strategy. Cambridge: Cambridge University

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