Marketing Strategy

Consider the way in which Hindustan Lever Limited has succeeded in securing a strong market hold in India. Beginning its journey with low cost products such as Lifebuoy, Lux and Sunsilk hair care products, it has now extended its market to expensive products such as Dove, Surf Excel, & cosmetics such as Lakme. Lifebuoy soap began its journey in 1895 and is dubbed as the world's largest selling soap after its remarkable re-launches in 2002 and 2004. Ever since it was launched in 1978, Fair & Lovely has been the constant companion to every growing girl in India.

Tapping the rural market, HLL has introduced the concept of sachets in 1980s with minimal costs and these sachets today account for 55% of its shampoo revenues. Low unit price packs are also available for products such as soaps, detergents, and tea. Marketing Managers at HLL have the advantage of a properly structured Marketing Strategy. Marketing Strategy acts as the foundation for a successful marketing plan. Once an effective Marketing strategy is formulated, marketing objectives become clearer with measurable results. As the goals are set, the marketing team is involved in formulating marketing policies and ultimately marketing tactics to reach the end consumer. Numerous theories are available suggesting the various types of marketing strategies that can be used by an organization. The different theories of Marketing Strategies are as follows.
1. Marketing Strategies based on Product Dominance.
2. Michael Porter's Generic Strategies
3. Innovation Strategies
4. Growth Strategies
5. Aggressiveness Strategies

While formulating a Marketing Strategy, many factors are to be taken into consideration. Beginning with corporate objectives and strategy, it is necessary for the company to identify the business level objectives and strategy also. Once the objectives are identified, a market opportunity analysis has to be carried out. Who ignores the competitor before formulating a strategy? More than the competitor, the customer is very frightening. Customer analysis, of date, has been the most difficult factor to tackle. The target markets are volatile and keep changing. Similarly, it is your customers who determine the positioning strategy that you need to follow.

The analysis helps you arrive at a good marketing strategy on the basis of market situations. Different strategies need to be formulated for different market situations such as new market entries, growth markets, mature and saturated markets, and declining markets. Marketing texts abound in theories for preparing strategies in each of these situations. Certain things are easier said than done. Implementation of marketing strategies is the most difficult task. The marketing strategies have to be broken into marketing programs and plans and action sequences have to be framed properly to reach the marketing goals. If the marketing objectives and goals percolate from the top brass of the marketing management to each an every individual salesperson, it is very easy to reach them.