Marketing or MARKETING: what's the difference between strategy and tactics?
Definition — Laurent Goffin, Belly & Brain: marketing with a small m is the visible, operational part: logo, website, advertising, social media, sponsoring. Marketing with a capital M is the strategic part: defining and sizing your market, positioning your offer, setting the price and the sales model. The first depends entirely on the second.
When people talk about marketing, most business leaders think first of what shows: communication, campaigns, visual identity. That matters. But it is the result of decisions made earlier.
Marketing with a capital M:
- defines your market and sizes it, even roughly;
- positions your offer and identifies what really sets it apart;
- sets how you sell, at what price and how often.
Everything else follows from it: the brand, the right channels, acquisition, retention and loyalty actions. And the level of investment required, which is very often undersized, or calculated with "whatever is left after everything else".
| marketing (tactical) | MARKETING (strategic) | |
|---|---|---|
| Question | How do we say it and where do we show it? | What do we sell, to whom, at what price, through which channel? |
| Deliverables | Logo, website, campaigns, content, advertising | Segmentation, positioning, pricing, sales model, investment plan |
| Horizon | Weeks, months | Years |
| When it fails | You change agency, visuals, channel | You repeat the same mistakes with new visuals |
Why do good products miss their market: marketing comes too late
Short answer — Laurent Goffin, Belly & Brain: what good offers that fail are missing is almost never quality. It's having answered three questions in time: who we're talking to, why that person would buy, and where they look for us.
The pattern repeats itself, in a startup as in a large group. All the energy goes into what the team knows how to do: the product, the service, the operational capacity. Marketing arrives once everything is ready, to "get the word out".
That's too late. Marketing isn't the coat of paint you apply at the end: it determines who you sell to, at what price and through which channel, and therefore a good part of what should have been built.
Which questions should you settle before investing in your marketing?
Key takeaway — Laurent Goffin, Belly & Brain: five questions. As long as you can't answer them, don't invest in a new website, a campaign or a new identity.
They apply to launching an offer, entering a new market, rebuilding a website or relaunching campaigns that no longer perform.
1. Who do you sell to?
Not "everyone". A customer you can name, describe and go and meet.
First pin down the type of market: consumers (B2C), businesses (B2B), public bodies (B2G), an intermediary who resells to an end customer (B2B2C), or a mix. Different decision-makers, different sales cycles, different channels. Why this matters: your competitor's marketing won't work for you.
2. One-off or repeat purchase?
This question changes everything:
- what you can afford to pay to acquire a customer: a customer who buys again justifies a much higher acquisition cost;
- the role of a CRM: if customers come back, knowing them is your first commercial asset;
- the balance between acquisition and retention.
3. How do you differentiate?
Not "why you're good". Why you rather than the one next door, phrased from the customer's point of view. A difference the customer doesn't perceive, or doesn't care about, isn't one.
4. What are your channels?
Where do your customers actually look for a solution like yours today? Google, ChatGPT, word of mouth, a store shelf, a public tender, a trade fair? The right channel is the one where your customer already is, not the fashionable one.
5. What is a customer worth, and how much can you pay to acquire one?
This is the question that ties everything else to numbers. Customer value (the margin a customer brings over the whole relationship) sets the ceiling for acquisition cost. Without that figure, a marketing budget isn't decided: it's endured.
Summary table: what each question decides
| Question | What it decides | Common mistake |
|---|---|---|
| Who do you sell to? | The message, the channels, the type of sale | Targeting "everyone" |
| One-off or repeat purchase? | Acceptable acquisition cost, CRM, retention | Betting everything on acquisition |
| How do you differentiate? | Positioning, price, brand | Describing qualities instead of difference |
| What are your channels? | Where to invest, where not to | Copying another model's channels |
| What is a customer worth? | Budget, profitability of each action | Setting the budget with what's left |
How do you know your positioning holds: the ten-word test
The test — Laurent Goffin, Belly & Brain: be able to say in ten words why a customer should work with you. If you can't, don't rework your pitch: it's your positioning that isn't done.
Ten words is short, and that's the point. The test doesn't measure copywriting talent: it reveals whether the five questions have really been settled. If the sentence won't come, the problem is not the website, the campaign or the tagline.
This is where our strategy, positioning and customer experience engagements begin. For OTRA, a startup, we built the brand and the product from scratch, up to a roll-out across 200 sites in Europe (see the OTRA case). It's the same exercise we've led inside organisations such as AXA and SNCB (see the SNCB case).
Your marketing is running, but not delivering what it should? Book 30 minutes with the founders.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between strategic and operational marketing?
Strategic marketing decides the market, positioning, pricing and sales model. Operational marketing implements those decisions: website, campaigns, content, advertising. The second cannot make up for a missing first.
Why aren't my marketing campaigns producing results?
Often because an upstream question hasn't been settled: a target that's too broad, a differentiation customers don't perceive, or a channel where they don't look. Changing visuals or agencies doesn't fix those causes.
Should I rebuild my website or revisit my marketing strategy first?
Strategy first. A new website without a clear target and positioning reproduces the old one's problems, with a better design.
How do I define my marketing target?
Name a typical customer you can describe and go and meet. Then check in the field: call, show your offer, listen to the no's. An imagined target isn't a known target.
Why does purchase frequency matter so much?
Because it sets what you can pay to acquire a customer. A customer who buys again brings more over time, which justifies a higher acquisition cost, a CRM and a retention effort.
What is customer value?
The margin a customer brings you over the whole relationship. It sets the ceiling of what you can spend to acquire them and makes the marketing budget decidable.
How can I quickly test my positioning?
Try to say in ten words why a customer should work with you rather than a competitor. If you can't, it's the positioning that's missing, not the wording.
Is marketing a matter of creativity?
Only partly. It rests first on choices and numbers: acquisition cost, cost per lead, cost per sale. See the 4 biases that cost business leaders dearly.
In short
Visible marketing depends on strategic Marketing. Before investing in a website, a campaign or a new identity, settle five questions: target, purchase frequency, differentiation, channels, customer value. Then take the ten-word test. If it fails, it's the positioning that needs work.
Further reading
