A successful marketing strategy is built for the business that runs it, the way a household’s signature dish is shaped by its own kitchen. Building one starts with three questions: What do I need? What do I have? What can I do? The answers turn marketing’s common ingredients, techniques, and tools into a plan that is distinctly yours.
Different restaurants may serve up the same dish, but the plating, accompaniments, and overall taste usually differ. Home-cooked meals that are considered classic and familiar within a culture also become unique to every household — and it’s not unusual for families to claim the best version, based on secret recipes passed down for generations.
Marketing is much like cooking. It is unique to its home. It is influenced by who, how, and where we are. It’s unique to what we want, what we can do, and what is important to us.
So while there are basic ingredients, techniques, and tools to consider in cooking up a marketing plan for any product or service, several other factors determine whether a campaign is distinctive and successful. Getting to them starts with three questions, asked in order.
What do I need? Define the target your marketing must achieve
First, ask the question: What do I need? In business, the answer is a target that marketing needs to achieve.
In food, the need is primarily nourishment, and it may extend to indulging a craving or simply experiencing culinary joy.
There are as many ways to satisfy hunger as there are ways to achieve a commercial target. So we look at the next question.
What do I have? Take stock of your budget, talent, and tools
Next, ask: What do I have? The answer is an inventory of the resources at hand.
When planning a meal, you must check how much money you have, what ingredients are available, and what tools can be used.
Similarly, in coming up with a marketing plan, you need to check your budget, who and how much talent is available, and what tools are on hand.
What can I do? Fit the plan to the resources you have
After those factors are determined comes the final question: What can I do? Adjust the recipe to what you have in order to get what you need.
In cooking, when money is tight or ingredients are limited, improvise. A slice of bread topped with ketchup and cheese could be filling enough, and could even satisfy a craving for pizza.
In marketing, if you cannot afford to advertise across different types of media or sign up a brand ambassador, there is always the less costly option of putting up a website and tapping social media platforms to promote the product or service. Through this latter strategy, it is also possible to achieve targets.
Why many businesses don’t build their own marketing strategy
Many businesses make the mistake of failing to craft their own marketing strategy — developing their own way of cooking, and making their own version of a “homemade” recipe. The reason may be that they don’t know they have to, don’t want to, or don’t know how.
Knowing how can be learned, or even refreshed, with help from those who have long been in the marketing kitchen.
How Acumen’s Marketing Excellence Program applies the three questions
Acumen, a Filipino-led consulting company, works through these same three questions with clients in its Marketing Excellence Program (MEP). In the program, “marketing chefs” craft a homemade recipe for and with each client’s “family” — assessing what they need, enumerating what they have, and strategically planning what they can do, based on what they have, to achieve their targets. It’s a highly customized program, tailored to who, how, and where the home is.
In one MEP session for a global FMCG (fast-moving consumer goods) giant, for example, even very senior brand experts were there to listen and participate.
And that is how seasoned home cooks, well-trained chefs, and experienced marketers continue to excel and dish out good stuff — they don’t just keep learning, they also learn from good teachers.
Frequently asked questions
What are the three questions for building a marketing strategy?
A marketing strategy can be built from three questions, asked in order: What do I need? What do I have? What can I do? “Need” is the target the marketing must achieve; “have” covers budget, available talent, and tools on hand; and “can do” is the plan that fits those resources. Answering all three turns common marketing ingredients into a strategy built for one specific business.
How can a business market itself on a limited budget?
Fit the marketing plan to the resources you have and improvise where they fall short. If advertising across different types of media or signing a brand ambassador is out of reach, a website and social media platforms offer a less costly way to promote a product or service. Marketing targets can still be achieved through this lower-cost approach.
Why should a business build its own marketing strategy rather than copy one?
A business needs its own marketing strategy because marketing, like cooking, is shaped by who, how, and where the business is, and by what it wants, what it can do, and what matters to it. Basic ingredients, techniques, and tools are common to every plan, but other factors determine whether a campaign is distinctive and successful. Many businesses miss this because they don’t know they need their own strategy, don’t want one, or don’t know how to build it.
What is Acumen’s Marketing Excellence Program?
The Marketing Excellence Program (MEP) is a highly customized marketing program from Acumen, a Filipino-led consulting company. Acumen works with each client to assess what it needs, list what it has, and plan what it can do with those resources to achieve its targets. In one MEP session for a global FMCG (fast-moving consumer goods) giant, even very senior brand experts were there to listen and participate.
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