[MUSIC] Hi, I would like, today, to basically talk a little bit about marketing strategy. And for this, we have Veronica here, which is an MBA student at IE Business school, and I would like to know what is her perception about marketing strategy. Remember marketing strategy is a central part of the marketing plan. We are going to define, basically, a process of analysis, then marketing strategy definition, marketing mix implementation, and then the results. So, if you have to do yourself your own marketing plan, and you're trying to develop the marketing strategy part of the marketing plan, what things will you focus on or what things do you have to decide, because finally, we're making decisions and we're proposing our decision? >> Well, I think that to have a successful marketing plan, the first thing you have to do is to know who's your target, who is a segment you're addressing and trying to know their demands, their needs, their likes, their don't likes so you can have a product that satisfies them and satisfies the demand. Also, I think that every product should be differentiable from the rest. In case you want to sell more than your competition, you need to have a good product differentiable, and offer something that the others don't. >> And we call this a target segment. >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> What other things do you, because that's absolutely true. I mean, the central part of the marketing strategy is defining the target segment, having a clear idea of who's going to buy this product or service. What other things do you consider necessary in the marketing strategy definition? >> I think it's important to have a good positioning and a very strong value proposition. Well, the market is always changing and evolving, so I think you have to have a strong value proposition, but at the same time, pay attention to how your target changes and to follow those changes. >> Wait, when you say value proposition, what is- >> It's what you're offering to make a clear statement of what you're offering, and what you have what the other's don't? >> Okay, exactly. That's a very good way of explaining the value proposition. The value proposition, many times, is also called the Position. >> Yeah. >> Okay, so I need the perception that customer has about my brand. So, part of our job in the marketing plan is building the right positioning, okay? So trying to identify element of differentiation that can make us different from the customer perspective. >> And, if I'm not wrong, it doesn't matter how you see your brand or your product, what matters is how your target see your brand or your products, right? >> I mean, they're relevant to you always in a marketing plan and in general, in marketing, is the customer perspective. I mean, you can see yourself, fantastic, but if the customer is not treating you well, they're not going to buy you. So are the right perspective here is always the perspective of the customer. Let me add two more things to your excellent definition of marketing and strategy. Many times, we also want to include in the marketing strategy definition the the objectives, that could be financial objectives. Let's say, we want to sell, I don't know, 2000 units of this product. That's my objective, my financial objective, and it's very advisable to actually include these in the marketing strategy definition. Why? Because the rest of the marketing plan is basically how are you going to achieve these objectives. So financial objectives should be there. Many times, non-financial objectives should also be there. For example, my target segment is this group, and I want to actually create brand awareness. I want to actually make people know about my brand. Because if they know me, maybe they will buy me. So that will be a brand awareness objective. So, I define it here. And later you expect the results. I say, okay this is a way I'm going to check that I'm actually achieving this brand awareness. And this is usually called non-financial objectives. And finally, there's one last type of objective that we like to see in the marketing strategy definition. That is, what is going to be my objective in terms of customers? Am I going to go for attracting new customers or maybe retaining and creating loyalty among the customers that I already have. Of course, this depends very much on the type of problem. You're at the beginning of the launching of the brand. You're going to pursue attraction. But many times, you deal with the problem that is already in the market. So, you're going to care for attraction and retention, two things. So, I think you've done a great job. I think we've put together a good explanation of what is marketing strategy. Just to close and summarize, marketing strategy is going to be about defining target segment and positioning, that's the central idea, and then defining financial objectives, so objectives in terms of sales, non-financial objectives, for example, brand objectives and customer objectives are usually related to attraction or retention. Thank you very much, thank you very much. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. [MUSIC]
