Marketing Strategy and Competitive Positioning pdf ebook

Competitors’ marketing organisation
Consideration of a competitor’s marketing organisation is important because of the way 
that it can dictate strategy. For a long time, Procter & Gamble’s brand management struc-
ture was considered a marketing ideal. This was probably the case when the US market was 
dominant and lessons learned there were relatively easily transferred downstream, to less 
developed parts of the world. However, with the United States’ relative economic decline 
compared with the rest of the world, Unilever’s more flexible structure allowed it to transfer 
ideas across boundaries more easily and be more flexible to emerging local needs. Indeed, 
Procter & Gamble itself has now moved away from its ‘ideal’ product management structure.
Understanding the organisational structure of competitors can provide clues as to how 
quickly, and in what manner, competitors are likely to respond to environmental change or 
competitive actions. Competitors where responsibility for products is clearly identified are 
often able to respond more quickly than those where responsibility is vague or confused. 
Firms organised around markets, rather than products, are most likely to spot market 
changes early and be in a position to lead change rather than simply react to it.
The relative position of marketing within the organisational structure can also provide 
clues to future strategy. In many companies, marketing is considered to be a part of sales 
(often sales support), and responsible for advertising, lead generation and other promo-
tional activities. In these cases, marketing is not generally considered to be part of the strate-
gic decision-making process. In other firms, marketing may be seen as a guiding philosophy 
that will ensure a far more market-responsive set of actions, based on a deep knowledge of 
customer tastes, preferences and behaviours. Clues to the position of marketing may lie in 
the background of the CEO, the visibility within the firm of senior marketing executives 
and possibly their previous career tracks.
A useful tool that can be applied to analyse the activities of competitors is the value 
chain.