Marketing Strategy Implementation: Why is it So Hard?

The successful implementation of planned marketing strategy is widely held to be an important driver of firm performance. For managers, however, implementing marketing strategy is a time- consuming, problem-ridden process, with frequent failures. Yet, despite past research attention we still have little understanding of why this continues to be the case. This study synthesizes insights from fieldwork interviews, the marketing and strategic management literature, and focus groups with managers to enhance understanding of why implementing marketing strategy is so hard. In delineating important components of marketing strategy implementation, mapping the strategy implementation process, and identifying new causes of common problems inherent in the resulting understanding of the marketing strategy implementation phenomenon, our study offers an explanation for frequently observed gaps between “intended” and “realized” marketing strategy. Strategy implementation is revealed as a complex phenomenon that involves inherent trade-offs between different aspects and stages of implementation, making “silver bullet” solutions to commonly observed marketing strategy implementation problems unlikely. This offers a rich foundation for a new generation of marketing strategy implementation research. We also offer some guidance—with associated downside trade-offs highlighted—for managers to consider in efforts to enhance marketing strategy implementation effectiveness.