Yes.
A purposeful approach can definitely be a marketing strategy.
Should it actively be a marketing strategy? No.
It should be a way of business and THEN (and only then!) incidentally assisting with the marketing.
Building a Marketing Strategy is not straight forward, well not at least till you have done it over and over again.
Of recent I have had a lot of focus on very early stage strategy, taking a brand from nothing, starting from scratch.
The benefit of getting in at this stage is it’s very exciting, the possibilities seem to be endless, also very open to risk.
Often my job is like that of a rider, to rein the horse in, refocus on business objectives and how can we achieve that.
The strategy is always highly constrained; on time, funds & absolute need for leverage.
Oh and usually the only funds available are for my time (sometimes not even that!)
Where I am going with this is that building a marketing strategy is all about taking the steps from beginning to end and to keep taking them.
Simplicity works over complexity.
I meet a company every now and again that say we have no marketing strategy [and therefore we don’t do marketing].
Your wrong.
You do.
You have the No Strategy Marketing Strategy.
In every transaction your organisation engages in you are marketing. Why? you are communicating.
Each of these interactions results in a story being told. This is a story about you.
Is this bad? Not necessarily.
However if you are already doing something (without realising it) – surely you can deliver more value by providing a focused strategy.
Sun Tzu’s famous strategy quote:
“All men can see these tactics whereby I conquer, but what none can see is the strategy out of which victory is evolved.”
Everyone can replicate the tactics of your No Strategy Marketing Strategy…..
So flag your No Strategy Marketing Strategy and get to it (you have all weekend!).
When I say I work in Marketing people assume I work in Advertising.
Marketing is the communication of stories. The best ones spread.
Marketing is more than advertising.
Advertising is no longer required to deliver your story.
There are far too many communication channels to simply select one of them.
How do you think Contractors, Small Businesses have marketing themselves over time. Most of them cannot afford advertising.
Think:
The answer is in talking to lots of small groups of people and let them decide if your story is worth spreading. If it is they will spread it.
This is just one answer there are many more.
So let advertising rest in peace and get creative.
(Advertising firms? Position yourself as an ideas agency, provide these services)