Marketing strategy or execution: What’s more important?

Obituaries
If market conditions are the same, what causes the difference between successful companies and those not so successful?

If market conditions are the same, what causes the difference between successful companies and those not so successful? One of the reasons a similar company to yours may lag behind, despite receiving adequate funding, plus a fully-fledged work force and other resources, might just stem from poor execution.

marketing insights with MELLANY MSENGEZI

One of the crucial elements of marketing is coming up with a clean-cut marketing strategy. I would like to believe that we all prepare these annually as marketing is a crucial part of any business. A marketing strategy may be defined as a company’s overall plan to reach people and successfully influence them into being their customers. The biggest difference between a marketing plan and a marketing strategy is its longevity. Strategies are long-term and sustainable, while marketing plans are more short-term. Despite the difference between the two plans, their success is in the execution. A well-researched and compiled marketing strategy may provide unfavourable results if not implemented well.

Where are the wheels falling off in execution? In my opinion, there are three basic areas that I will discuss and provide insight. It may not be the usual — but makes a big difference.

Boring plan — just textbook all the way

Have you ever come across a strategic presentation that is long and full of textbook diagrams? The whole document can actually be intimidating and make you seem like you are clueless with models and latest trends and yet it is meaningless jargon. My suggestion is that if you are looking for execution in the short and long-term, be simple — ask and answer basic questions in your plans: Where are we? Where do we want to go? How will we get there? What resources do we need? To answer these questions, you can apply a few models, but make sure they are relevant and simple.

Textbook plans are also usually rigid. It is of great importance to allow flexibility in your execution — where the plan said one thing, and on the ground you realise that alteration is required, you must accommodate the changes. Being rigid because management or the board has already endorsed will not get you anywhere. Ideally you should have scenarios or be able to quickly propose a new approach upon realising that it is not working.

Traditional and labour-intensive plan

In the age of technology, if you find your execution plan very heavy, be careful no one will implement it. Make use of technology in the way you plan to execute, and yes, some elements will remain traditional, but where you can migrate to using technology, do not hesitate. I was impressed by a simple use of an algorithm used to credit-vet a customer’s qualification to get a loan from a bank. Check these online and do a quick assessment of it yourself versus you compiling all sorts of papers, taking them to a physical bank, waiting days for the result. So what you want is to propose ideas that are fast to execute, cheaper, efficient and effective.

Lack of skills and experience

To execute a plan, you need a high-performance team which is led by an influential leader. The team must understand the benefits of executing the plan. The benefits must be for the business and also must trickle down to the team utilising intrinsic and extrinsic motivators. It is important to have a motivated team in planning and executing strategy. I would recommend that you always have a fresh perspective by inviting a diversity of people during planning sessions, planning does not and should not remain at management level, most times the most innovative ideas come from further down the chain of command. Age, race, and experience from various departments is critical. The ideas and how to execute your plan may all be radical, and because they are fresh ideas, people may want to try and see what the outcome is. Even when the ideas fail, there is a certain air that we did try something new. They will keep trying.

In conclusion, it is important to embrace innovation and creativity in designing your plans so that they are fun to execute for anyone. Usually marketing and its execution seeks four primary outcomes that you must cover, namely; building awareness of a product of service, generating leads, creating a suitable support system for the selling process as well as creating brand or product loyalty resulting in repeat business. Execution makes a great difference of who leads in the market. “Ideas don’t make you rich. The correct execution of an idea does.” — Felix Dennis My personal opinion is that it is better to have people who are executors than people good at planning only. Having both is excellent but rare — choose wisely.

Mellany Msengezi is a social entrepreneur with a passion for driving economic growth in Africa through empowerment of women. She coaches, mentors and also blogs on pertinent progressive business topics. She is currently the General Manager Marketing for Econet Wireless. She serves on various boards and is also author of a motivational book, Hungry for Success, and co-author of an international best seller, Breakthrough.

*This article was contributed on behalf of Marketers’ Association of Zimbabwe (MAZ), a professional body of marketers, which seeks to promote and uplift the marketing profession to the highest levels. Contact MAZ on [email protected]