Marketing strategy versus tactics

I regularly see marketing types talk about 'strategy' when they're actually discussing tactics. So, what's the difference? And why does it matter?

OK, if you've heard me explain this before, or seen one of my articles about it elsewhere, feel free to skip this!

If not, buckle up, we're going on a journey.

No, really.

The best way I've found to explain the difference between strategy and tactics is to frame it around a journey.

A strategy is just an outline of a journey. It identifies where you're starting from and where you want to get to, by when (your 'strategic objective').

To create your strategy, you consider a range of alternatives ('strategic choices') and then settle on the one that has the best chance of success. 

Tactics are what then underpin and implement your strategy. They are the equivalent of detailed journey instructions. 

Let me give you an example to illustrate.

Imagine you're in Birmingham at 11am and you need to be in London by 4pm (a defined starting point and a destination or strategic objective). 

To undertake this journey, you could: drive, go by coach, take the train or fly. These are your strategic choices. 

When you evaluate them, you might decide that cost and ease are the most important factors and, on that basis, choose to drive.

That's your strategy: to get from Birmingham to London within 5 hours, easily and affordably, and to do it by driving.

And the tactics? Well, they might include fuelling the car for the journey, then following your sat nav or plotting the exact route and writing out a turn-by-turn route plan using a map, and following these instructions. They could also include details of any break stops along the way and landmarks to look out for that help you check your progress. 

So, how does this relate to marketing?

Let's say you're planning to launch a new consumer product. In order to get people to buy it, you first need them to know about it, so your strategic objective might initially be to raise awareness of and create interest in your product. 

In order to do that, you might decide that advertising is your best bet, so that's your strategy.

To implement your strategy, you might choose to advertise online by paying for search engine placements, or you could instead pay for a series of TV ads. These are the tactics you're going to employ. 

Make sense?

Marketing strategy versus tactics is an important distinction

It's important to distinguish between strategy and tactics, and here's why:

Strictly speaking, pay-per-click advertising and being on social media, or conducting direct mail campaigns, are not, in themselves, strategies. They are tactics that you can employ in order to implement your chosen strategy, but if you haven't thought that through first, you can easily waste a lot of time and money on activities that don't get you where you want to be.

Going back to our journey metaphor, if you haven't pinned-down your strategy for how you're going to get from Birmingham to London and just set-out on your journey, you might find that you arrive late, or that it costs more than you can afford, or that you end up in the wrong place entirely.

In reality, you wouldn't do that. So don't do it with your approach to marketing. 

Think:

Strategic objective 》Strategic choices 》Strategy 》Tactics

In a survey we've been conducting at 52M Consulting, the need for help with marketing strategy is one of the concerns we're seeing most.

If that's you, especially as you plot your recovery from the Coronavirus lockdown, please just #AskForHelp - I'm always happy to hop on a 30 minute Zoom call for an exploratory chat and to give the odd nudge or share a nugget of useful information.

#Marketing #Strategy #Coronavirus #Covid19 #Lockdown