Strategic vs. Tactical Marketing and the Uncertain Line Between the Two

Years ago, when you aced your first college marketing class, the difference between strategic marketing and tactical marketing seemed crystal clear. Strategic efforts were the long-term vision in communicating the content of your campaign or brand message, the story you tell and who you are targeting. Tactical marketing, in contrast, included all the approaches you employ in delivering your strategy.

In recent years, however, the lines between strategic and tactical approaches have blurred. With tactics becoming ever more creative, they can so outshine fundamental strategies that organizations may be drawn to the latest real time, interactive, bright and shiny techniques for engaging with the marketplace. Distracted by the glittery appeal of some tactics, even seasoned marketing professionals can be tempted to overlook whether a tactic is in fact, the best approach for achieving the measurable strategic results the company seeks.

Making matters more complex are those all-to-frequent moments when a well-intentioned decision maker, captivated by a marketing tactic, adds it to the whiteboard as the next “marketing must do.” Meetings that start with proclamations, such as, “I saw this on Pepsi’s Facebook page,” or “Nike gave these out at the trade show,” followed by “I want to do that for our brand,” can result in great tactics that inadvertently sabotage even the best laid strategies.

Timeshares: Where Marketing Has Its Own Special Set of Challenges

Spend a little time around professionals in the timeshare industry, and a consensus of opinion becomes apparent: marketing vacation ownership comes with difficulties not found in the promotion of other products. With this inherent obstacle in mind, we’ve looked at two vacation ownership brands and how their marketing teams are managing the added conundrum of strategic vs. tactical.

RiverWalk at Loon Mountain

Although newly opened RiverWalk, a fractional ownership resort in Lincoln, New Hampshire, was founded and developed by industry veterans Billy Curran and Dennis Ducharme, respectively the CEO and President of InnSeason Resorts, the standalone RiverWalk condo-hotel is wholly independent of the InnSeason brand. As a deeded ownership project that currently includes one resort, RiverWalk has entrusted its marketing to the team at TotalScope Marketing, the destination and tourism division of LaClair, Guilbeault & Associates, LLC.

Long-term strategic marketing plans for RiverWalk at Loon Mountain are sophisticated, nuanced and designed to emphasize the resort’s quality accommodations, remarkable standards of service and position as a lifestyle brand. Despite the fact the product is a 5-star luxury resort with exceptional amenities and is located in a high-demand destination, the first task for LaClair and his team was to put heads into beds while concurrently creating brand awareness.

Mark, whose background in the hospitality industry includes both hotel operations and marketing with Marriott and InnSeason Resorts Pollard Brook, among others, said, “Our initial objectives have been to get the product branded and get it open. Building a hospitality brand takes time, money and customers. For most projects, investment capital is at its lowest just after the construction and development phase. Time and money are limited, but you face an immediate need to create a client base where none previously existed.

“You could consider our Phase I marketing outreach to be a reverse engineering approach. Our strategy involves pursuing qualified buyers of our luxury brand with its 5-star services. Our first tactic was to go to the online travel agencies (OTAs) and let them fill the natural demand for rental inventory.

“Although margins are low when you deal with OTAs, you are getting a steady influx of vacationers within your target demographic. You are using customer experience to tell your story.

“OTAs provide a short-term tactic to support your long-term strategy. As the tide begins to shift, other marketing tactics, including your public relations and seasonal marketing campaigns, can replace the need for OTAs, until you can phase them out and you are no longer giving up dollars and competing with them on price. At this point, you’ve greatly enhanced your value proposition.”

Grand Pacific Resorts

Carlsbad, California based, Grand Pacific Resorts is a full-service resort management and development company. Founded in 1989, today Grand Pacific Resorts creates memorable vacations for over 70,000 families each year. The company’s marketing requirements are those of a brand that is both established and growing.

To meet those complex marketing needs, Grand Pacific Resorts relies primarily on its in-house digital and creative marketing resource, a strong team of thirteen professionals. On occasion, the company outsources a large-scale or innovative technology project to a qualified vendor.

Vice President of Marketing, Lisa Wanzenried, is responsible for developing and executing the Grand Pacific Resorts marketing plan, which is built on the strategic initiatives of the company as a whole.

Describing this collaborative marketing dynamic, Lisa explained, “Our executive leadership team provides input on a quarterly and annual basis. This gives me the ability to see how specific marketing initiatives are impacting resort operations and how marketing can support what is happening at the line level.

“Our organization has defined five-year milestone goals. With the help of my leadership team, we create annual strategic plans to support the long term objectives, taking into consideration past performance. We use a SWOT approach in which we look at the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats from the past year and use those insights to develop a strategy moving forward.”

In reflecting on some of the tactical marketing initiatives that support the strategic marketing objectives at Grand Pacific Resorts, Director of Marketing, Renee Wagner, observed, “One of the many reasons our resort management services are so valued is that our robust marketing and communications department produces content that maximizes owner engagement and rental revenue back to the HOA.

Describing its tactical and strategic efforts as “intertwined,” the team at Grand Pacific Resorts recognizes that not all tactics yield immediate results. Certain tactics, they have found, may not generate conversions right away, but the activity creates an opportunity for engagement and nurturing, which can lead to greater brand awareness and future conversions.

Not Distracted by Shiny Objects

Technology-driven, engagement-based marketing tactics will continue to emerge, with new tactics usurping the ones that captured market attention yesterday. Companies that view new marketing concepts as tools for attracting and measuring the interest of clients and potential clients will be able to benefit from them. However, no matter what you are attempting to build, you have to choose the right tool for the job and be prepared to replace it when it is no longer the best choice.

As Lisa pointed out, “The pace of technology means that it’s more important than ever to be proactive and react immediately to shifts in the market or consumer sentiment. Even though we plan our strategy a year in advance, we have to be responsive when it comes to managing it on a day-to-day basis.”