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Say ‘strategy and tactics’, and it conjures various images!  Board games, Team Sports, personal development, life and more!  

It’s about creating structured, goal-oriented approaches to achieving desired outcomes!  

Welcome to Marketing Strategy and Tactics. No matter if you are a small Business operator or a conglomerate, you will know that every Business needs a Marketing Plan, strategy and tactics to achieve its goals, Business success! 

For small Business the foundation of any effective marketing strategy begins with knowing your audience and crafting a message that speaks directly to them.  

Let’s unpack that.  

A Marketing Plan clearly outlines a Business's advertising and promotional efforts and acts as a guide to engage target customers and achieve specific Business goals. It details the budget, strategies, marketing mix, and tactics to be adopted for a given time. 

Strategy is where you want to go, and the overall plan and guiding principle.  It’s the what, why and where and focusing your efforts to achieve your goals!  

Tactics are the ‘how’ you will get there! And you will through specific, real actions, tools and tasks adopted to implement your strategy. 

Key areas for application include, 

• Business Strategy and Growth. Strategy: improve customer satisfaction to grow retention rates.  

• Tactics: provide relevant staff training, implement a customer feedback system, and act on responses. 

   

• Marketing and Sales. Strategy: increase market share by 20% over the next 5 years 

Tactics: increase market spending on digital platforms, launch new product line, partner with key influencers. 

• Time Management & Productivity 

• Project Management & Logistics 

Let’s see Strategy & Tactics examples in action! 

• Strategy, cafes to attract and keep customers, are focusing on the customer experience, making it memorable for all the right reasons. Tactic in action. It’s offering quality products, good coffee and food, delivered by ‘happy’ staff, service with a smile and their full attention.  A friendly atmosphere and environment also contribute to this success. A reason to return and share the experience with friends. Is this your preferred cafe? 

• The two major supermarkets are actively exploring strategies and tactics in a bid to stabilize and regain market share, customer confidence, and sales. This action follows recent hearings over misleading discounting tactics and staffing entitlement matters. 

• One has adopted a pricing strategy aimed to lower the prices of hundreds of products as part of its winter, spring value campaigns, the Executive shared. 

• The opposition has executed their back-to-school program earlier, focusing on heavily discounted lunchbox staples. Check what’s on offer when you’re next at the supermarket. 

• In a bid to revive sales, a struggling pizza giant has dumped its heavily discounting and voucher model to focus on delivering an ‘everyday low price’ model. This approach is similar to the Bunnings strategy. Rather than running regular promotions, it instead offers consistent competitive pricing.  

• Myer is reviewing its network of 56 department stores as part of a broader refresh! It is looking to transform some locations with Myer Morley to be revamped. ‘Myer today announced an update to its store footprint as part of the transformation underway through the Myer group growth strategy’, said a company spokesman. 

• KMD Brands, the company behind surfwear Rip Curl and outdoor clothing brand Kathmandu, has unveiled its Next Level Transformation strategy, which will see at least 21 stores shut. It’s also looking to roll out new store formats, including ‘stores of the future’ to be launched later this year. It is targeting earnings margin growth of more than 10% over the next three years. 

• New York Fashion week! And the US Open Tennis tournament. With just days separating them, the luxury fashion industry doesn’t want to be left out as tennis fashion has been surging. According to a fashion expert, ‘tennis is a marketer's dream’. ‘Often you have a two-tier marketing strategy for different groups, but tennis is the place where it can all exist together’.  With this younger era of players, they all have huge social media followings. If a brand backs that person, they get all of their audience’! Who can forget the surge in Labubus (bag charms), popularity and sales after player Osaka displayed hers at the Open tournament?

What’s trending! 

In 2026 marketing success will come from being intentional, knowing what you and your brand stand for, and creating resonance and connection with your audience. 

There you have it, what strategies and tactics will you implement to achieve your goals?

Watch for out for our Marketing Plan in the next edition.