Clearly, in marketing, objectives and goals are crucial, and they must be backed with key performance indicators. But are they the result of long-term planning or strategy—or do they dictate such strategy?
The answer is both, but in different ways. Let me explain: in no way, shape or form should you, as a marketer, ever define an objective without being driven by an overarching strategy. Depending on how broad your objective is, it may actually envelop strategy. For example: objective is to promote next season’s leather handbags. Some may argue that this is in and of itself a strategy……but if forced to separate the two, the strategy would pertain more toward the rationale behind why you’re releasing new products in the first place—what does your company stand to gain from this? As Ann Latham writes for Forbes,* “A strategy is a framework for making decisions about how you will play the game of business.”
The objective is a bit more granular, albeit still broad, and then the goals drill down that objective even further. Hence we stumble upon…..more focused strategy defining specific actions. (Another argument marketers may make is whether strategy should be defined as a philosophy or a behavior. Personally, I think it encompasses both at the right moments.)
So you see, it’s not an “either-or” scenario, but a question of which “meaning” of strategy is applied at which moment—the guidelines for actions or the actions themselves.
*https://www.forbes.com/sites/annlatham/2017/10/29/what-the-heck-is-a-strategy-anyway/#dad1cd17ed84
”What The Heck Is A Strategy Anyway?” | Published October 29, 2017