Marketing Strategy and Competitive Positioning pdf ebook

Figure 18.6
Premium-quality 
positioning
Customers
Demanding and discerning
Less price-sensitive
Resource requirements
Market sensing capability
Quality control and assurance systems
Company/brand image and reputation
Strategic focus
Quality control
Image management

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COMPETITIVE POSITIONING STRATEGIES
(see Figure 18.7). Hamel and Prahalad (1991) suggest that firms should encourage ‘fast failure’ –
that is, encourage the test launch of new products, in the recognition that many may fail 
but that some will succeed. Fast failure, they argue, is preferable to smothering new ideas 
at birth or delaying their launch through over-elaborate screening systems.
Similarly, the successes of Samsung Electronics in the 2000s, and more recently Huawei, 
are based on organisational cultures that have research and development and innovation 
at their cores. In both examples, market leadership was (and has been) pursued through 
innovation, technology and design. The key competencies required include excellent new 
product development skills, together with technical and creative abilities. These are com-
binations of inside-out and spanning competencies. Once new product ideas are developed, 
it is important to test them out on customers to avoid the launch of highly innovative but 
essentially unwanted products. There are many high-profile examples of products that 
have failed throughout history: the Ford Edsel (1950s), Sony Betamax (1970s), ‘New’ Coke 
(1980s), Microsoft Bob (1990s), Google Glass (although still in development, the original 
Google Glass launch has been viewed as a failure by many) and Burger King ‘Satisfries’ 
(2000s), along with many, many others!
An academic study of first-to-market firms concluded that for many firms a more suc-
cessful strategy is to be a fast follower. Under this approach, firms learn from the mis-
takes of the pioneers and capitalise on the growth phase of the market without incurring 
the costs of establishing the market (Tellis and Golder, 1996). Moore (1991, 2014), in his 
study of innovation in high-technology markets, concludes that the critical aspect of new 
product success is bridging the ‘chasm’ between innovators (those who will be attracted to 
an innovation because of its innovative nature) and the early majority who represent the 
beginnings of the mass market. It is this chasm that, in Moore’s opinion, accounts for the 
failure of many new products.
James Dyson is an inventor who has successfully positioned his firm as the provider of 
innovative solutions to everyday problems. In January 1997, he won the European Design 
Award for his innovative vacuum cleaner. Dyson started inventing at the age of 28 when 
he recognised a design fault in conventional wheelbarrows. When full, the barrow, with 
a single, thin wheel at the front, was prone to tipping over. He replaced the wheel with a 
large red ball, which solved the problem. When he set up in business the ‘ball barrow’ was 
an immediate success, selling over 60,000 per year. Following that success, he designed a 
new garden roller that was light and manoeuvrable when not in use, but heavy enough to 
roll lawns flat. His innovation was to use a hollow plastic roller that could be filled with 
water when in use but drained when not in use. Bagless vacuum cleaners followed, and 
Dyson has since launched hand dryers, hair dryers and an award-winning range of room 
fans and heaters that have won numerous design and innovation awards. The success of 
the £3.5 billion-plus turnover company has been based on innovation, being first to market 
with revolutionary designs of everyday products and offering superior value to customers.