Marketing Strategy Prerequisites: Part 1

[Aryeh Powers]

If you’re reading this article, you’ve probably spent at least some time thinking about how to develop a marketing plan. This article isn’t meant to give you the full scope of how to write a marketing plan, but rather to give you some homework to do as a prerequisite to drafting your marketing plan. Two questions that are essential to drafting a marketing plan are:

 

1. What do you want your product or service to accomplish (mission statement)?

2. How does your product or service enhance the lives of people or the efficiency of businesses (value proposition)?

 

The mission statement is so crucial because it defines the guidelines of what everyone in your company will focus on when producing anything for your company. The more clear and defined your mission statement and the more you stick to your mission, the more efficient your company will be internally and in terms of production.

The comparison of the following companies mission statement’s, strongly demonstrates this point. The following is taken from Apple’s mission statement: “Apple designs Macs, the best personal computers in the world, along with OS X, iLife, iWork, and professional software…”

Compare the above statement to Dell’s complete mission statement: “Dell's mission is to be the most successful computer company in the world at delivering the best customer experience in markets we serve.”

One thing that stands out from this comparison is that with regards to the nature of the product that these companies’ produce, Mac is focused on the design and innovation of their numerous products and technology and Dell is dedicated to the customer service of computers. More importantly Mac is a technology company and Dell is a computer company. For Mac, creating an iPod is part and parcel of their mission whereas for Dell, creating a new MP3 player means branching out from their mission and focus.

 

Stay tuned for part 2 of Marketing Strategy Prerequisites, where we will address the importance of the value proposition.