Page 87 - GLOBAL STRATEGIC MARKETING

• Some organisations give a lot of freedom to their business units to set
their own sales and profit objectives and strategies

• Some organisations set objectives for their business units but let them
develop their own strategies

• Some organisations set objectives and participate in developing
individual business unit strategies.

Whatever the situation, marketing objectives, strategies and plans have to

be set not only to satisfy customer’s needs and wants, but also to reflect
and meet corporate objectives and strategy.

2.6 Corporate verses marketing strategy

Corporate objectives such as target sales, target growth, market share
targets and shareholder return targets can all be achieved through

marketing objectives and strategies as well as from other functional areas
within the organisation (Brassington and Pettitt, 2000; Meek and Meek,

2003). The truly market-oriented company, such as Microsoft, will focus its
efforts within all departments (human resource management, research

and development, finance, logistics, operations and production) to focus
on satisfying customer needs and achieve objectives.

All objectives should be SMART. That is, Specific, Measurable,
Achievable, Reachable and Time-bound. The aim is to meet corporate

objectives through satisfying customer needs, which is achieved through
a well thought out marketing strategy and successfully achieved through

implementation and control.

Just to clarify, strategy is what the organisation is trying to achieve and
objectives are how strategy is to be met. Marketing strategy is about

making the right decisions on which markets to enter, which products and
services to offer to which segments of the market, branding issues,

innovation and forging strategic alliances to achieve corporate objectives.
These decisions should be based on the organisation’s capabilities and

what is taking place in the external environment. This is important in order
to survive, sustain or grow the business as well as achieve a competitive
advantage in the market place. How this is achieved in such a turbulent