I saw this cartoon and it reminded me of many meetings I was in while working in various marketing roles.  As marketers we often have an abundance of information to consider and goals to achieve.  Figuring out where to start and how to create a cohesive strategy is a challenge many businesses, large and small, struggle with.  In Essentials of Marketing we provide a framework and process for creating a marketing strategy.  It all starts with bringing in information from your customers, company, competitors, and external market environment (context).  From there the process organizes and filters that information, applies segmentation and positioning approaches, and at that point creating your marketing mix becomes much more straightforward.  A diagram of the process is shown below and more information can be found in our book.  Chapter 2 provides an overview of the process and then each subsequent chapter dives into detail on one of the components.