No two snowflakes are quite alike. But when it’s snowing outside, what’s the difference? In marketing, blending in with the blizzard won’t cut it. Even if you share product types and customer segments with your competitors, your marketing strategy should be starkly original.
You’ve heard the saying: If you fail to plan, you plan to fail. A sound strategy is your plan for success. It guides your decisions and sustains your focus. It prevents you from falling for the latest, greatest, whiz-bang marketing tool just because it sounds cool. Born from consumer insight and behavioral data, a well-conceived strategic plan is your greatest chance for success.
So what exactly is marketing strategy? If someone asked you to dig a hole, how would you do it? A sapling needs one kind of pit. A fence post needs another. A nuclear bunker beneath Mount Rushmore…ditch the shovel and grab some TNT.
You can’t just go dig a hole. Why you’re digging is the all-important question. It’s the starting point of a groundbreaking strategy.
Too often we’re asked to develop a TV spot, to help with SEO, or to develop a tradeshow booth. But after taking a deeper look at the challenge we find that we need to do something completely different.
At VI our strategic marketing planning process is born from research. We gather data to analyze the state of your business. We figure out what the questions should be before we provide the answers.
Our entire business is built to deliver expert marketing counsel. At a typical agency, you’ll deal with “account people.” At VI, you are served by marketing strategists. And the difference is anything but trivial. Our strategists don’t ask what, they ask why. They are trained to provide creative solutions to the most complex marketing challenges. Because strategy is the driving force behind everything we do.
