Introduction
Marketing is one of the most essential elements of conducting any business, which contributes significantly to the performance of businesses. Understanding marketing strategies that businesses must employ in daily operations is essential as a student because it lays the foundation of the overall understanding of the entire business-related concepts. A marketing strategy refers to the game plan businesses apply for long-term purposes of targeting prospective customers and turning them into real-time customers to purchase their products and services and become part of the business (West et al., 2015). Notably, people always have various assumptions concerning the concept of marketing plans and strategies, which they think influence the conduct of businesses. However, as one receives professional knowledge of business marketing strategies through comprehensive studies and research, one’s view changes completely by discovering how insufficient their assumptions usually are concerning marketing. According to my experiences, I had various notions of marketing planning and strategies prior, which were based on assumptions. After engaging with various theories and comprehensive studies in marketing strategies in this course, my knowledge has significantly changed.
My Prior Assumptions on Marketing
Before I engaged with the course materials and the comprehensive assistance from my instructor, my knowledge of business and marketing strategies was characterized by many assumptions. First, I believed that the concept of marketing was similar to advertising, and I needed to learn how to distinguish one from the other. I assumed that both words, marketing and advertising, could be used synonymously such that one could be used to describe the other (Hospers, 2011). According to my assumption, I knew well that advertising typically involves carrying out awareness campaigns on brands. Marketing strategy is also a campaign meant to reach as many customers as possible to purchase products, and the success of the outreach campaigns determines the success of businesses. I should have recognized that marketing strategy involves several elements, advertising being one of them, and marketing views the bigger picture of a business.
I knew that marketing strategy should focus more on targeting everyone, based on the assumption on the notion that everyone can be a potential customer. This assumption further made me believe that in business operations, brands, products and services, businesses must appeal to everyone who comes across them (Hospers, 2011). At that point, my assumptions on marketing strategies barred me from recognizing that marketing typically involves a clear distinguishing between the target audiences, who are the prospective customers. For example, thinking that all people must find brands appealing just because a marketing activity was conducted on it made me fail to realize that people allergic to dairy products will not find an ice cream appealing to them, regardless of how delicious it would be.
Notably, my most incredible assumption on marketing strategies based on the limited knowledge that I had concerning it was that after conducting comprehensive marketing on a brand, the expected outcome needs to happen immediately for it to be deemed successful (Elimimian et al., 2006). At the end of an intense marketing campaign, sales had to increase dramatically. I should have realized that success in most marketing strategies takes time for its effectiveness to bear results, which can even go on for years. According to the assumption, I needed to gain knowledge concerning the concept of long-term and short-term goals of marketing and their impacts on businesses. I concentrated more on the short-term achievements of marketing and needed to see the bigger picture of looking beyond quick and massive wins (Elimimian et al., 2006).
My knowledge of marketing strategy included some insights concerning digital marketing, which was also based on various assumptions. I must acknowledge that I know how essential the digital age of the internet and social media is in marketing (Bruhn et al., 2023). However, I assumed that choosing the content one wrote concerning their brand could be based on whatever one wanted, as long as it concerns their business. I did know from my assumptions that content creation is always a critical activity that marketers must conduct carefully to avoid creating irrelevant content. Additionally, I assumed that what one needs to market their brand online is just a popular social media platform. This notion was shaped by the fact that social media has become dominant in conducting marketing campaigns (Bruhn et al., 2023). The assumption about the role of social media in marketing made me downplay other forms of traditional marketing.
My experience with the Marketing Strategy Course Topics
After engaging with the various topics concerning marketing strategy, I gained new knowledge far from the prior assumption that had preoccupied my knowledge. First, I got a clear understanding of what a marketing strategy is, a process of planned activities including the objectives, customer interaction, branding, and engagement with competitors, among others. I was also able to understand that marketing strategy involves a series of activities, and one can only understand it by approaching it from a holistic point of view. According to scholars, marketing strategy is essential to businesses because it assists one in nurturing their customers and improving the overall bottom line of their business. I learned that marketing strategy helps the teams in business organizations with the specific goals a business aims to achieve and ties the goals to the efforts.
