News - Business & Management

Firms must 'develop strategies to achieve their goals'

Once a business has identified key segments within the market and agreed upon a set of objectives, the next step is to develop strategies that will allow these goals to be achieved.

This is the opinion of Malcolm McDonald, who is Emeritus Professor at Cranfield University and Peter Mouncey, Director of the Cranfield Marketing Measurement and Accountability Forum, who discuss the subject in their book Marketing Accountability.

In order to identify the appropriate levels of performance needed to realise these objectives, a firm must perform to the standards produced by others in their sector.

This will allow an enterprise to keep up with competitors and therefore ensure that customers can be accessed, the authors explain.

It is also important to have a clear idea of what the business can offer to the consumer that similar organisations cannot, as this gives a competitive advantage and introduces factors that can make a noticeable difference to the segment.

Mr McDonald and Mr Mouncey continue by noting that "identifying impact factors will often require external market research, which will require external spend".

Although this may seem like a negative action initially, "the cost should be balanced against the danger of not having the information".

It is also worth remembering that opportunities exist which may enable a firm to consolidate research and keep spending at manageable levels.

Ultimately, an enterprise must remember that the responsibility of monitoring the impact of customer research lies with the marketing department, the authors conclude.

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Story added Jul 09, 2009