Corporate strategies Vs Marketing strategies for an organization: The question is focusing on the difference between corporate and operating strategies.
Corporate strategies
Corporate strategy defines the business the company is to compete in with the other organizations. Corporate strategies are developed by the top-level management and focuses on the possible areas of competition between the organizations.
Concerns here centre around the whole company and involve:
• Defining the company mission
• Setting the company objectives and objectives
• Designing an appropriate business portfolio
Marketing strategies
Marketing strategy is functional in that it relates to the marketing department’s (unit) objectives. It is thus the marketing logic by which the business unit hopes to achieve its marketing objectives. It consists of specific strategies bearing on target markets, marketing mix and marketing expenditure level.
• Target markets-spell out the market segments on which the company will focus. These segments differ in their preferences, responses to marketing effort, and profitability. The company would be smart to allocate its effort and energy to those market segments it can best serve from a competitive point of view. It should develop a marketing strategy for each targeted segment.
• Marketing mix-the manager should outline specific strategies for such marketing mix elements as new products, field sales, advertising, sales promotion, prices, and distribution. The manager should explain how each strategy responds to the threats, opportunities, and key issues spelt out in the earlier sections of the plan.
• Marketing expenditure level-the manager should also spell out the marketing budget that will be needed to carry out the various strategies. The manager knows that higher budgets will produce more sales, but is looking for the marketing budget that will produce the best profit picture.