If a company is producing a product that is not unique and one that is being produced by several other companies, what is that extra a company must do to lure customers towards its product? If the product does not look or perform any differently, ordinary ways of management and marketing may not be very effective. This is where the concepts of strategic management and strategic marketing come into play. Though there are similarities in objectives, strategic management and strategic marketing have differences that will be highlighted in this article.
Strategic Management
In short, strategic management is exemplified by looking out, looking in, and looking ahead. Looking out necessarily means exploring outside the boundaries of one’s own organization, to set feasible objectives, and identifying key stakeholders and their aspirations. ‘Looking in’ simply means having a critical appraisal of resources and processes to strengthen the systems so as to be better able to manage personnel, resources and finances. Looking ahead means to adapt your current resources to face the changes and adjusting the approach wherever needed.
There are 5 important facets of strategic management that are goal setting, analysis, strategy formation, strategy implementation, and strategy monitoring.
Strategic management is a mindset or an approach to looking at things differently. Any manager has to be alert to internal as well as external environment to make suitable changes in management as and when necessary.
Strategic Marketing
Gone are the times when a product was manufactured by one or two companies and people were satisfied with what was being offered to them. This is the .dot com era, and people are having limitless choices and they are no longer driven by the quality of a product when it comes to making buying preferences. This is where strategic marketing comes into play. This is a technique that allows management to make the best possible use of limited resources to increase sales and get an edge over competitors. Strategic marketing involves SWOT analysis that takes a comprehensive look at both the internal and external environments. Strategic marketing helps in avoiding investments in useless tools and maximizes sales through innovative marketing techniques creating need for the product in the minds of potential customers.