Marketing Strategy and Competitive Positioning pdf ebook

Pockets of strength
Selective but close relationships between a company and its distribution outlets can lead to 
pockets of strength. Where a company is unable, through size or resource constraints, to 
serve a wide market, concentrating effort, either geographically on specific regions of the 
market (William Morrison’s supermarkets were particularly strong in Yorkshire but spread 
nationally through acquisition of the Safeway chain of stores) or through specific outlets, 
can enable a pocket of strength to be developed.
Companies adopting the latter approach of building up a strong presence with selective dis-
tributors, or even end users in many industrial markets, often achieve that pocket of strength 
through key account marketing – that is, giving full responsibility for each key account devel-
opment to a specific, normally quite senior, executive. Pockets of strength typically are built 
up on the basis of strong relationships with those selected distributors and hence require a 
proactive relationship marketing strategy to ensure their development (see Chapter 15).
Distribution uniqueness
Further distribution-based assets can be built through uniqueness, reaching the target mar-
ket in a novel or innovative way. For instance, Ringtons sells tea, coffee and other related 
household items, door to door, in the north of England (http://www.ringtons.co.uk), and 
the Avon Cosmetics company has built a strong door-to-door business in cosmetics sales 
(https://www.avon.uk.com).
Similarly, Dell computers has achieved a uniquely strong position in the personal com-
puter market by using a direct distribution approach, which enables most of the computers 
sold to be built to the specifications of the customer, while at the same time giving Dell a 
much faster stock-turn than most competitors.
Delivery lead-time and security of supply
Delivery lead-time is a function of at least three main factors – physical location, order 
through production systems and company delivery policy. In an increasing number of situa-
tions, the ability to respond quickly at no compromise to quality is becoming more important. 
Deliberately creating a rapid-response capability can constitute a significant marketing asset.
Similarly, where the supplier’s offering is on the critical path of the customer company, 
the ability to guarantee supply can be a major asset, particularly in volatile markets. As 
with lead-time, that ability will be a function of several factors, but perhaps central is the 
desire on the part of the supplier to meet agreed targets.
The competitive success of fashion clothing retailers such as Primark, Zara and Hennes 
& Mauritz (H&M) is in large part based on supply chain strengths. These companies iden-
tify fashion catwalk trends and have them in stores in as little as two weeks, sourced from 
low-cost suppliers, at attractive high-street prices. While they have different competitive 
positions, they all have efficient supply chains and the ability to manage a high velocity of 
stock movement, rather than focusing purely on stock levels. They are operationally incred-
ibly fast, and their customers expect no less.