5 Factors That Can Make or Break Your Marketing Strategy

Forbes - December 12, 2017

Team #6

Austin Cash

Michael Cholko

Jamie Connell

Erin Conyers

Brandon Costantino

MKT 230.02

Spring 2018
 Current Article Summary

In “5 Factors That Can Make Or Break Your Marketing Strategy”, Steve Olenski argues

the importance of having an effective marketing strategy, and shares five factors that contribute

in making a marketing strategy successful. Having an effective marketing plan can help you

acquire new growth opportunities, attract more customers, figure out who your true customers

are and help you figure out how to effectively spend your marketing budget. Without a

marketing strategy the company is bound to fail, however, there is no guarantee the company

will be successful. Steve Olenski shares five factors that are crucial to make the marketing

strategy successful.

The first factor stated by Steve Olenski is “Understanding The Target Market”. The target

market is an important part of the Marketing Strategy. The first step to find the target market is

to figure out your customer’s demographics and then you can create a buyers’ persona. Steve

stresses that a buyers’ persona is a secret weapon that is used by successful companies. The

buyers’ persona includes information about their age, gender, and income. It can also be more

elaborated to details such as what their interests, preferences, and behavior patterns are. It is not

possible to reach out to potential buyers without understanding these key components.

The second factor stated is “Communicating The Value to Your Customers”. The

marketing strategy does not have any way of being shared unless there is a clear path of

communication. The product needs to be communicated to the customer by sharing what the

product offers and how the product is better than other products. The uniqueness of the product

should be shared to the current and potential customers. This is especially important in a

competitive market to stimulate more business.

 The third factor stated is “Watching The Data”. There is great value of analyzing

computer data in determining customers’ habits. Some of these habits include what pages

customers are visiting, how much time they are spending and where they are visiting from. With

this information the business can determine their actual market and where future marketing

money should be spent.

The fourth factor stated is “Focus”. The focus of a company should be on helping

customers instead of making money. There is an organic growth that occurs when a business puts

satisfying their customers before making the greatest profit. A business’s marketing team should

find ways their business can add value to people’s lives. Customer satisfaction is important in

bringing new customers in and building upon current customer relationships.

The fifth factor stated is “Passion”. The business should be passionate about their

company, product and marketing strategy. Being passionate is important to keep the business

going since a business is a long-term investment. An absence of enthusiasm can be tracked by

the quality of a product, lack of direction by the marketing campaign, and the way customer

interactions are handled on social media. Customers can easily tell if a company is losing passion

and this discourages them. If passion is lost in a business then interest can be regenerated by

creating a new product, changing interactions with the customers or moving a business

elsewhere.

Throughout this article, Steve Olenski from Forbes brings up some key points that should

be in every businesses marketing strategy. He used five different factors, I believe that some

overcome others. In my opinion, passion is something that all businesses have because it gives

you drive, and pushes the business forward. No one wants to deal with someone that has no

desire to be at their job. This brings up the second best point, which is communicating your value
to the customer. The customer is what makes your business a business, money cannot be made

unless you have customers. Giving customers value is extremely important in the business of

marketing. The last point I would like to bring up is the importance of understanding the

businesses target market. Knowing who who the target market is, is very important in marketing,

because it allows businesses to know the needs of their public and how to market it to them. It is

what the marketing team will base majority of their decisions on when trying to sell a product.

In this article, it gives some marketing strategies that we have discussed in class. The

biggest, and one of the most important, is understanding your target market. We have discussed

how important it is to know who the target audience is for a product. This article gives the

general idea of gathering information and then using that information to target a specific group

for the product. Another very important factor we discussed in class was giving the customer

value. We have talked about how creating a good relationship with customers can help the

business overall. Steve Olenski brings up a point in the article about how marketing can be used

to communicate value to the customer. Showing a customer that your product is better than a

competitor or promoting great deals to the customer can improve the business in the long run.

Another point Olenski brought up was called watching the data. This point gave reasons as to

why businesses should pay attention to analytics and why it can be very important. Being able to

see and know what customers search for and look for in a product can increase the marketing

strategy entirely. We have spoken about how the internet has changed the business of marketing

in class. The way marketers target certain audiences has changed drastically now that ads and

promotions pop up when someone is shopping online or watching YouTube videos. Overall, the

article gave very similar insight on marketing strategy to what we have already touched in class.

