Marketing – Strategic Thinking OR Tactical Execution?

Creating marketing plans can be an arduous task. On one hand, a part of the leadership team wants a strong strategic frame work, on the other, there are those who want more focus on executable plans which show results.

Often, the same plan gets a thumbs up for its “strategy” in one review and gets panned for lack of “strong implementable plans” in another.

So, what is of greater relevance for marketing – Strategic thinking or Execution? Are they disparate or linked to one another? Are they the same in importance?

As the leader in one of my previous organizations succinctly put it – “Once the Strategy is Created, Execution is the Strategy”. So clearly business, and therefore marketing is about both – strategic marketing & also winning activities (or programs or tactics – the nomenclature varies).

While marketing programs or tactics are well understood to drive businesses, not much is mentioned about the strategic thinking which is (or certainly should be) the bedrock for these programs. Consumer understanding, stakeholder mapping, competitive positioning – these are some critical components of marketing which may not get due importance.

Marketing strategy often gets lost in the routine of monthly reviews, incomplete projects and possibly a lack of understanding of the craft.

To further compound the problem for strategy, business leaders, with an eye on their shareholders & egged on by other functions – want results, which in the short term can be more easily generated with tactics.

This is a genuine source of conflict in organizations, since strategic thinking requires resources – time, money, people and skill. This is vis-à-vis a simple tactic which, with a tenth or resources can solve many a problem.

Say, for example the brand manager of a herbal cough brand, before the “season” (winter/rainy) in India, who wants to survey different segments of customers and figure out the real motivation of consumer demand, hence use the right lever to boost demand during peak months. Time, money, skill for completing this project can be substantial. On the other hand, a simple activity of a 20% retail discount for 2 months or a festive gift with each purchase for the consumer can also give results. Quick. Efficient.

Especially, since the market research project could also result in a consumer purchase gift option!

Ideally, tactics follow strategy and sound strategic thinking ensures a robust plan which includes execution to drive specific results.

So, should marketing individuals or teams be focusing on the strategic thinking part of marketing or allocate more of their working hours to tactical execution?

Marketing Definitely involves both, there are perils of ignoring or over emphasizing either

• While tactics appear more result oriented, without proper strategic thinking creating the appropriate goals (say behaviour change of a specific customer segment), tactics maybe seeking inappropriate end-points.
• At the same time, endlessly creating, debating, recreating the various steps involved in marketing strategy can cause inordinate delays and a situation of “analysis-paralysis”

In a crunch: tactics prevail. However, the key question (after the emergency has been handled) is, could better strategic thinking have avoided this situation? If we had foreseen this,

• Could this event have never happened (due to pre-emptive or pro-active measures taken)?
• Would this have been a planned “possible event” hence easier to manage, rather than a “crunch”

Strategic thinking’s primary task is to understand patterns and help create sustainable competitive advantage. The key to longevity of business success. More often than not, businesses are driven by brands in today’s world, brands need sound strategy.

Marketing Tactics or activities are extremely important, but without strategic thought, they are likely to lead to devaluing brands.

There are cases where execution of short-term plans can do the trick. The producer’s instinct is sufficient to draw out plans and generate success. However, more often than not, marketing strategy is required, especially as the brand’s customers grow and with it, for sure, competition increases.

In the end, some points to keep in mind if one wants to bolster strategic thinking across the organization

• Lack of Strategic thinking will not show up immediately: Tactical Execution is paramount; it obviously will always be prioritized. However, if the fundamentals of marketing strategy are ignored, problems with brands & businesses will show up (later than sooner unfortunately). More importantly, these problems will run deep, and will require immense resources to set right when they do crop up.
• Strategic marketing has to be systemic: Leaders will have to ensure that thinking strategically becomes part of the system. Most successful organizations have structured templates and cross functional teams participating in strategy formation at least once an year
• Bias for one or the other is natural: Most marketers and indeed business leaders are slightly better at either conceptualization or execution of strategy. More important is that the organizations themselves, are aware of this and can put in appropriate mechanisms to balance both over the medium to long term

Maybe, like many things in life, the approach should be a balance. Not a business leader choosing “one or the other” but strategy & tactics looking out for “one another”