I’m appalled. A successful marketing guy asked me a question recently — a real no-brainer — which led me to believe he didn’t know the difference between strategy and tactics.
How can that be? He’s held several high-paying marketing positions. He’s college educated in Marketing 101. He’s gotta know this stuff.
So I started doing some research online and I’ve found the problem: The internet!
There’s more misinformation than information out there. More nonsense than common sense. Even some of the biggest gurus in the industry have posted conflicting information on the subject.
No wonder the guy’s confused. I ran across one article that listed “search engines” as a marketing strategy and that “long term strategies such as giving away freebies will continue to pay off years down the road.”
This isn’t just a matter of semantics, it’s negligence. Advice like that would never get past the editors of a trade publication for worm farmers, much less a brand-name business magazine. But you can find it on-line!
In any case, the easiest way to clarify the difference between strategy and tactics is to go to the source. I’m sorry if the war analogy doesn’t appeal to you, but that’s where these terms came from, some 3,000 years ago.
Here’s how it breaks down: Goals first. Then strategy. Then tactics.
Goal: Win the war.
Strategy: “Divide and conquer.”
Tactics:
CIA spies gather intelligence.
Navy Seals knock out enemy communications.
Paratroopers secure the airports.
Armored Divisions race in and divide the opposing army’s forces.
Drone attacks take out the enemy leadership.
An overwhelming force of infantry invade.
Hand-to-hand combat.
A strategy is an idea… A conceptualization of how the goal could be achieved. Like “Divide and Conquer.” Another possible war strategy would be “Nuke ‘Em.” (They call them Strategic Nuclear Weapons because they pretty much eliminate the need for any further tactics.)
A tactic is an action you take to execute the strategy.
But let’s get off the battlefield and look at a successful brand…
Back in the 70’s, executives at Church & Dwight Inc. noticed that sales of their popular Arm & Hammer baking soda were slipping. The loyal moms and grandmas who had been buying the same baking soda all their lives weren’t baking as much as they used to.
Business Goal: Turn the tide and increase Baking Soda sales.
Strategy: Devise new reasons for their current customers to pick up that yellow box at the supermarket and use more baking soda. Specifically, sell Arm & Hammer as a deodorizer for the fridge. That’s a big, strategic idea that led Arm & Hammer in a completely different direction. They’re now marketing a whole line of environmentally friendly cleaning products. Every current Arm & Hammer product, from toothpaste to cat litter, originated with that strategy of finding new ways to use baking soda. And in the process, an old-fashioned brand has managed to stay relevant.
Tactics: TV advertising. Magazine ads. Infomercials. Retail promotions. Website dedicated to all the various uses of Arm & Hammer Baking Soda. All the traditional marketing tactics were employed.
All good marketing strategies share some common components:
• Thorough understanding of the brand’s status and story. Arm & Hammer has a strong heritage that dates back to the 1860’s. That yellow box with the red Arm & Hammer logo is instantly recognizable, and stands for much more than just generic sodium bicarbonate.
• A realistic assessment of the product’s strengths & weaknesses. Market research proved what Arm & Hammer executives suspected… that people don’t bake as much as they used to. But it also showed that people use their baking soda for all kinds of things besides baking. So why not leverage that?
• A clear picture of the competition. Arm & Hammer has always been the undisputed market leader in the category. However, when they decided to introduce toothpaste and laundry detergent, the competition became fierce. Arm & Hammer’s long-standing leadership position in one vertical market gave them a fighting chance against Procter & Gamble.
• Intimate knowledge of the consumer and the market. The shift away from the traditional American homemaker directly affected baking soda sales. Church & Dwight kept up with the trends, and even led the charge on environmental issues.
• A grasp of the big-picture business implications. Good strategies reach way beyond the marketing department. When you have a big idea, execution of the strategy will inevitably involve operations, R&D, HR, finance and every other business discipline.
A great strategy does not depend on brilliant tactics for success. If the idea is strong enough, you can get by with mediocre tactical execution. However, even the best tactics can’t compensate for a lousy strategy.
Some people confuse marketing strategy with goals. They are not synonymous. Here are a few examples from misguided on-line sources:
“Create awareness”
“Overcome objections”
“Boost consumer confidence”
These are NOT strategies, they’re goals. (And not even very good goals.) Remember, it’s not a strategy unless there’s an idea behind it.
Any number of strategies can be used to achieve a business goal. In fact, it often takes more than one strategy to achieve a lofty goal, and each strategy involves its own unique tactical plan. Unfortunately, a lot of marketing managers simply throw together a list of the tactics they’ve always used, and call it a strategy.
Sometimes you can build a hell of a strategy around a simple, tactical idea. Like Dominoes did with their 30-minute delivery guarantee. Someone said, “Hey, what if we guaranteed 30-minute delivery?” and a strategy was born. They couldn’t compete on product quality, but they could compete on speedy delivery. After that, their entire operation revolved around the promise of 30-minute delivery.
If you’re still wondering about the difference between strategy and tactics, try the “what-if” test. “What if we came up with a bunch of new uses for baking soda?” That’s a strategy.
“What if we search engine” doesn’t make sense. Must be a tactic. “What if we increase market share?” No idea, must be a goal.
What if we could screen all web content for factual errors?
Did you enjoy this article? Please subscribe to receive updates!