After learning comprehensively about business and marketing strategy, I found out that for one to identify their target audience efficiently and effectively, one has to know what resonates with their audience first. This knowledge is essential because it debunks the predisposition that marketing is often aimed at targeting everyone. After learning how essential marketing strategy is in identifying prospective customers as the audiences, one can capitalize on emerging trends and increase brand sales. Most importantly, I acquired sufficient knowledge to assist me in classifying marketing strategy and marketing plan, with the former meaning outlining long-term objectives and the overall approach of a business, and the latter specific tactics one acts upon to achieve the objectives.
As my knowledge of marketing strategy expanded through studying the course materials, I understood the essential activities that strategists employ to make their marketing effective. One of the most essential topics that I take seriously describes the way customers need to be effectively reached through a marketing strategy. I learned that market segmentation is an essential activity in marketing strategy, together with effective targeting and positioning (Park, 2010). The entire process involves the identification of prospective customers for brand consumption and then designing and delivering the most relevant and personalized information for them (West et al., 2015). In other words, I understood the concept better in terms of identification of customers, targeting the identified segment with specific content, and the appropriate positioning of the brand to them.
Additionally, my knowledge of marketing strategy that I have learned in class has played a role in shaping my perspective on strategic marketing. Reflecting on specific aspects of marketing, the marketing mix is vital in market strategy. The market mix in this context considers elements, including product, price, place and promotion. Notably, the product one aims to introduce or push to their target audience is vital to marketing. After introducing the product, marketers must strategize carefully about the price that the product will cost, the strategic location where they wish to target, and where the promotion aims (Park, 2010).
How my Knowledge of Marketing has evolved
Reflecting on my prior knowledge of marketing compared to the knowledge I have acquired after engaging with professional course materials, my knowledge has evolved significantly. My prior knowledge of marketing strategy was based on assumptions, and therefore, I needed concrete reasoning concerning the entire topic. However, as I learned the principles and aspects of strategic marketing, I have developed a well-rounded knowledge that is fact-based from various research studies and business theorists. The interaction I have had with various materials in class, from personal research and assistance from my instructor, has assisted me in bridging the gap between assumptions and comprehensive facts.
Marketing strategy was all about advertising, and therefore, companies that carried out massive campaigns had the best marketing strategies. Recently, marketing strategy must refrain from involving intense outreach to customers but building more customer relationships. I have a deep knowledge that target marketing is the best strategy to market a product, rather than what I believed prior, that to reach more customers, it was necessary to make everyone a target to the product, even if they were not prospective customers. All the assumptions that I held about the various activities of marketing to increase sales, such as entirely shifting to social media marketing and abandoning traditional media, have changed. Most assumptions have been replaced by better knowledge of strategies, such as having small market segments that one can act on more specifically. It is essential to acknowledge that studying marketing strategy has opened up my mind and helped me approach the concept from a more professional viewpoint rather than the commonly believed notions.
References
Bruhn, M., Gröppel-Klein, A., & Kirchgeorg, M. (2023). Managerial marketing and behavioural marketing: when myths about marketing management and consumer behaviour lead to a misconception of the discipline. Journal of Business Economics, 1-34.
Elimimian, J. U., Elliard, M., & Khayota, M. O. (2006). Myths and misconceptions: What do marketing students need to learn from a course in the principles (Basic) of marketing? Innovative Marketing, 2(4).
Hospers, G. J. (2011). Four of the most common misconceptions about place marketing. Journal of Town & City Management, 2(2).
Park, H. (2010). Communicating with audiences: The strategic marketing of music festivals.
West, D. C., Ford, J. B., & Ibrahim, E. (2015). Strategic marketing: creating competitive advantage. Oxford University Press, USA.
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