What you’ll learn to do: evaluate how marketing strategies align with corporate strategies

Most of this course will focus on elements of the marketing strategy and the different tactics organizations use to execute the strategy. How do you know if you have the right marketing strategy?

Every organization has a mission. The mission describes the company’s reason for existing. In order to achieve the mission, the company creates broad strategies that define how it can best use its resources to achieve the mission. At the company level, executives create specific, measurable goals to determine whether the company is making progress in executing the strategy. These time-based goals are called objectives.

The marketing function also defines a strategy that supports the corporate-level objectives. Marketing must clearly understand the target customer and identify the right mix of product, promotion, pricing, and distribution strategies that will provide unique value to the customer. Marketing also creates measurable objectives that show whether it is executing the strategy well and hitting the targets that support the corporate-level objectives. Then marketing performs specific tasks (using tactics) to execute the strategy and achieve the objectives.

The specific things you’ll learn in this section include:

• Define strategy, tactics, and objectives
• Describe how to align mission, strategy, and objectives
• Explain the role of marketing strategy in corporate strategy

Learning Activities

The learning activities for this section include the following:

• Video: What Is Strategy?
• Reading: Strategy and Tactics
• Reading: The Mission Statement
• Reading: Strategy and Objectives
• Self Check: Evaluate Alignment of Marketing Strategies