Journal 1: (WEEK 2)
Subject—Strategic analysis: My perception before delving deeper into “Marketing Planning and Strategy”
Title—Life outside the square
“What do you think of the design of the new catalogue? Looks good doesn’t it?”
When you boss asks you such a question, thinking strategically, your answer should be a no-brainer…
1. Wow, it’s fantastic, I really like the background colours, they work well with the title!
2. Are you open to taking into consideration a different colour-scheme and fonts?
3. Why use a catalogue? The same money could be spent more effectively on a different approach.
Take your boring bullet filled power point presentation. You could potentially hire the best graphic designer to ‘clean up’ the presentation, but would this change the strategy behind the slides?
The bigger point is that we, as the strategist, must challenge ourselves to create a unique vision by thinking outside the square. As we endeavor to differentiate ourselves confidently from our key competitors we must think of the bigger picture by incorporating our strengths to better satisfy our customer needs—that’s when marketing pays for itself. Not when we find a typo or redesign a PowerPoint presentation, but when we take it upon ourselves to reflect upon the question and turn the answer into something ‘bigger’— this is where the strategy lies.
Journal 2: (WEEK 3)
Subject— Internet & Strategic Marketing
Question— “Given the internet revolution and its effects on marketing today, what advice would you give to a consultant who is putting together a marketing strategy for a firm?”
Operating a business in a world dominated by the business information uprising with a large focus on e-marketing, may be a daunting field to dabble in for many marketers. However, the internet has revolutionized marketing, and should be perceived by modern day marketers as an opportunity, not a threat, and be used to the firms advantage. The internet has given...