Previous steps that must be taken into account when formulating the Marketing for a Brand.

VOL. 0075 – FLORIDA, SATURDAY, MARCH 21, 2026

Juan F. Arjona Harry

President & CEO Strategee   

Formulating the marketing for a brand, channel, product line, product, city or a tourist site, should consider some initial steps that set the absolutely whole route so that this formulation can be successful.

Successful marketing depends on having special care with the design, because it is from the spot where the corporate priorities in marketing are originated, the macro-strategies, strategies, tactics and programming activities, if not consider these critical early stages, would be quite blurred and lost amid a costly ineffectiveness, and it creates a great vulnerability to the company over its competitors.

The previous steps for the proper formulation and successful marketing are:

1.    Designing the marketing, according to the market structure for choosing the critical variables on which display the power that comes with marketing.

This means considering that there are 11 market structures and checking if it is a product or service, if it is for the mass market or for the industrial market, there are four types of markets, which when multiplied by the 11 market structures gives 44 structures whose composition indicates that the weight of each marketing variable differs.

Thus we have companies in sectors where innovation is the driver of growth and marketing variable of utmost importance, whereas in other companies will be the service the key variable of generating a superior marketing.

Each Market Structure dictates a different mix of marketing variables on which to formulate the marketing of the company, in addition to indicating what is the weight of the variable and what should be the investment of marketing resources to that variable.

2.    Designing the marketing according to the product / service to sell.

Here it is vital to check if it is a product or service, as it would be totally different the impact of the variables to a service. For example, if it is a service, there must be a huge weight on Servuction, so that the base of customer satisfaction is secured and expand upon it the concepts of affinity and commitment, which are the basis of loyalty.

3.    Designing the marketing according to the competitive position occupied by the company, this could be:

3.1. Leader.

3.2. Contender destabilizing.

3.3. Follower.

3.4. Niched.

For each competitive position, there is a template of marketing (marketing mix) with different approaches of each of the variables.

4.    Designing the marketing according to the consumer buying cycle.

Here it is important to consider that the consumer of any type of goods or services, have a buying cycle marked by the following patterns:

4.1. Use or consumption rate.

4.2. Income renewal cycle.

4.3. Personal disposable income.

4.4. Replacement rate.

4.5.       Purchasing and consumption habits (U. & H.).

5.    Designing the marketing according to the process of purchase decision that follows the consumer / customer.

You should consider the type of rule that applies to consumer purchases, these include:

5.1. Compensatory decision rules.

5.2. Impulse purchases.

5.3. Non-compensatory decision rules (in turn, these may be):

5.3.1. Lexical: the consumer (by segment) will choose the best brand to score better in the most important attribute.

5.3.2. Disjunctive: consumers (by segment) establish an order of the brands evaluated, considering the important attributes and ranking in order from first to last in those attributes defined.

5.3.3. Conjunctive: the consumer (by segment) considers only brands that comply with minimum attributes considered important and considers only the first-scoring brands in them.

6.    Designing the marketing according to the level of development and proximity to the technology the attended market has.

That is, if the market segments to address are related or not to technology, are close or not to it for reasons of ability and / or willingness to buy; in the case of electronic commerce do they trust or not, have access to it or not, does the category may or may not be offered, tested, sold or consumed by Internet, among other critical aspects of technology.

7.    Designing the marketing according to the intensity level of deployment of marketing it is lived in the category.

That is, for purposes of generating a level of intensity that allows highlighting the brand in the competitive environment, the company must measure the intensity of the fighting spirit and intensity of competitive marketing effort deployed in the category, so that can tune into the market on par with what competitors do.

8.    Designing the marketing based on the deepening of the points of parity.

This means, implement smart marketing, responsible of competitive differentiation by the implementation of the points of parity, which should be measured with customers and consumers to identify and quantity the level of impact of each of them and to design differentiated and deepen implementation.

Formulate marketing without first conducting an analysis and diagnosis of these eight steps, is to formulate inappropriate marketing that it is more likely to lead to loss of money by blurred and imprecise marketing investments.