Strategic Marketing Management Essay Example

a step ahead of marketing. It addresses questions related to an organization's vision, mission, objectives, and goals. Strategic marketing management involves understanding and applying marketing from the perspective of creating customers. This process includes iterative steps aimed at creating better value for customers.

Strategic marketing management helps differentiate a firm's offering from competitors by leveraging its strengths. Its role in an organization includes executing the market philosophy, analyzing information, and defining marketing activities that align with corporate, business, and marketing strategic plans.

Firstly, marketers play a role in guiding the entire organization towards markets and customers. Secondly, they gather and analyze information to assess the potential effects of trends in the marketing environment. This information helps them set measurable goals.

The Jay Amber retail outlet is committed to offering a wide range of products to its customer baseThe store follows a clearly defined strategic marketing management process to ensure customer satisfaction. This involves integrating all activities within the store to achieve the organization's common objective. Strategy refers to a plan for achieving a specific goal, while tactics refer to the methods used to reach that goal. In a business context, strategy encompasses broad goals such as increasing sales, revenue, market share, or establishing a specific brand image. Tactics for establishing a brand or image may involve using pricing to position the brand as either affordable or high-end.

When developing a marketing plan, it is important to begin with broad strategies and then reinforce them with specific tactics.

Strategic marketing involves selling a product in a manner that accomplishes desired objectives. These objectives encompass various elements such as increasing sales, revenues, market segmentation, market share, or creating a

new brand or market position. For example, in the case of the Jay Amber retail store, their marketing strategy would be to maintain current revenues through reduced advertising.

While strategic marketing goals may be conceptual, it is crucial to try to make them as specific as possible.Instead of setting a vague goal like increasing sales, it is preferable to set specific goals such as increasing sales by a certain percentage or targeting a specific market segment, such as parents, women, or seniors. Strategic marketing involves adjusting pricing, positioning, and the actual product or service offered in order to support the store in achieving its goals. After setting goals and determining strategies to achieve them, tactical marketing comes into play for implementing these strategies. One potential strategy for increasing revenues could be raising prices while rebranding a product or service to give it a more upscale image.

The Jay Amber retail store aims to capture a significant portion of the market share and become the go-to destination for all types of customers. The strategic marketing management process for this store encompasses five interconnected steps: 1) Clearly defining the organization's business, mission, and goals; 2) Identifying and framing growth opportunities; 3) Formulating product market strategies; 4) Developing and refining reformulation and recovery strategies; 5) Implementing strategic management processes.

Jay Amber operates in a competitive market where numerous small shops strive to meet the needs of local people.The sales force at Jay Amber is dedicated to offering a wide range of products and excellent services to customers, establishing a unique position in the market. Their primary focus is on identifying potential areas for growth to capture a larger market share. Ultimately,

their aim is to become the ultimate solution for customers. To design effective product market strategies, they incorporate product brand logos and visuals to attract customer attention. They also offer products at prices lower than the MR (market rate) to provide value to their customers. The Jay Amber retail store aims to pass on bulk buy cost savings to customers while promoting the store and providing an enjoyable shopping experience for the local population.

Strategic market analysis plays a crucial role in determining how the store can outperform competitors and which marketing tactics they can utilize. This analysis includes conducting a situation audit, segmenting the market, assessing current position, analyzing market size, growth, concentration, consumer and competitor trends, as well as evaluating pricing, distribution, and product or service strategies. It's important for this process to align with the store's mission statement.

The Jay Amber retail store follows a "SMART" approach when setting objectives - ensuring they are specific, measurable achievable realistic time specificThe initial step in the strategic marketing management process is to establish clear and relevant objectives for the retail store. These objectives should align with the overall retail store strategy outlined in the business plan. Jay Amber's objective is to increase their market share through qualitative growth, aiming specifically for a 30% market share by 2015.

To accomplish this goal, Jay Amber retail store will employ several tactics:

1. Understand the current preferences of their target segment in terms of brands and other qualitative and quantitative factors.
2. Set a measurable target of 30% market share, which requires a 10% increase from their current market share of 20%. This increase will be evaluated and monitored through overall

sales value in rupees.
3. Ensure that all sales personnel involved in developing and implementing the strategy have the technical competency and commitment required, which may involve having an experienced and knowledgeable marketing and sales workforce.

Access to funds is crucial to ensure the acquisition of extra stock necessary to meet increasing demand, making this objective realistic. Additionally, all necessary marketing resources are already in place for conducting the segmenting and targeting exercise. The expected timeframe for achieving an increase in market share is within 24 months, with regular monthly progress updates being provided.The Jay Amber retail store has a simple and short organizational structure due to its small size. The store owner, who is also the president, holds the highest position and makes decisions about stock quantity and variety based on customer needs. The store manager plays a critical role in daily operations, guiding sales personnel on shelf arrangement and store maintenance. They also maintain relationships with suppliers to ensure stock availability and prevent shortages. Additionally, the store manager is responsible for financial performance reporting to the owner. They also train sales staff in communication skills and handling customer complaints while monitoring theft and product shrinkage to minimize losses. The sales staff at Jay Amber store interact with customers, assisting them in selecting products and providing information as intermediaries between customers and the store manager regarding customer requirements. They also assist with merchandise loading and unloading. It is important for marketing objectives to align with the priorities of Jay Amber retail store by extending from the mission statement to financial goals and the rest of the marketing plan in order to provide guidance to employees.The clearly

defined objectives and goals of Jay Amber retail store serve as a guiding force for the marketing team and sales force. These objectives provide direction on what needs to be achieved and within what timeframe. Additionally, these objectives also serve as motivation for the sales force by presenting them with achievable challenges.

