For the past few weeks, I have been going through many external marketing blogs. A much followed blog called Jim’s Marketing Blog, caught my attention in many news archives. One of the posts talked about the importance of being crystal clear about your end game when targeting a market and how it goes hand-in-hand with one’s overall strategy in business (Connolly). In other words, if you don’t have a solid idea as to what your function, position, and target is as a business, you have no strategy and will be somewhat depending on luck for success (which, as mentioned in the blog is not an effective strategy). And as learnt in our marketing classes, strategy is the overall direction a business aims to take in the long run, the adjustments it makes to unforeseen external factors that may prove to be a hindrance to that vision, and taking opportunities it takes that the market offers.

A clear sense of direction definitely goes a long way in contributing to basic marketing needs such as target markets, understanding and narrowing down on value proposition, and most importantly speculating the company’s image in the future. An excellent example of this is Steve Jobs (co-founder of Apple), who had a clear idea concerning the direction of his company, Apple. In fact he redefined Apple’s strategic approach from being a computers company to being a successful and innovative consumer electronics company. Apple touched on its targets, its newly defined value proposition (relative to its competitors), had the company make adjustments to unforeseen external factors that may prove to be a hindrance to that vision, and took a lot of opportunities the market had to offer (telecommunications and more recently meeting consumer needs with the iPad).

Connolly, Jim. “Strategy is Key which is Direction.” (2011): n. page. Web. 2 Nov. 2011. <>