{ 3 trackbacks }
{ 20 comments… read them below or add one }
John,
I too have noticed how the line between strategy and tactics has become blurry. Reading your post was a good reminder of marketing 101: tactics fail without strategy.
Oh how it scares me that you needed to publish this. But glad you did! Thanks…
John,
The term “Strategy” is so badly abused in the world of Branding — As elsewhere. I chock it up to the fact that most people are tactical… ready, fire, aim types.
My personal favourite definition of “Strategy” is “knowing what not to do.” Your strategy, defines your actions and keeps you from getting distracted on the wrong tactics.
– Axle Davids
@1day1brand
Excellent post on an often confused subject, primarily thanks to the internet. Really like the way you’ve used examples to explain.
when you throw in ‘objectives’ – it becomes increasingly jumbled.
I think the “What-if” test will help a lot of people to understand the difference.
Great post, thank you.
That’s for sure! Thanks for reading.
-john
I sure hope so.
Thanks for reading!
-John
John – where do ‘objectives’ fit in?
I have asked dozens of web marketing professionals if they know the difference between strategies and tactics. They typically reel off a list of tactics that they think are strategies. When you point out the difference, they get offended because they think all marketing is the internet.
Thanks for posting this. It was worth restating again. http://addoptions.org/blog/?p=42
Great article. Just learnt a lot from the what ifs. I never went to business school, but this article has helped to differenciate and read between the BS of most brand “strategists” or rather tacticians. Thanks
Objectives/goals gotta come first. You build your strategy around them.
A strategy is at it’s core a guide to behavior. A good strategy drives actions that differentiate the company and produce financial success.
It’s amazing that you had to publish this but at the same time it’s useful to set the record straight.
One area where the confusion is becoming almost codified is in job categories. There have a been a slew of recent postings for titles in “Digital Strategy,” but when you examine the descriptions they invariably want media planners. Media planning — online or otherwise — is almost entirely tactical.
John,
What if we
What if we thought of a way for knowledge to be improved in every person by 10%?
What if we could conceive a way to make everyone have a license to own a domain name?
What if we could mandate every person had to be tested before they were able to host a site?
What if there was a certification program that would put a giant stamp on websites / blogs which were accurate?
I think I’m getting the hang of this.
What if we postcard? nope
What if we facebook? (people say that which confuses things)
What if we twitter? (people say that too)
Just as the trend has changed from creating our own labels and identity in the phone boo or other traditional mediums, the search engine does respond to what is in the heads of those with fast thoughts and shaky keyboard fingers.
To be “found” we bend to the words the crowd is using. To not do so makes us accurate and right but alone in the corner. I have a constant debate as to whether it is helpful to add misspelled keywords to the list deliberately.
So do we listen and fill what people perceive to be the need even if it is not how the language / definition was created? Or do we stick to our guns and say “everyone is stupid and I wish they would get it”?
Except for the rant in the beginning I really enjoyed your article. Will see where I can out reference to it in my resource box for workshops. I have constant imperfections and find myself shifting back and forth with definitions and language every month. As you said, the Internet has given everyone an appearance of authority and education. (even me)
@michaelhartzell
PS
Strategy has become a gobbleygook word like innovation.
Check out http://gobbledygook.grader.com/ It will give a gobbleygook score for an article. hmmm. Wonder if I should do it with this comment? naw…. too risky.
The confusion doesn’t end there. Strategy used to mean five or ten years. Now it’s closer to two; so the time frame covered by tactics is also changing.
This article adds to the confusion, however, but stating categorically which things are strategic and which things are tactical. The fact is that it depends on who you ask. There’s no agreement as to what it is, who does it, or if it even matters. (I can give you a boatload of references that attest to this if you’re really interested.)
There’s nothing wrong with offering an opinion, as long as it’s presented as such, rather than the “I can’t believe how stupid everyone is” approach.
Dr Bruce Hoag, CPsychol
Work Psychologist
http://www.p-advantage.com/Newsletter.php
Super-Duper site! I am loving it!! Will come back again – taking you feeds also, Appreciation.
Hey John,
that was a great article. “There has to be an idea behind a strategy!” you made it so simple to understand! Thanks
Dipti
John;
A great article and one which was much needed to clear up some confusion. Thanks!
To add to this article, given it’s all about strategy, here’s some food for thought on the strategy behind using Social Media Marketing, or SMM as part of one’s marketing mix.
Like any of your marketing endeavors, your SMM Campaigns should of course be run against or according to a strategy designed to achieve a specific goal (and of course, use Tactics to get there).
Many people understand this intuitively, but have difficulty designing the strategy or perhaps their difficulty is in thinking strategically versus tactically. So many of our clients asked for help in this area that we decided to write a post on the subject. The link is at the end of this comment points to a blog index with 4 posts on it:
1) How to Run a SMM Campaign. This is a formal process description on how to run your campaigns according to the Process Mantra of Think, Plan, Do, Measure and Repeat. You may recognize these as part of a Continuous Process Improvement strategy. And because the specification calls for using ROI as one of the metrics to monitor, the other 3 posts cover:
2) How to measure the ROI of your website as a whole
3) The 10 best free ROI calculators on the Web and
4), How to build your own ROI calculator so that you can measure the ROI of your SMM.
Here’s the link: http://bit.ly/cEc0ln
I have always use the formula MOST: Mission, Objectives, Strategy and Tactics. This way i think you cant go wrong……….