Marketing Strategy

“Strategy is a pattern in a stream of actions”

Henry Mintzberg

A solid strategy should be the foundation of every executional activity, is it in marketing or generally speaking in any business operations. Although the great need of strategy, I often saw not clear ones, one that were no strategies after all and many more flaws related to the topic.

Creating a strategy is sometimes hard, but a strategy always has to be plain.

In my advisory I follow latest scientific views on the topic, like the value stick from Harvard Business School Professor Felix Oberholzer-Gee, and of course proven models from Porter, Mintzberg, Martin, Kotler etc. Besides relying on the academia of strategic management I also utalize some tools that has been developed in the field of strategic planning in advertising agencies like the 4C or the GET/WHO/TO/BY framework.

In uncertain times like ours the myth from a 5 year strategy that can be executed with no adaptions, is for me off the table. Therefore also strategy as a management craft has to become more agile in its effectiveness.

Marketing strategy process

Of course before getting to the strategy as the core task, it needs a serious effort put into research and analysis in order to have a clear picture of the situation to create possible promising strategic options. My involvement goes as well after the strategy execution in evaluating the results, tracking what has worked and constant adapting of the strategy. So I can ensure that the crafted strategy is effective and also drives value into your organization.

• Trend research & evaluation
• Persona Development & Customer Journey Mapping
• Market & consumer screening

• Marketing Strategy
• Marketing Innovations
• Brand Strategy & Positioning
• Communication & Campaign Strategy
• Channel Strategy
• Budget prioritization & allocation
• Digital Strategy
• Digital communication ecosystems
• Digital maturity

• Marketing effectiveness
• Test & learn processes
• Brand health & tracking

How I guide you through the strategy process…

When it comes to the strategy crafting itself I am a big fan of interactive and joint formats, meaning workshops. Depending on the complexity and also on stakeholder’s involvement this can be a single or a set of workshops, in which I guide you with impulses and proven methods to shape the desired strategy. In some cases the most sufficient solution might also be me presenting you after a brief my strategy proposal and skip the workshop method at all. We can both decide in a briefing talk, which road we wanna go down together and which tools should be used along.

And after?

“Strategy is meaningless without words and communication”

Lawrence Freedman in “Strategy: A History” (2013)

To get the strategy into your organization and up and running is actually the real hard part. Top-down and bottom-up approaches combined seem to be a very effective method to do so but also explaining the backgrounds in detail (the why) can be a critical success driver.

In order to help you with the task of bringing the strategy to life and also to evaluate its effectiveness I can be a sparring partner for a longer period of time with regular check ins and other methods. Furthermore I can also join your team an interim manager to actively work in a day2day role to get the strategy on track in your organization.