Strategic marketing

INTRODUCTION
Without adequate market information company can not create an effective marketing
strategy. The information is of critical importance, whether the company only enter the
market, expanding its operations, or intends to rationalize its global activities. Ignoring the
need for research or not investigation enough, it is usually ending with business failure
expressed in ignoring the product by the customer or the withdrawal from the market under
the influence of strong competition. Wrong oriented market research leads to imprecise
identification of target groups and later to poor sales. In addition, in defining cases of market
research, differences in the market and the differences among cultures are not to be
underestimated.

TERM STRATEGIC MARKETING

Strategic marketing is a modern concept of permanent adjustment activity and
marketing and the whole enterprise environment variable. Strategic marketing is the process
by which managers formulate and implement marketing strategies and to achieve the goals set
in given environmental conditions and the company. Strategic marketing is a modern
approach to marketing management, which comprises a continuous process of adapting the
company to a variable environment, in which the environment is done permanently with the
impact on the company, but the company also makes some influence on the environment in
which they exist, and in which it adapts. Strategic marketing is defined as an active process to
identify and manage marketing activities to marketing goals or marketing management in
order to adjust marketing activity changes occurring in environment. Strategic marketing is
planned and comprehensive concept oriented to environment, which relies on creative and
innovative approach in the development and planning of marketing activities, marketing
infrastructure, products and services marketing control.
Strategic marketing is a process of strategic analysis of factors related to the
environment, competition and business, and affecting the business unit and the prediction of
future trends in the business areas, which are of interest to the company. Strategic Marketing
includes:

1. Analysis of environmental factors and the strengths and weaknesses of the

company;
2. Strategic planning and marketing;
3. Definition and selection of relevant marketing strategies;
4. Implementation of the strategy and
5. Control and Audit Marketing
Strategic marketing planning, as a key element of the strategic marketing is process of
establishing objectives, formulation of strategies at the level of companies and business units,
choice of marketing strategies for the market which are intended for certain products and
development and implementation of marketing programs that are aimed at meeting the needs
of the target market.1

ANALYSIS OF MARKETING STRATEGIES

In marketing planning process framework based on external and internal audit are
established marketing strategies of the organization. Also, through audit, certain marketing
strategies led to success. Thus, the marketing should answer the following questions:
development strategy is properly chosen and clearly defined to achieve the objectives set?
1. chosen strategies correspond to the product life cycle, competitors' strategies and
opportunities and threats in the external environment?
2. company used fair market segmentation criteria and they chose the most appropriate target
segments defined the correct profile?
3. company has developed effective positioning and an optimum marketing mix for each
segment?
4. marketing company resources were appropriately allocated each element of the marketing
mix?
5. company has sufficient resources to achieve marketing objectives set?
1 Gravens, D.W., Strategic marketing, Irwin, 1982, p. 18.

GAP analysis reveals the growth potential for the future. Evaluating growth opportunities,
outlines three ways that can bridge the gap between what the organization has accomplished
and what is meant to achieve.2
1. First option is to identify opportunities for future growth within existing markets through
existing product (intensive).
2. The second option is to identify opportunities to launch or acquisition of activities that are
complementary to the base (increase by integration).
3. The third option is to identify opportunities that seem attractive unrelated to core business
(growth through diversification).

STRATEGIC PLANNING MARKETING

Strategic planning is the process of managing the development and maintenance of
possible harmony between objectives and resources of the organization and the opportunities
provided by the environment. The purpose of the strategic plan is to figure joint activities that
will make business of the company more real and '' safe ''.
The first step in creating a strategic marketing plan is to define a mission. When
defining the mission it should be considered into account the area in which the company
emphasizes. Emphasis should be laid before on what consumers buy, and not on what the
company sells. A clear program mission should include groups of customers / consumers to be
met, the specific needs of consumers and the technology to be used.
Business goals are defined at the level of the company to meet the expectations of
shareholders. Time-range goals can be from one to three, five or ten years or more (long-term
goals). From a practical aspect they are used as a quantitative and qualitative. Quantitative
business goals refer to the rate of income based on the engaged and invested capital, earnings
per share of shareholders etc. Qualitative business goals refer to the image and position of the
company, positioning the company, identity and transparency. When defining business goals,
it is necessary to analyze: the market position of the company, market freshness of the
2 Kotler, PH., Keller, K.L (2009) Management Marketing, 13th edition, Pearson
International Edition

product, productivity, competitiveness, technological and financial capacity, staffing, social

responsibility, profitability, market and customers, the achieved image and identity etc.
Control in marketing presents a systematic analysis of the results of marketing in
relation to the planned objectives, strategies and programs, internal strengths and weaknesses
and the opportunities and limitations of the environment. Control marketing is the basis for
the analysis of quality and weaknesses of the company, opportunities and threats (KSMO).
The control of internal and external environment is to make the selection of variables ie. to
identify the factors that can not be controlled and significantly affect the company's results.
The selection of the variables is carried out on the basis of pre-defined standards. External
control refers to a tracking so-called "PEST" factor in general and the business environment.
Factors of general environment are: political, economic, technological, socio-cultural and
business environment make the market (customers, competitors, suppliers, distributors and
other business partners). Internal control should include a detailed analysis of sales, market
share, profitability of products, customers and markets, the organization of marketing
activities, etc. The control is designed to timely determine possible deviations from the
planned marketing activity, establish the causes of possible deviations and formulate a
(possibly) the appropriate corrective actions in order to eliminate the differences in the results
achieved compared to the planned size.

