Flat Cat Marketing

Developing an effective marketing strategy

First of all, let's not confuse marketing strategy with advertising campaign. The difference between marketing and advertising is explained in our advertising section. A marketing strategy deals with the whole range of marketing variables, telling us how to manage the relationship between business and customer

Ideally, a marketing strategy is part of an overall business plan and provides similar benefits. Careful consideration of all the elements in a business plan help us to better understand the business and make better business decisions. A comprehensive marketing strategy will detail the current working environment, with a description of the business (including strengths and weaknesses) and outlines of the industry and economy. It will also present an analysis of competitors, customers and the current brand recognition in the marketplace.

Flat Cat conducts the market research, interviews, and surveys required to gather this information and uses the data to establish who the customers are, how to reach them, and what to tell them.

The end result of the marketing strategy is the marketing plan, which tells us, specifically, what to do (who does what and when and at what cost). The plan also outlines how feedback is collected and used to make adjustments to the plan.

Sometimes managing that relationship means working on the business. Other times, it means working on the customer. Advertising is only relevant when managing the communication from the business to the customer. Marketing is relevant when managing the communication from customer to business. It is also marketing when managing the business to enhance the relationship and when managing the customer to enhance the relationship.