Strategic Planning And Marketing: A Case Study Of Zara, An Essay On Successful Retail Strategies.

There are many ways in which marketing managers decide on a particular strategy. The first step for any manager is to have a strong understanding of the strategic planning process. 

Select an organization that you are familiar with, consider the industry and markets they operate in.

Having selected the organization write to the following:

1. Define the concepts of strategic planning and strategic marketing
   
   
2. Discuss how these approaches are interrelated
   
   
3. Select your chosen organization and discuss how these approaches can be implemented within the organization in order to address potential competitive advantage.

Defining Strategic Planning and Strategic Marketing

Strategic planning is the systematic process that is used for envisioning the future that the company desires. Whereas, strategic marketing is the manner in which a company in an effective manner differentiates itself away from the competitors (Rothaermel, F. T. 2015). In this assignment, the Company Zara is taken and its competitive advantage in relation to the use of its distribution strategy is discussed. Furthermore, the interrelation between strategic planning and strategic marketing is also elaborated in an extensive manner.

Strategic planning: it is the systematic process that is used for envisioning the future that the company desires. It is the process of the organization which defines the company’s strategy, direction or the process of decision making. This process is based on the decision of resource allocation so that the company can use it in an optimum manner for the completion of its strategy. Strategic planning can also be used by the company in order to set guidelines for implementing the strategy (Hill, Jones & Schilling, 2014). A good strategic planning allows the company to implement appropriate models for the success of the business.

Strategic marketing: it is the manner in which a company in an effective manner differentiates itself away from the competitors. This it does using the method of capitalizing its strengths and providing better value to its customers in a consistent manner. Strategic Marketing concerns itself with the definition of what is required by a business to be as well as become so that the company can beat its competitors on a consistent basis along with delivering products and services with a better value. The role of strategic marketing includes:

• In which market should a company compete
• What will be the basis with which the firm will provide competitive advantage
• What is the manner in which the company will enter a prescribed market

The strategic planning process of Zara is comprised of various steps, these include, overall goal planning, selecting the team of participants, acquiring data in relation to internal plus external environment, SWOT analysis, specific objective development and so on. In this assignment the SWOT analysis of the company is being made to assess its internal and external environment for the purpose of addressing its competitive advantage against its competitors (Dibrell, Craig & Neubaum, 2014).

The strategic marketing that is used by Zara is the distribution strategy. Zara’s design, its distribution, its sales procedure to all its stores on a global level which range up to more than 2100, all operations of the company as well as the production of its new designs that are available within the stores are presented within the period of two weeks. Along with its own stores it retails its clothes to other multi brand stores allowing the company to penetrate within different leading cities (Jacobs, Chase & Lummus, 2014). Its supply chain provides it with the biggest competitive advantage because in comparison to other stores who take up to 21 days in bringing its designs to the stores, Zara brings its designs within 2 weeks. Along with it, the designs are always changing and pertain within the store only for a short period of time.

Conclusion 

In conclusion, both strategic planning and strategic marketing are very important tools for a company if it wants to achieve its goals and market the company in an optimum manner. The strategic planning and strategic marketing work in relation with each other providing it and the company an advantage over other companies if applied in an appropriate manner. Zara is a retail company which uses the distribution strategy of marketing for attaining its successful position in the retail sector and on a global level as well.

References

Rothaermel, F. T. (2015). Strategic management. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.

Hill, C. W., Jones, G. R., & Schilling, M. A. (2014). Strategic management: theory: an integrated approach. Cengage Learning.

Barney, J. B., & Hesterly, W. (2015). Strategic management and competitive advantage concepts and cases. Pearson.

Cassidy, A. (2016). A practical guide to information systems strategic planning. CRC press.

Dibrell, C., Craig, J. B., & Neubaum, D. O. (2014). Linking the formal strategic planning process, planning flexibility, and innovativeness to firm performance. Journal of Business Research, 67(9), 2000-2007.

Ioppolo, G., Cucurachi, S., Salomone, R., Saija, G., & Shi, L. (2016). Sustainable local development and environmental governance: A strategic planning experience. Sustainability, 8(2), 180.

Gerow, J. E., Thatcher, J. B., & Grover, V. (2015). Six Types of IT-Business Strategic Alignment: An investigation of the constructs and their measurement. European Journal of Information Systems, 24(5), 465-491.

Jacobs, F. R., Chase, R. B., & Lummus, R. R. (2014). Operations and supply chain management. McGraw-Hill Education.