Adapting Marketing Strategies to Market Shifts
On one level, a marketing professional’s job may seem straightforward. The basic objective is assessing consumer needs and pain points and positioning a particular product, service, or brand as the best available solution. What complicates this is that consumer expectations are constantly changing. The landscape is always evolving, and marketers must be nimble enough to pivot their strategy every time the market shifts.
The best way to remain aware and responsive—even in the face of a chaotic or unpredictable market—is to cultivate foundational skills in marketing strategy. Completing an online certificate program, such as a Marketing Strategy Certificate, can be an essential way to develop these competencies.
What Causes Market Shifts?
One of the first steps toward a more responsive, adaptive marketing strategy is to identify the reasons that the market shifts in the first place. The most common reasons for market fluidity include the following:
- Competition. Any company’s position in the marketplace can change when new competitors emerge, especially if those competitors offer a more sophisticated product, a lower price point, or simply a more compelling marketing presentation.
- Technology. The technological landscape is ever shifting, and that can cause significant market fluctuations. For example, the automotive market may change dramatically with new standard-setting safety features or with advanced ways to curb carbon emissions.
- Trends. Simple trends, whether that be a celebrity endorsement, a TikTok fad, or a shift in culture or politics, can heavily influence marketing for small businesses. The sudden demand for a new type of dietary supplement, for example, may change the marketing strategy for a health and fitness company.
- Feedback. Finally, market shifts can happen as a result of consumer feedback. If a company launches a product and customers zero in on one specific problem or inefficiency, it can scuttle the marketing team’s entire approach. For example, suppose a new app seems difficult to use. In that case, marketers may focus more of their efforts on educating and guiding customers, demonstrating how the app can be navigated in a series of tutorials or how-to videos.
The Importance of a Marketing Strategy
To help weather these shifts, marketers benefit from having an overall marketing strategy. Far from locking them into a prescribed way of doing things, a big-picture strategy provides marketers with the tools they need to pivot. This helps them adapt their messaging to address market shifts without ever losing sight of their overall goals or the underlying value proposition they’re trying to promote.
At its most fundamental, what’s a marketing strategy? Think of a marketing strategy as a company’s overall blueprint for reaching prospective consumers and turning them into customers. A marketing plan usually contains a few key elements, including the following:
- Value proposition. A value proposition articulates how the company’s product or service can address consumer pain points or make the consumer’s life better in ways that the competition can’t.
- Key messages. Key messages are the “talking points” about the brand.
- Data on the target audience. Data on the target audience can shift with time, causing marketers to retool other elements of their strategy.
The bottom line is that a clear marketing strategy provides an important anchor for marketers seeking to thrive even amid changing conditions.
Tips for Responding to Market Shifts
Marketers must always be vigilant about the fluid landscape they occupy. To adapt to changing conditions, they need to follow a few basic guidelines.
Monitor Data
First and foremost, marketers must stay attuned to data and analytics that alert them if and how the market changes. For example, search engine optimization (SEO) data, such as declining traffic numbers, may sound the alarm that the market has changed somehow, and not in the company’s favor. Meanwhile, data obtained from customer surveys or focus groups can provide important insights into how a product’s features or amenities may align with consumer preferences.
Assess the Industry
Another way to monitor market shifts is to keep tabs on the state of the industry, as well as direct competitors. Ways to do so include the following:
- Regularly digest industry publications, such as trade journals and blogs.
- Attend industry conferences or networking events.
- Monitor competitors on social media.
Experiment and Track
As marketers seek to adapt, ample room for experimentation exists. In fact, one of the core elements of any effective marketing strategy is A/B testing. This may mean side-by-side comparisons of different call-to-action language, different expressions of the same basic value proposition, or experimentation with email list segmentation. Of course, it’s crucial to use data and analytics to monitor the results of this experimentation, assessing what works.
Review and Adapt
Finally, it’s important to remember that while a marketing strategy can provide a helpful reference point, it’s not necessarily meant to be static or fixed. Marketers should get into the practice of reviewing their big-picture strategy regularly, adapting it to reflect any notable market shifts.
Hone the Skills for Adaptive, Responsive Marketing
Marketing isn’t something that a company can do once and then forget about. Instead, marketing is an ongoing process, always changing and evolving in response to consumer preference. The most effective marketers are alert to changes in the marketplace and skilled at adapting their tactics accordingly.
To become more skilled in responsive marketing, an online certificate program can help. The online Marketing Strategy Certificate from Suffolk’s Center for Continuing & Professional Education (CCPE) can provide marketers with the tools and insights they need to remain competitive in any market conditions and ultimately to become leaders of responsive, dynamic teams. Seek additional details about the certificate program today, and start cultivating the skills needed for long-term career success.
Recommended Readings
Guide to Marketing Strategy: Examples and Tips
The Buyer’s Journey: How to Create Customer-Centric Sales Funnel
What Are the Benefits of Networking?
Sources:
Factoreal, How Marketers Can Adjust to New Consumer Behaviors
HubSpot, “8 Steps to Create a Complete Marketing Strategy in 2023”
Indeed, “Marketing Strategies: 17 Examples Plus Tips for Writing One”
Investopedia, “Change in Demand: Definition, Causes, Example, and Graph”
Investopedia, “Marketing Strategy: What It Is, How It Works, How to Create One”