by Gordon Hamilton

Created on: October 01, 2009

Understanding the strategic marketing process is essential for anyone looking to engage in marketing a product or service if they are to know the greatest level of success in their undertaking. It is important not only that the product or service be marketed in the correct way but that it be targeted at the correct social group or simply the type of people who are likely to have the most interest in it and be most likely to wish to buy it or subscribe to it.

The very first step in following the strategic marketing process is getting to know the product or service which is to be marketed inside out. It is important that the one who is to engage in the marketing process understand what the product does, how it benefits those at whom it is targeted, or what benefits the relevant service provides.

Only when one has this intimate knowledge of what one is in fact marketing can one effectively target the correct market. This means that when the benefits of the product or service have been established, the secondary part of the procedure is determining at whom these benefits are principally targeted. Different products and services will appeal to different types of people and these groups could be determined by age, favoured leisure pursuits, or even geographical location.

The benefits of the product or service and the target market thus established, the finer details of the strategic marketing process can thereafter be considered. This involves consideration of where the target group are most likely to find details of the product or service and how it can be packaged in a way to appear most attractive to them. It may be that advocating the product in an aesthetically pleasing sense on a blog or social networking site is the best perceived way at attracting the teenaged market, it may be that issuing free marketing products such as balloons and t-shirts are the ways to target a more youthful audience and through them their parents, or it may be that free, detailed quotations are a means of attracting customers seeking a particular service.

The strategic marketing process may be summarised as the process of putting oneself in the position of the targeted consumer and considering what one is looking for in a product or service and where and how one would consequently find it most attractively presented and packaged. In this respect, the strategic marketing process will often require imagination, innovation and improvisation if it is to be utilised in the most effective fashion.

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