A strategic marketing analysis is an overview of a company’s goals and objectives as seen from the perspective of the marketing department. Such an analysis is meant to take a view of a company for the long term as opposed to a more specific, project-oriented approach. The main objective of a strategic marketing analysis is to ensure that a company is staying true to the strategies and viewpoints of its owners and managers. It also seeks out where those strategies are going wrong and whether that misfiring is due to design or execution.
The daily grind of a big business can overwhelm any chances for its managers to take some perspective on where things are heading in the future. Such companies with tunnel-vision can suddenly find themselves fading in the market before they have any opportunity to do something about it. Since marketing is such a crucial part of any successful business, it’s a good idea to occasionally look at how a company stacks up in that area. A good way to do this is by performing a strategic marketing analysis.
Since large corporations often have many branches with various projects going on at once, it can be useful to focus a strategic marketing analysis on just one main part of the business at a time. An analysis devoted to one of these business branches, known as a strategic business unit, can be extremely helpful. The unit might be an entire company or even just a product line. A proper overview of these units can help make sure that the company keeps a coherent and consistent marketing approach.
Performing a strategic marketing analysis on the different units of a business usually requires several key steps. Customer analysis is important, since any trends among a company’s clientele will have a distinct effect on business going forward. Analyzing business competitors can show where a business is lacking when compared to its rivals. It can also illustrate how to take advantage of those competitors’ deficiencies. Along those lines, a SWOT analysis, which breaks down a company by its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, is one of the oldest analytical marketing tools.
Using these techniques can help a company by showing whether its marketing strategies are staying true to its initial vision. If not, the strategic marketing analysis can also show what adjustments need to be made. The marketing world changes at lightning speed, especially with technological advances, so periodically performing one of these inward studies can help a company stay on top of its competition and out of problem areas.