Theoretical underpinnings of research in strategic marketing: A commentary

In brief

• Basic definitions, features and types of market Research Strategies.
• Applications, challenges of market research strategies
• Research-based theories and future scope for marketing

The purpose of this blog is to give readers an understanding about the importance and characteristics of strategic Management. We will also look into the core theories from research studies and other theoretical underpinnings for the same. Business sectors either follow professional strategies or products/services oriented-tactics to marketer move their corporation to a global phase. From content marketing to email marketing there so many options to choose between a tactic and a strategy.

Source: Evans, (2017)

Irrespective of what method is useful, anyhow marketing is the building block for expanding and even to say, sustain a business in the industry. However, there is a huge difference between a strategy and a tactic(Oxford, 2020). How well do you know the difference? Check out the following:

Business Tactics: The art of handling things on-the-go. Tactics are useful to run business in the flow. Generally speaking, a tactic will not lend a hand to offer big and extensive decision-making suggestions but help in getting into action from a plan decided before.

Business Strategies: An exact opposite of a tactic, business strategies are sketches for creating, managing, handling and projecting a plan of action. A strategy helps in directing a professional team and gets the top-most role in the command chain of business. From planning to assign the work (s) to someone or many is what business strategies are all about.

If you are a business professional (Brenner, 2019)or a person looking for the right marketing strategy, then make use of the following trending type of marketing plans. However, you still require doing some research work alongside your market study analysis and assessment:

• Search engine marketing: Popular yet carefully to-be-chosen strategy, search engine marketing is also known to be Google’s pay-per-click method (PPC). Search engine result pages (SERP) will pop your brand or company’s name in the apt position.
• Retargeting: As the name says, the idea of retargeting market strategy is to focus on bringing new customers for generating leads and also, to get back towards the customers and clients you lost before.
• Content marketing: Including blog posts, formal articles, personal write-ups, study analysis, etc. for a particular website or company profile, as to achieve brand awareness. Good content also converts a user into a customer effectively without many efforts. The reason is that the user seeks your information as valid, reliable and authenticated.
• Influencer marketing(Influencer marketing, 2020): One of the most trending marketing strategies, you prefer to hire or use a prominent personality such as an international celebrity, people’s choice of a person, or even a famous individual on the Social Networking platforms, to help you in branding products or services for your industry’s growth of revenue. Influencer marketing is not only about spending money on celebrities and also, does not provide quick results as many thinks. Everybody is a winner in this method of approach.

There are other types of marketing strategies such as email marketing, social media marketing, search engine optimization, etc. As a bonus, it is a suggestion to go with 3 or more effective marketing strategies instead of sticking to one!

A gist about the role of theoretical frameworks in strategic marketing

Now, getting into the big picture of Research and Marketing Analysis, there are many theories developed in the stance of giving insights about business strategies. But as a down point, there is a dearth in indigenous marketing theories and due to a few criticisms; the focus is more into the concepts from other inter-related domains.

You need to understand this Theoretical Framework since if you are a researcher or a subject-matter expert, then sticking to one appropriate theory is important. This will also help you during a research proposal writing/help/service for you as well as others.

According to the data of Morgan et. Al (2019)(Varadarajan, 2019), there is a noticeable shift from theoretical development to a data-driven approach and many other grounded processes. The research in this period also reports that 69% of the theories were not in use, besides a single study. As a fact, there are 9 theories useful for marketing strategies through research that also supports the statement said in the starting of this paragraph:

1. Configuration theory
2. Performance feedback theory
3. Organizational learning theory
4. Structure-conduct-performance theory
5. Resource-based view
6. Organizational theory
7. Agency theory
8. Institutional theory
9. Contingency theory

The central theme of issues or subjects relates to the concepts of learning, understanding, elucidation and prediction of the behaviors in both the sellers (marketers and organizations) and buyers (customers and consumers). This statement is also validated by the construal of cons, as per the study conclusions of Hunt (1983) and Montogomery (1999) that reputes marketing as educational expertise.

Source: Research World, (2014)

Last but not the least

We will get an idea about how the concepts and marketing strategies we discussed will be useful for real-world applications.

The future scopes for research in marketing strategy

Pointers below are presented in the form of tips or more like a prediction for a positive marketing scope, as per your industry-specific research analysis norms:

• You can create an impact research culture for marketing by avoiding repetition of research works. Get unique and present independent sketches for a new and successful strategy.
• For a fruitful way to employ Research Methods into marketing, prefer using links only recent works. Else, don’t go for old ones above 30 years, only in rare cases.
• Try to develop new models and theoretical framework, by reviewing pieces of Literature and the marketing works of others.
• Take time, analyze and develop the existing tools and resources for a better future with enough technologies to handle unusual marketing dips and shocks.

Enough scholars and great research publications can give a future with productive and fresh market plans for any expertise!

References

1. Brenner, M. (2019). What Is Marketing? [Online]. 2019. Available from: https://marketinginsidergroup.com/strategy/what-is-marketing/. [Accessed: 4 July 2020].
2. Evans, M. (2017). Drive Your Growth Using a 7-Step Marketing Strategy Framework. [Online]. 2017. Available from: https://medium.com/@markevans/drive-your-growth-using-a-7-step-marketing-strategy-framework-c0cb04b2ac2b. [Accessed: 4 July 2020].
3. Influencer marketing (2020). What is Influencer Marketing: An in Depth Look at Marketing’s Next Big Thing. [Online]. 2020. Available from: https://influencermarketinghub.com/what-is-influencer-marketing/. [Accessed: 4 July 2020].
4. Oxford (2020). Strategic Marketing, Tactical Marketing: Definitions And Differences. [Online]. 2020. Oxford2. Available from: https://blog.oxfordcollegeofmarketing.com/2018/11/21/strategic-marketing-tactical-marketing-definitions-differences/. [Accessed: 4 July 2020].
5. Research World (2014). The Evolution of Market Research. [Online]. 2014. Research World. Available from: https://www.researchworld.com/change-in-the-marketing-research-discipline-evolution-paradigm-shift-and-the-emergence-of-human-intelligence/. [Accessed: 4 July 2020].
6. Varadarajan, R. (2019). Theoretical underpinnings of research in strategic marketing: a commentary. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science. [Online]. 47 (1). pp. 30–36. Available from: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11747-018-0612-7.