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Strategy is probably one of the most overused words of marketing vocabulary that we see
people talk about, so we wanted to give you our tips about what strategy is and show you
how to use it.
Typically strategy is owned by the director or the head of department and it's usually
going to be based around key business objectives that are going to be achieved over a longer
period of time.
The directors of the company will be responsible for determining how they are achieved, so
lets assume that company X's strategic goal is to be a top ten company in their field
by revenue within the next two years. For the marketing director they may choose to
follow Ansoff's matrix and perhaps look at gaining growth by selling new products to
new customers or existing products to new customers.
However, you may determine that the development time is too costly and therefore part of your
strategy would be to look at how you could perhaps acquire or buy a business that would
help you achieve these strategic goals.
Likewise if you grow by recruiting new customers you'll need to consider the costs required
for new staff, new systems and new technology that will help you process these orders and
actually look after the customers that you've won.
So before you start talking about strategy in an interview consider how you'd answer
the following three questions:
1. Do you know the difference between strategy and a plan?
It's really clear that you can talk about this succinctly and know the difference. Which
one fits your current position?
2. How can you talk about your industry knowledge, how you've used it to identify an opportunity
for the business and then developed a strategy around it.
You'll be expected to talk in detail about doing this.
3. Have you had to solve a problem that required careful thought and what did you do, how did
you go about solving the problem?
Quite often as you become more strategic you'll move away from the day to day marketing activity
and you'll take responsibility for achieving results. the question that we always ask of
our candidates is - do you want to do this?
Good Luck!