Strategic STP Marketing Process – Important, Benefits, & Examples

Strategic STP Marketing Process

Currently, the strategic STP marketing process (abbreviations in English for Segmentation Targeting and Positioning) is a widely used strategic proposal. This popularity could be explained because the focus on marketing changes, it is oriented toward customers rather than products. This vision is relatively recent; traditionally, the strategy was based on products, and the main one was product differentiation. STP Marketing fits the products to the market, not the call to the products.

What is STP Strategy?

The STP model is useful when creating marketing communications plans. It allows marketers to prioritize proposals, and develop and deliver personalized messages that will enable them to interact with different audiences.

Specifically, what is STP marketing? STP marketing, also called strategic marketing, involves finding the right segment to market your product to (Segmentation). Next, identifying the right target market (Targeting) and positioning the product to receive the maximum benefit (Positioning). An essential aspect of STP marketing is determining what benefits your product offers and who will benefit from using it.

Target Market Segmentation

To start the application of the STP, we must first identify the market segment that interests us. Then, to find that segment, we will use the Marketing Mix, offering you a unique product primarily aimed at them. So, the question arises: What are the ways to segment a market?

There are many ways to segment the market. Markets can be divided into segments of customers with similar wants, needs, and buying habits. The most common way is to divide the market into consumer characteristics.

Why is STP Marketing Important?

When done correctly, STP marketing creates a competitive advantage. You are designing a marketing plan specifically for your customers; for this reason, they will be more likely to buy your products. Brilliant Insights offers good examples of segmentation, targeting and positioning through the application of STP marketing.

The STP process allows you to identify the correct segment to market your product and design the appropriate marketing mix to maximize profits.

Segmentation, Targeting, Positioning STP Marketing

Market segmentation is in-between a market into small groups with similar product needs or recognizable characteristics to choose suitable target markets.

Targeting, or target market selection, involves a company’s proactive determination of an appropriate market segment(s) to massively direct the company’s marketing offerings and activities toward this group of related customers. Positioning, sometimes called product positioning, is the target market’s perception of the company’s main advantages and functionalities compared to competing product offerings.

The Role of the Strategic STP Marketing Model

The STP process represents an essential concept in the study and application of marketing. The letters STP are for segmentation, targeting and positioning. The STP is a fundamental concept for marketing success because companies would have reasonably similar approaches to marketing without it and would therefore have difficulty competing effectively.

The steps in STP are generally thought of as a process, first with segmentation, then with the identification of one or more target markets, and finally with the implementation of positioning.

Advantages and Disadvantages of the STP Marketing Model

Benefits of the STP Marketing Model

The STP marketing model allows you to increase sales by determining a specific target market and positioning products in these segments. With this helpful model, you can also spot gaps in the market.

In addition, you can also avoid spending money by advertising in the mass market. With the STP marketing model, small business and startups can work things out in niche markets as competition with the more prominent players in the entire market is challenging.

Disadvantages of the STP Marketing Model

If you are forced to manufacture multiple versions of your product or service, your costs will increase. In addition, you will be requirement to develop different marketing and collateral campaigns for each segment you choose to target. This again drives up your prices. To reach different customer segments, other distribution channels are required.

Benefits of Strategic STP Marketing Process

Know where we are: Strategic marketing lets us obtain an overview of the market, the competition and our potential customers. If we start from there, our actions will have a much better chance of success than if we shoot blindly.

Know the consumer better: Consumers are always at the centre of today’s marketing. We have more demanding and informed users, so it will be necessary to fully understand their needs and preferences and consider them in each step of our marketing.

Set clear goals: Strategic marketing provides solid research on the situation. From there, it will be much calmer to see what we want and how we can quantify it into a series of achievable goals.

Distinguish our brand from the competition: If we do not conduct a good analysis of the situation, we risk ending up selling products that are very similar to the competition and that do not represent an advantage for consumers. Thanks to previous analyses, we can know precisely what the market gaps are to hit the target.

Identify opportunities: If we are aware of the characteristics and trends of the market, we can quickly detect opportunities that allow us to grow and reach new markets.

Guide operational actions: Strategic marketing is like the compass that guides our campaigns. Without it, we will likely lose and not know which way to go. On the other hand, if we have correctly defined the strategy, we will always have a guide to make better decisions.

Have a crisis plan: Last but not least, the development of a good marketing plan allows you to prepare for all kinds of contingencies and act effectively in the face of them.

Examples of Strategic STP Marketing Process

Within strategic marketing, we can find many strategies. Some of them are suitable for different phases. It is the life of a product or company, while others can be complementary. These examples will help guide you:

Product Portfolio Strategy: Here, we seek to define and launch. In the most suitable products, considering each market’s potential profitability and characteristics. In addition to creating new products from scratch, it is possible to enhance existing ones through quality variations, new models or features, etc.

Positioning strategy: Each product occupies a particular place or category in the consumer’s mind. for example, “the whitest laundry detergent” or “the cheapest bike to get around town”. In this section of our strategic marketing. If we will look for the positioning best suits us and how to achieve it.

Functional or 4P strategy seeks to define and land the famous ” 4P of marketing.  And also, A product, price, promotion and distribution. They must translate into concrete actions and be consistent with each other.

Growth Strategy: Aimed at finding ways to expand the company that make sense and are sustainable for the future. And also, whether it includes new products in the portfolio, opening up to other target audiences and markets. An internationalizing the brand or any other option. Within these pathways. And also, It can distinguish, for example, penetration strategies (increasing the company’s participation in the markets it is targeting) and market development.

Conclusion

We call ” strategic marketing “, the aspect of marketing focused on the medium and long term. Which uses different market analysis techniques to detect opportunities. It allows the company to grow and stand out in front of its consumers. I always keep in mind the user’s needs, instead of manufacturing products and services. And also, then thinking about how to sell them to users, strategic marketing.

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