Steve Olenski’s article 5 Factors That Can Make Or Break Your Marketing Strategy
contains valuable information about creating an effective marketing strategy. This article had

opened me some new perspectives about the factors that, “can make or break your marketing

strategy”. One of the factors that Steve Olenski shared that caught my attention was

“Communicating The Value to Your Customers”. Steve stated, “If they can purchase a similar

good or service elsewhere, you need to communicate what makes yours different—and better—

than your competition”. I agree that this is important because it separates similar products from

each other. I can see this to be especially important in products that are homogeneous such as

milk or eggs. For example, conventional milk and organic milk are similar that they both come

from cows but are significantly different in price. Organic milk does not use antibiotics to treat

cows and that raises the cost to produce the product. Without communicating the difference of

the milk, the customer will buy the cheapest product. I understand why Steve Olenski believes

this factor is crucial in attracting customers.

Another factor that I found interesting was the focus of the company. Steve stressed that

the focus of the company should be on customer satisfaction rather than profit. Steve Olenski

said, “The practice of placing more value on money rather than the human component sabotages

any kind of effort you make to grow your business”. I believe this is a valid point especially,

since customer satisfaction is important in repeated business. Although, I believe that it is also

important to have a balance of profit as well. Without profit, there is no margin to keep a

business going. I can relate Steve Olenski’s point by relating it to my experience working for a

General Contractor. The company’s customers were mostly repeated customers giving them the

label as clients. I noticed that sometimes the General Contractor would do favors for the client

that were an added cost such as moving in furniture in the office. Even though, moving the
furniture wasn’t in the scope of the work, the General Contractor performed it to make the

customer happy. I believe Steve Olenski’s point can be a guideline for all companies to follow.

Steve Olenski’s factor “Watching the Data” is relatable to our class discussion about the

importance of Customer Relationship Management. Steve said, “there is a value of computer

data in forensic customer habits investigation, as well as highlighting areas where future

marketing money should be spent”. This is similar to CRM because it involves gathering useful

data and analyzing it to better understand customers’ needs, desires and habits. Steve says that

Google Analytics is a free tool that gathers marketing data of what webpages customers visit,

how frequently they visit, and where they are from. I believe that this would is a good tool to

build a company’s CRM. An important part of building CRM is having data which the Google

Analytics tool can do by analyzing online traffic.

Steve Olenski’s factor “Communicating The Value To Your Customers” is relatable to

our class discussion about value. Steve said, “ You need to clearly communicate exactly what

your product offers”. We learned that the value of a product is defined as customer’s subjective

assessment of benefits relative to costs in determining the worth of a product. Communicating

the value is important because it helps the customer determine the benefits and costs. Especially,

when the customer is in the problem recognition state of the consumer buying decision

process. This stage occurs when a buyer becomes aware of a difference between a desired state

and actual condition. This is why it is important to communicate the benefits of the product to

convince the customer that this is the product that the customer wants.

Throughout this article, Steve Olenski’s talks about key points on marketing. One of the

topics discussed, knowing your target audience, is important because it will help successfully

market a product to the right public and increase sales. Knowing your target audience is
important to know when trying to market a product. Another topic was, communicating the value

of your product to your customer, which is an important contribution when marketing. Clearly

communicating what your product is, what it does and how it will value customers is a crucial

aspect to having your product successes. Expressing what makes your product different from

other similar goods or services, and having effective communication with your customers is

important when marketing a product. Another key point that is important in marketing is focus

on customer needs. When attention is focused on the customer, they believe their needs are being

attended to and valued, they will then begin to build a relationship with that company and stay

loyal customers. I believe that a company should place more value on their customers rather than

money to have an organic growth in your company occurrence.

In class we spoke about the target market selection process, this concept relates to Steve

Olenski’s Step 5, select specific target markets, it highlighting how identifying the right target

market is extremely important for successes. Competitive forces is another topic we discussed in

class that relates to a section in Steve Olenski’s article, communicating the value of your product

to your customers. Competitive forces and communicating the value of your product relate to

each other in a situation when two companies have a similar product. it is important that

companies emphasize why their product has higher value over other products to insure their

product is the one being bought. Another topic we covered in class is environmental analysis

which relates to the topic in Steve Olenski’s article, watching the data. These two topics relate

through taking information gathered and apply it to the marketing strategy to insure growth in a

company.

I thought the author did a really great job explaining five different factors that can make

or break your marketing strategy. So many things in this article stood out to me because it’s very
relevant to what we’ve been discussing in class. Since the marketing strategy is focused on

achieving the maximum profit potential and sustaining business, it’s essential that a company

gets this right. He gave great insight into each of these factors.