Perceptual mapping is a graphical representation that showcases customer perceptions of product characteristics. It helps marketers gain an understanding of how consumers perceive Jay Amber retail store in comparison to other small shops in the area. Through perceptual maps, marketers can identify consumers' ideal combinations of product characteristics.

When developing new products or services, companies should seek out market spaces that are unoccupied by competitors but align with high consumer demand. The retail industry can be categorized into organized retail, where traders have licenses and pay taxes, and unrecognized retail. This segment includes well-known brands such as Big Bazaar, More supermarket, and More hypermarket in India. It also encompasses Koran shops, general stores, corner shops, and various other small retail outlets that play a significant role in driving the growth of the Indian retail industry.

Jay Amber retail store exemplifies this phenomenon by offering a diverse range of everyday and personal care products at affordable prices for middle and low-income residents of And townThe food and beverage retail market is growing rapidly, with an average annual growth rate of 30-35%. Jay Amber retail store offers a wide range of food items and beverages to cater to people's needs and introduce new options for the lower middle class. The growth of the retail business in India is driven by various factors such as falling real estate prices,

a low share of organized retailing, the rise of nuclear families, an increase in double income households, rising disposable income and customer aspirations, a large working population, and increased expenditure on luxury items.

To better serve customers, the Indian retail industry employs many people in various roles including supply chain management, operations jobs, sales executives, store managers, merchandise planners, and buyers. These roles require operational skills, analytical skills, conceptual understanding for detail orientation and effective project management.

However, Jay Amber retail store faces several challenges like not meeting international standards or having sufficient retail space. They also face issues with inefficient supply chain management and no fixed consumption pattern. Additionally, inadequate infrastructure and distribution channels as well as a shortage of trained manpower are bottlenecks for their business.

By applying Porter's five forces framework to analyze threats faced by Jay Amber retail store can be illustrated.Firstly, the presence of numerous small Koran shops operating in an unrecognized format poses a threat as potential new entrants. Secondly, the retail store faces competition from substitutes due to the novelty of retail stores in the And township, making it easy for competitors to enter the market. The success of the store relies heavily on maintaining relationships with multiple suppliers to ensure a smooth flow of goods. This reduces the risk of cost implications if a single supplier changes its business policies. Furthermore, buyers have various alternative options and can easily switch to competitors if their expectations are not met. Competition also poses a threat as rivals can quickly imitate products, services, or policies. However, being the first mover in the area gives Jay Amber retail store an advantage. To establish a

unique identity in customers' minds, it is important for the store to effectively position its operations and services by positioning itself as a one-stop solution for daily needs while providing value for money.The store manager must prioritize maximum customer satisfaction when making business decisions, taking into account limited financial resources. Relationship marketing has become crucial in today's marketplace as simply meeting customer needs is no longer enough. It is vital to establish a good relationship with customers due to the wide range of options available to them, ultimately securing a solid customer base. The benefits of relationship marketing include customer loyalty, strong brand association, trust, positive word-of-mouth, and repeat purchases. However, customers now have numerous alternatives in the cluttered market, resulting in reduced switching costs. Jay Amber retail store faces competition from various small Korean shops in the area. Therefore, it is essential for the store's sales personnel and manager to provide efficient customer service, product knowledge, high-quality products, and competitive pricing. While the product offerings may be similar to competitors', how they are presented can make a significant difference. The store manager of Jay Amber retail must ensure that the company creates value for its customers as part of its differentiation strategy. This can only be achieved through committed and dedicated sales personnel providing high-quality service to customers. Additionally, the store should segment and target different markets based on factors such as age, social class, spending power sex or buying attitudes.
This segmentation allows the retail store to divide the market into subgroups of people or organizations with similar needs or preferences, who are likely to react or make purchases in a similar manner. There

are four primary categories of market segments: geographic segmentation, which focuses on the location of customers; behavioral segmentation, which divides customers based on their purchase decisions. In the case of Jay Amber retail store, it operates in a small township in Gujarat where the market is unrecognized and the residents belong to the lower middle-class income group. Therefore, operating in this specific location is an example of geographic segmentation, as the residents do not require high-end fashionable products but rather items that satisfy their basic needs. The retail store may categorize customers by their buying frequency, targeting those who have not made a purchase in the last year for a campaign. Demographic segmentation, including factors such as age, sex, and family size, is also utilized. In the town of Andhra Pradesh (And), majority of residents are laborers or have small businesses, making them part of the rural segment. Jay Amber retail store focuses on this segment's socioeconomic class, which encompasses low income individuals , middle income persons and high net worth individuals . To effectively meet customer needs ,the retail store must segment its target audience considering conflicting needs among various segments.
The Jay Amber retail store effectively incorporates the marketing mix or 4 As of marketing into their business by aligning them all towards a shared objective. This involves analyzing the needs of different market segments and leveraging the store's strengths to select one or more segments for focused efforts. The selection process includes gathering information about the segment's future potential and assessing the company's and competition's strengths. The term 'Marketing mix' refers to the various choices an organization must make when bringing a product

or service to the market, which are categorized into four elements known as the 4 As: Product, Place, Price, and Promotion.