Is Strategic Marketing Dead?...No Way!

I hear that question a lot. Because the recession and ‘change’ brought a lot of risk, apprehension and fear of the unknown, we start hearing people talk about how traditional forms of marketing, targeting, strategy, branding, advertising and research are long gone!

I hereby attest to the fact that all of these concepts and tools are not dead. They are actually needed more than ever! However, they require more attention, sophistication, quantification and refinement to take advantage of the external and internal environmental changes that are occurring.

Strategic marketing has been defined by the American Marketing Association as “the activities and processes required to create, communicate, deliver and exchange offerings that provide value for an organization’s customers, clients, partners and society.” The Financial Times in London defines it simply as, “a plan designed to make the future market position of an organization stronger.”

In today’s marketplace, my definition of strategic marketing aims to determine real competitive advantages, measurable added-value and positive return-on-investment. Now the question is: “Aren’t all of these concepts even more important today? I believe they are.

The only key difference is that the more sophisticated marketers “proactively embrace” the financial, marketplace and technology-driven changes. They refine their goal/ objective setting, research and analysis, targeting and strategy formulation. The challenge becomes the reallocation of resources and budgets between a stronger mix of traditional marketing strategies and channels with newer Internet/ social media ones. The wider number of strategic alternatives today demands stronger “strategic thinking” and “smarter choices”. Industry trends and new buzzwords cannot replace thorough strategic thinking.

You will notice that traditional methods are still alive and will remain so. Until we become 100% virtual in our work and social life, then traditional tools and strategies will remain very important. I know of no one who is 100% virtual as most people live most of their lives external to the Internet, Tweeting, Facebook, etc. In some way, most of us still travel, commute, read, watch TV, play, eat, shop in stores and even use phone directories that force us to come into contact with traditional marketing channels. Of course, the Internet, cell phones and other communication tools will continue to expand rapidly. For the foreseeable future, we will need to become wiser, more technologically-savvy and spend a lot more time on customer engagements and relationships. This will demand a strategic marketing paradigm that focuses upon finding the optimal marketing mix of traditional and newer strategies.

For example, it is ironic and has been mentioned a lot in marketing circles that Google did have a traditional advertisement on TV during the Super Bowl for the first time this year while still allocating significant resources to the Internet-related channels. Google must know something about the need to do some traditional advertising as part of their mix.

A well known excellent example of mixing traditional and new marketing strategies was completed by Volkswagen during the Super Bowl. For example, VW created a strategic mix of a traditional TV commercial, an Internet-based microsite for auto selection, a commercial on YouTube, sent a mobile advertisement for cell phones and even used a couple of social networking sites during the Super Bowl. From market research, it appears that VW created its own viral strategic marketing campaign with an excellent strategic mix and results!