One main point I find super important is the first factor he discussed, “Your

Understanding of Your Target Market.” I believe this is essential for many reasons. I particularly

like that he says “If you don’t understand your target market you can’t possibly expect to reach

them.” This is so true. If a company doesn’t know what its target is, there’s no way they can hit

it. Understanding what you’re aiming for is key. Knowing your target market will help to know

how to market a particular product and how to draw customers in. “Watching the Data” is the

third factor he discusses and it’s important to know the patterns of a target audience as well.

Researching this data will help a company to stay with the curve, if not ahead of it.

The last two factors he discusses are “Focus” and “Passion.” These two stood out to me

because I couldn’t agree with them more. A company’s main focus should be on the customer.

There can be a goal of making money, but in order to do so, you need to have satisfied

customers. If customers aren’t satisfied they will seek business elsewhere. If a company doesn’t

care about what they are doing, it will show in their product. There will be a lack of interest and

a connection will be missing. Customers will not feel as though they can have a relationship with

the company if a company is just doing something to get by and not putting any interest into it.

Passion is what keeps a company going.

One way this article relates to our class material is that it's focus is on the customer. In

class we've talked about how the customer is the focal point of all marketing activities. Olenski

talks about this throughout the article. First, when he talks about the target market. Second, when
he talks about the focus. It's important to put your customers ahead of profits in order to be

successful. Ultimately, the customer is at the center of the marketing mix.

Another way this article relates to our class material is when he talks about the data.

We've recently discussed several different ways to research. It's helpful to allow marketers to

solve specific marketing problems or take advantage of marketing opportunities. He specifically

talks about following the data to stay ahead of the curve.

A third way this article relates to our class material is when he talks about value.

Communicating value to your customers is an important factor for success. That could be value

in a relationship or value in your product. Either are essential for a successful business. A

valuable relationship will keep a customer. Communicating and providing a valuable product

will bring new customers to you instead of somewhere else.

As whole, this article seems to be beneficial, to an extent. In my opinion this article falls

flat on its face after the third point. This article is basically trying to suggest five factors that

could improve your marketing strategy. Understanding your target market, Communicating the

value to your customers, and watching the data are three points I can agree with to helping

someone's marketing infrastructure. The two points that I would completely remove from this

article are focus and passion. After having such detailed suggestions prior to those two, it made

me lose interest in the article, the content really fell short after that. I don't think something as

vague as passion, and focus are really that beneficial. I think those two are given attributes that

would be expected out of someone who is in the process of putting together a marketing strategy.

I could suggest two better points to add to this article to really help with it’s content. For

example, possibly touching on the subject of internet marketing or the importance of using the

internet. Online marketing gives you great leverage against competitors. One thing that I can
highly agree with is the section where they discuss “watching the data “. I think now more than

ever, everything is about the numbers, and like I stated previously using the internet is a great

advantage. With the availability of marketing data, companies can track which web pages are

generating the most clicks, how long visitors are staying on pages, where site visitors are coming

from, and much more. Failure to spend the time needed to watch data can mean the failure of the

entire marketing strategy.

This article gives many opportunities to make connections with material that we have

discussed in class. Something we learned about in the beginning of the course was target

markets. A target market is a particular group of consumers at which a product or service is

aimed at. You need to understand your target market, so you know where you can target them,

how they behave, and what kind of interests they have. If you don’t understand your target

market you can’t expect to reach them. The article talks about figuring out the demographics of

who you are targeting. Then goes into the buyer’s persona. The buyer’s persona simply includes

information such things as age, gender, and income. The article talks about communication with

your customers. Something we have not discussed in class yet, but chapter sixteen in the book

talks about integrated marketing communication. The article talks about how the most

impressive marketing strategies in the world won’t work unless you communicate the value of

your product or service to your customers. You need to clearly communicate exactly what your

product offers. If they can purchase a similar good or service elsewhere, you need to

communicate what makes yours different and better than your competitions. Integrated

marketing communications refer to the coordination of promotion and other marketing efforts to

ensure maximum informational and persuasive impact on customers. A third point that stood out

to me was in the section about focus, the article talks about, how the best companies out there
focus on helping customers, not on making money. Thought it isn’t an intuitive idea, the thought

of putting customers ahead of profits works. As soon as your company starts focusing on giving

value to customers, there is an almost organic growth that occurs that is almost inexplicable. This

somewhat ties back into ethics which was discussed in class. Marketing ethics is a dimension of

social responsibility that involves principles and standards that define acceptable conduct in

marketing. Acceptable standards of conduct in making individual and group decisions in

marketing are determined by various stakeholders and by an organization’s ethical climate.

Marketers must also use their own values and knowledge of ethics to act responsibly and provide

ethical leadership for others. So if your values align, then helping your customers is ethically

correct in the marketing realm.