Introduction
Strategy, according to the
Wikipedia could be defined in several ways. Literately, a strategy is a plan of
action or policy designed to achieve a major or overall aim. It could also be
seen or defined as the art of planning and directing overall operations and
movements in a particular setting.
Marketing is referred to as a process which involves
the identification, as well as the satisfaction of the needs and wants of
consumers, through the exchange process, while marketing management is a
business discipline which is focused on the practical application of marketing
techniques and the overall management of a firm’s marketing resources and
activities. Rapidly emerging forces of globalization have led firms to market
beyond the borders of their home countries, making international marketing
highly significant and an integral part of a firms marketing strategy.
Marketing managers are often responsible for
influencing the level, timing and composition of customer demand accepted
definition of the term. In part, this is because the role of a marketing
manager can vary significantly, based on a business size, corporate culture,
and industry context.
For example in a large consumer
products company, the marketing manager may act as the overall general manager
of his or her assigned product. To create an effective, cost –efficient
marketing management strategy, firms must posses a detailed objective
understanding of their own business and the market in which they operate in
analyzing these issues, the discipline of marketing management often overlaps
with the related discipline of strategic planning.
Having gotten a fore knowledge of
the key concepts of strategy and marketing management in the introductory part,
we now move further to examine what role or roles are played by strategy in
marketing management.
THE ROLE OF STRATEGY
1. Framework
for Operational Planning
Strategies provide the framework for plans by
channeling operating decisions and often pre-deciding them. If strategies are
developed carefully and understood properly by managers, they provide more
consistent framework for operational planning. If this consistency exists and
applied, there would be deployment of organizational resources in those areas
where they find better use.
Strategies
define the business area both in terms of customers and geographical area
served. Better the definition of these areas, better will be the deployment of
resources. For example, if an organization has set that it will introduce new
product in the market, it will allocate more resources to research and
development activities, which is reflected in budget preparation.
2. Clarity
in Direction of Activities
Strategies focus on direction of
activities by specifying what activities are to be undertaken for achieving
organizational objectives. They make the organizational objectives more clear
and specific. For example, a business organization may define its objectives as
profit earning or a non-business organization and may define its objectives as
social objective. But these definition are for broad and even vague for putting
them into operation. They are better spelled by strategies which focus on
operational objectives and make them more practical. For example, strategies
will provide how profit objective can be sharply defined in terms of how much
profits is to be earned and what resources of how much profit is to be earned
and what resources will be required for that. When objectives are spelled out
in these terms, they provide clear definition to persons in the organization
responsible for implementing various courses of action. Most people perform
better if they know clearly what they are expected to do and where their
organization is going.
Putting to view the Dangote sugar company, strategies
that are already laid down helps in the smooth running of activities in the
organization. Clearly stating each staff and department responsibilities and
activities, in order to bring about efficiency and effectiveness.
3. Increased
Organizational Effectiveness
Strategies ensure organizational
effectiveness in several ways. The concept of effectiveness is that the
organization is able to achieve its objectives within the given resources.
Thus, for effectiveness, it is not only necessary that resources are put to the
best of their efficiency but also that they are put in a way which ensures
their maximum contribution to organizational objectives. In fact, taking
strategies management, which states the objectives of the organization in the
context of given resources can do this. Therefore, each resources of the
organization has a specific use at a particular time. Thus, strategies ensure
that resources are put in action in a way in which these have been specified.
For instance, the accurate measurement of the resources needed in the manufacture
of a specified number of bags of sugar over a stated period of time. When all
this is put in place, the organization achieve effectiveness.
4. Personnel
Satisfaction
Strategies contribute towards
organization effectiveness by providing satisfaction to the personnel/staff of
the organization. In organizations where formal strategic management process is
followed, people are more satisfied by prescription of their roles, thereby
reducing conflict and role ambiguity. If the decision are systemized in the
organization, everyone knows how to proceed, how to contribute towards
organizational objectives, where the information may be available, who can make
decisions, and so on. Such clarity of issues will bring effectiveness at the
individual level and consequently at organizational level. Strategies provide
all these things in the organization through which everything is made crystal
clear.
Strategy entails laid down
techniques and procedures implemented in order to have an edge over competitors
in a competitive environment.
The
Dangote Sugar Refinery make over 8 million naira on a weekly basis on the
manufacture and sale of bags of granulated sugar. Such level of efficiency and
effectiveness can only be achieved through proper strategy, planning as well as
implementation. So many companies and business outlets are swept under the
carpet and put away from business as a result of poor strategy implementation.
Conclusion
Looking into the role of strategy, Ross and Kami have
suggested that “without a strategy, the organization is like a ship without a
rudder, going around in circles”. It is tramp; it has no place to go. “they
ascribe most business failure to lack of strategy, or lack of implementation of
a reasonably good strategy. They conclude from their study that without
appropriate strategy effectively implemented, failure is a just matter of time.