There are lots of elements involved in developing a marketing strategy. Different research is used in order to develop marketing plans.

“First, we identify what our brand positioning is, and what are the marketing and communication objectives of the campaign we are going to do,” says Un Chakrey, the Communications and Marketing Manager at Population Services International. “To achieve those set objectives, we come up with different media which can be used to help us achieve those objectives. After identifying what media is to be used in a specific campaign, we use our media research to select, for instance, magazines or TV channels that our target group usually like reading or watching,”

If we look at recent trends, we will see many different strategies and creative ideas emerging in advertisements. This action is necessary for a company to put their product in the market, since it is the most important means of attracting customers.

LIFT also studied this strategy by asking around 15 youths about how they choose a product. All of them say they would buy a product that had been advertised, although some of them denied being influenced by advertising.

Miss Phou Sothearoth, the 18 year-old owner of the Disney Shopping company, which sells souvenirs through Facebook, said that she chose to open an online store because there is no need to spend the amount of money required by other forms of media; moreover, it did not require her to stand by and wait for customers all of the time.    

“Due to the popularity of Facebook among youth, posting pictures of my product on Facebook is not only easy but also reaches a large number of people in no time at all,” she said.

Open Mind marketing manager Ouk Someoun says that there are several important elements to consider before launching a marketing strategy. Ouk Someoun says that businesses must observe the trends of marketplaces, and acknowledgement the interests of customers before making a plan, formulating a strategy and fighting for space in the market.

“From step to step of our strategy, we get info about customer products and good places for selling our products, so that’s what makes us create a team of marketers to advertise and sell products at schools, libraries, book stores, toy shops, supermarkets, restaurants and cafés. We also create a sales agent to sell the products directly to the people at markets, public parks, towns and sometimes even customers’ homes.”

Customers are free to choose a product that suits them, since there is a free market in Cambodia. Therefore, suppliers need to be good at promoting their products. Advertising media is one of the means, and it often pays handsome dividends to businesses. Moreover, with the latest trends in advertising, product owners are now able to spends less but invest more through new media.