Marketing: A Game of Chess

Several organizations suffer from poor direction, strategy, and leadership. This is often apparent in marketing efforts and marketing communication. Most people fall into the trap of thinking that ‘marketing’ just means advertising, page ranking or promotion.  But marketing and a marketing plan is so much more than that, and includes everything from understanding the market to which you’ll sell your products and services, to choosing specific tactics you’ll use to reach that market. Marketing is like a game of chess. You should always be thinking at least 3 moves ahead. How does a small, medium, large, or starting business plan or build a profitable enterprise? The answer, in short, is strategy. 

                   

Marketing Strategy

When building strategy for an organization at any level, a business, and its competition, can be viewed from an outside perspective like a game of chess. Business strategy flows much like strategy in a game of chess, where each piece has its purpose, distinct movement, and anyone can play. The marketing strategy section is where you actually spell out how your business is going to do just that, by setting goals and high-level strategies.

Start by setting the goals for your business, typically for at least one year.  Make them realistic, achievable and measurable.  No sense in setting yourself up for failure right out of the gate. By having it all worked out months in advance you give yourself enough time for getting the concept down. Wrap up the strategy section of your marketing plan by outlining the particulars of your business offering. In marketing phraseology, you’ll be defining what are known as the “four Ps” for your business:

• Product 
• Price 
• Place 
• Promotion 

Marketing Tactics

When comes to using good marketing tactics, it can be a lot like a good game of chess. You have to consider all the options that your opponent has and can use against you. They will try to take your pieces every chance they get; therefore, you need to use good marketing tactics and know the game well. Thankfully marketing is one of the few things in a business that you can do far in advance.

To take your marketing plan to yet another level of detail, you can drive some tactics to actually meet the goals you set in the previous section.  Common marketing tactics include advertising, trade show or event attendance/participation, public relations, grassroots and viral marketing campaigns and email marketing.

Marketing Budget

Wrap up your entire marketing plan with a bow by summarizing your costs and timelines from the previous section. Check your marketing budget at least monthly, and determine whether you are getting the return you expected from each tactic. Typically, the accounting department has the ability to look into the past, and to look into the future through use of trends, patterns, forecasts, usually all based on historical data. The accounting department has a huge influence on the business strategy as they not only control what funds are available to other departments, but they also have the ability to predict new trends from historical data.

Blunder occurs because of an incomplete understanding of the key elements of a position, without which an assessment and plan cannot be found. Similarly, an effective marketing plan cannot be developed without understanding and actively applying the basics of product marketing. Writing a marketing plan should become at least a yearly ritual for your business.  Not to mention that it’s probably a good idea to renovate your marketing plan when you are releasing new or significantly changed products or services. Remember that writing a marketing plan is time well spent for any sized business, because it’s the process for thinking honestly and thoroughly through how you’re going to connect with your customers.