OBJECTIVES AND STRATEGIES OF COMPETITION

When analyzing the goals and strategies of competitors it must first consider how
competing organizations that represent competition for the company (marketing strategy) and
what purpose it does (objectives). For example, if the company is considering the possibility
of entering a new market, in which competition is already present, it should analyze the way
in which the present competitors compete. Competition usually can be based on price, or
alternatively the delivery and quality. It is important that the marketing assessment in which
the particular company can compete or whether it has some other differential advantage that
can be used for bidding. Marekting should study and weaknesses of competitors in order to
define the strategy to win the unconquered positions. It should be kept in mind that in the
markets where are facing competitives of approximately the same strength and power, the
competition is brutal.

DEVELOPMENT OF THE GLOBAL STRATEGY

Global strategy should represent a combination of global vision and be focused on the
opportunities provided by global markets, while reaction to the conditions and possibilities of
the local market. When developing a global strategy it should be started from the needs,
demands and goals of clients and segments taking into consideration of their geographical
configuration. The segments are most often identified as a regional or global.
In developing marketing program it should be taken into account that they are
designed to satisfy the specific needs identified in the framework of regional and global goals.
The most common is that company established organizations that work to achieve these
programs, and in some cases develops specialized infrastructure that corresponds to potential
buyers. Companies with multinational operations establish a system of global accountmanagers with the task of checking whether and how the client's needs are met.
Efficient implementation of the global strategy of rationalization requires the
establishment of mechanisms to manage the activities, flow of information and resources,
personnel and their coordination as across national borders and between the individual tasks
of the product. Also, other functional areas must be coordinated (marketing, finance,
production, logistics).

DIVERSIFICATION GROWTH
Aims to achieve profitable growth by launching new products and addressing new
markets simultaneously. Diversification makes sense when there are opportunities for growth
outside the existing area and the company has a number of strengths that you can use for this
purpose, which is the riskiest strategy.
In the analysis, we can conclude that there are strategic business units that are
declining or even make losses, when it should be considered how to improve or eliminate
such activities to allocate resources to other more profitable activities. The decision to
eliminate such activities is not an easy one, involving a series of analyzes aimed at:

Production, disposal decision could impact other activities using the same equipment
(on production costs) and the purchase of raw materials, which can be reflected in the

profitability of other activities;

Staff, removing a strategic business unit may lead to a reduction in personnel, which
will result in either re-deployment of staff, sometimes it re-qualification, hence the
increased cost or dismiss it.
The general marketing direction which lead to the above objective flow, from the life-

cycle and portofolio analysis conducted in the audit, and revolve around the following logical
decision: maintain, refers to the cash cow type of product/market and reflects desire to
maintain competitive position; improve, refers to the star type of product/market and reflect
desire to improve competitive position; harvest, refers to the dog type of product/market
and reflects the desire to relinquish competitive position in favor of short-term profit and cash
flow; exit, also refers to the dog type of product/market, and sometime the question mark
and reflects the desire to divest because of a very week competitive position or the cost o0f
staying in it is prohibitive and the risk associated with improving its position is too high;
enter, usually refers to a new business area.3
Based on the organization's overall strategy is to analyze the strategy adopted for each
strategic unit, underlying marketing strategies. Thus in this analysis can be considered Porter's
generic strategies:4
1) Cost-dominating strategy
Which is to achieve a competitive advantage due to lower production and distribution
costs. But the success of this strategy is contingent on whether the company can reach
and maintain its market leadership in costs This allows pricing to the average market
price or close to it. The choice of such a strategy involves the organization's high
potential in terms of technology, production and logistics.5
2) Differentitation strategy
Intended to cover a large part of the market by offering benefits that are much appreciated
by consumers. Thus, for example, is to achieve leadership in terms of product quality,
3 McDonald, M. (2007) Marketing plans, Sixth Edition: How to prepare them,
how to use them, Elsevier
4 Porter, M.E (1985) Competitive Advantage, Free Press, New York
5 Balaure, V. (2002) Marketing, Uranus Publishing House, Bucureti

using the best components, assemble them rigorously, check their quality and effective
communication quality.6 To be viable, such a strategy should allow recovery of the price
charged additional costs of differentiation, and to identify and use those attributes of the
offer which are not found in competitors offer. Differentiation strategy can be applied to
both domestic and foreign markets, in which consumers should be considered defining
characteristics and especially cultural factors, their function being to direct consumer
action, the creation of a society or social group.7
3) Concentration strategy
The company is targeting a small number of segments, which seeks to know very well in
terms of needs, desires, and consumer purchasing behavior and then be addressed through
a strategy of domination by costs or through a strategy of differentiation.
After establishing the strategies in the strategic business units, will establish product,
price, distribution and promotion strategies to achieve the overall objectives and
established marketing objectives.

LITERATURE:
1) Balaure, V. (2002) Marketing, Uranus Publishing House, Bucureti
2) Gravens, D.W., Strategic marketing, Irwin, 1982, p. 18.
6 Kotler, PH., Keller, K.L (2009) Management Marketing, 13th edition, Pearson
International Edition
7 Radulescu, D.M.(2011) Elemente fundamentale de drept, Universul Juridic
Publishing House, Bucharest

3) Kotler, PH., Keller, K.L (2009) Management Marketing, 13th edition, Pearson
International Edition
4) McDonald, M. (2007) Marketing plans, Sixth Edition: How to prepare them, how to
use them, Elsevier
5) Porter, M.E (1985) Competitive Advantage, Free Press, New York
6) Radulescu, D.M.(2011) Elemente fundamentale de drept, Universul Juridic
Publishing House, Bucharest