Marketing Strategies-8 Most Effective Strategies

Marketing strategies in simple words means making a proper plan for a business such as deciding the target market, creating an offer, planning the production, promotion strategy, deciding the sources of finance, etc.

Without a proper marketing strategy, no business can survive in the market. There are a lot of competitors nationally.

But internationally who have captured the market and are on the verge of increasing their market share. They all make it possible because they have a strong marketing strategy.

For example, Jio Company. It has disrupted the telecommunication industry and forced the other companies in this industry to either shut down or collaborate.

This is known as a blue ocean strategy. So by this, you must have understood how important marketing strategies are.

Let us look into some of the marketing strategies and see how it has changed as the time passed by from traditional marketing to modern marketing.

What’s in it for me?

1. Traditional Marketing vs. Modern Marketing
2. Types of Marketing Strategies
   • Traditional Marketing
   • Digital Marketing
   • Word of Mouth
   • Co-Branding
   • Sponsoring Events
   • Celebrity Endorsement
   • Guerrilla Marketing
   • Green Marketing
3. Conclusion
4. Frequently Asked Questions

Traditional Marketing vs. Modern Marketing

Traditional marketing is a method of marketing which we get to see in our everyday life while watching television, listening to the radio, etc.

Modern marketing is the method of promoting products using digital platforms such as social media marketing, blogging, search engine optimization (SEO), etc.

Main differences between traditional marketing and modern marketing are:-

Basis	Traditional marketing	Modern marketing
Concept	This is an old concept of marketing.	This is a new concept of marketing.
Cost	More cost is incurred in promotional ads.	Comparatively less cost is incurred in the promotion.
Time	It takes more time to create and run an ad.	It takes less time to create and run an ad.
Result	It is tough to analyze the result. Earlier sale of the product was the parameter to measure the effectiveness of the promotional activities.	It is easy to analyze the result as we can see the traffic of the people on our website with the help of analytics and check the sales volume.
Customer reach	Tough to reach the target market as the promotional ads are seen nationwide. It is difficult to calculate even the ads are seen by our target market or not.	Easy to reach the target market as we can select the option of showing the ads to only the target market with the help of digital marketing.
Example	Television, radio, newspapers, etc	Digital marketing

Types of Marketing Strategies

As I already said in the beginning, marketing strategy is an important aspect of any business. Below are some of the marketing strategies which companies follow:

Traditional Marketing

As I already mentioned that it is an old concept to promote any goods or services. Let us look into some of the traditional methods of marketing.

Television

This is one of the oldest methods of promoting products. Today also many companies show their ads on television in some channels. This method helps in reaching customers on a large scale.

People with different languages live in India which makes the promotion of the product difficult. So the ads are now shown in different languages in different regional channels to make the customer understand what the product is all about.

Radio

India has only 27% of the market as an urban market and 73% as the rural market. We all know the condition of the rural area. Since, they do not earn a large amount of money, they generally purchase a radio instead of television.

This made a source of advertisement for the companies to reach the rural area people and make them aware of the product.

The companies started forecasting their ads in regional languages and hence started promoting their goods and services.

Print media

By print media we understand that all the promotional activities are done by printing the ads in newspapers, pamphlets, banners, and magazines.

Earlier, companies used to invest a huge amount of money in print media to reach a wide range of people. Newspaper agencies were contacted to print ads in their newspapers.

Pamphlets were printed out with promotional images and words to either distribute it door-to-door or are put inside the newspapers so that it gets distributed with the newspaper.

Big banners are printed and put up in the main market area that grabs the attention of all the people in the market. Also, companies put up their ads on popular magazines as well to educate the people about the product and its usage.

Digital Marketing

It is a modern way of marketing any business. Today’s companies are taking the help of digital marketing and spreading words about their product. This is the most effective way to promote the product among all the marketing strategies in the current date.

It made it easy for companies to reach their target customers and make them aware of their goods and services. This method takes less time to promote or advertise.

Also, it involves less cost as compared to the traditional method. Since, in the 21st century, people are using digital media a lot and spend maximum time on it.

This acts as an advantage to the companies to use this opportunity and promote their goods and services. Within digital marketing, one of the most useful platforms is social media. 

Word of Mouth

This strategy only works well when your company is providing the best quality of goods and services or has innovation in it. When your customers start loving your product they take the initiative and promote your product with word of mouth.

They convert new people into your customers by spreading good words about your product and your company.

This increases your company’s goodwill in the market and gains customer loyalty towards your product. This also helps you to survive in the market and compete with your already existing competitors.

Co-Branding

A lot of big organizations are taking up collaboration as a marketing strategy. Collaboration means big firms join hands with each other and promote their product together in the same ad.

Now you must be thinking how is it beneficial to them? As they promote their product together, they can reach a wide range of customers. Suppose two companies namely A and B exist in the market. Both do their business in different industries.

Now company A has its own set of customers and company B has its own set of customers. So when they collaborate and promote their product together, company A will get the exposure of its product to the set of customers of company B.

Similar is the case with company B. Hence, now both got some new customers added in their already existing sets.

Sponsoring Events

Many companies use to sponsor some big events organized nation or worldwide. It can be a sports event, fashion show, award ceremony, reality shows, etc.

The more they invest their money in these events, the more benefit they get out of it such as the event organizers put up their big banners all around the event and show the repeat telecast of their ads on television and radio.

Also, they print their brand name in the tickets as well, also some merchandise is sold outside the event containing the print of the brand, etc.

Example, Pepsi investing in the super bowl.

Celebrity Endorsement

This strategy is proved to be very effective and it creates a deep impact on the minds of the customers. Celebrity endorsement means companies hire celebrities to promote their product.

You must have come across many advertisements in which you see a celebrity promoting a product of a particular company. It converts people into the customer of their brand.

People think that if such a big and known celebrity is promoting a particular product then this product must be very good. Hence, they end up purchasing it.

Example – “Kuch meetha ho Jaye” campaign of Cadbury by Amitabh Bachchan.

Guerrilla Marketing

This is a strategy where you will get to see surprises or some unusual, strange, and attractive elements in the promotional advertisement.

Companies use this strategy to create a memorable scene for the people passing by the promotional ads. It is very effective among all the other marketing strategies.

Many big firms use it to attract more customers. We will find such type of promotions more in western countries than in India. 

To know more about Guerrilla Marketing, check out our blog.

Green Marketing

Green marketing is a strategy where the companies promote their product in such a way where people get to see that along with the promotion of the product they also care about the environment.

In the advertisement, they will either show that their product is made of natural resources and no chemicals are used. Or they will show that eco-friendly methods have been used to manufacture the product.

Also, they have contributed mother nature in some form or the other. Such as the planting of trees, less pollution, proper waste disposal of the non-usable components after the manufacturing process.

This helps them gain customer loyalty and increases their customer base.

Conclusion

Marketing strategies play a very important role in making a business successful. Without any marketing strategy one cannot think of attracting customers and earn a profit. Hence, it is more important for startups in their initial stages.

To more about Startup in detail, check out our blog.

I tried explaining to you the change in the way of marketing the products from traditional marketing to digital marketing.

I also mentioned some of the most used marketing strategies by the companies. These are very much in use these days. There are many more marketing strategies.

It is your responsibility to identify which strategy will work for your business and how to apply it.

Frequently Asked Questions