The first stage in strategic marketing is outlining a vision statement and then developing a mission statement for the company. For start-up and early stage businesses, this work needs to be done before commercial operations begin. A business’s vision statement outlines where the business sees itself with respect to its customers, partners, and other stakeholders. A mission statement is a brief description of a company, generally no more than a few lines, that describes where the company is and where it wants to go.

Performance measures quantitatively tell business managers something important about products, services, and the processes that produce them. They are a tool to help understand, manage, and improve what organizations do. Each objective should have one or more performance measures. Performance measures can indicate:

• How well the business is doing
• If goals are being met
• If and where improvements are necessary
• If customers are satisfied

Once a company has determined its objectives, a competitive marketing strategy can be developed. A competitive strategy is developed so that a company can create advantages over the competition. It focuses on four P decisions that specifically address what competing companies are doing in the marketplace and how their products are positioned. For example, a strategy of overall cost leadership refers to being a low cost manufacturer and should not be confused with setting low prices. Cost leadership can be achieved by producing on a large scale or accessing low cost raw materials.

A differentiation strategy involves changing the product so that it is perceived as unique. It can be based on technical superiority or using premium ingredients.

A niche marketing strategy occurs when a product is sold to a small number of the total potential customers that have a particular characteristic or preference. Targeting the specialty food and beverage market is often referred to as niche marketing since products are marketed to a very small group of buyers. Niche marketing requires the business owner to identify customers with similar demands and serve their needs extremely well.

Marketing objectives for individual products can only be developed after the corporate vision, mission, goals, objectives, and competitive strategies have been developed. Typically, marketing objectives are developed within four general areas:

1. Sales volume
2. Market share
3. Cash flow
4. Profitability

The task for any business is to decide on specific targets for sales, market share, cash flow per period and profitability that are challenging yet reasonable considering the resources of the company.

Marketing strategies outline exactly how marketing objectives will be achieved. For example, if the marketing objective is to increase market share by 4%, the marketing strategy states exactly how the market share increase will occur. A marketing strategy is a way to give marketing orientation to a business by deciding to position a product in terms of buyer needs and wants. Inexperienced business people often make decisions based on what they like or want, leaving the customer out of the picture. A marketing orientation brings the customer into the center of the picture.

The marketing objectives for profits, cash flow, and market share can be achieved using the following strategies:

• Increase the number of users by increasing their ability to buy
• Increase the rate of purchase by broadening usage occasions for the product
• Retain current customers by meeting what the competition offers
• Acquire new customers by line extensions (variations of existing products designed for existing markets)