Marketing Strategy and Competitive Positioning pdf ebook

Production expertise
Production know-how can be used to good effect as a marketing asset. Mars, for exam-
ple, is particularly good at producing high-quality nougat, and a great deal of effort has 
been put into quality control at Mars and developing production processes as a core 
competence. These efforts have been turned into a marketing asset in a number of leading 
products such as Mars Bar, Milky Way, Topic and Snickers, all of which are nougat-based.
Copyrights and patents
Copyright is a legal protection for musical, literary or other artistic property, which prevents 
others using the work without payment of an agreed royalty. Patents grant persons the exclu-
sive right to make, use and sell their inventions for a limited period. Copyright is particularly 
important in the film industry to protect films from illegal copy (‘pirating’), and patents are 
important for exploiting new product inventions. The protection of copyrights and patents, 
in addition to offering the holder the opportunity to make and market the items protected, 
allows the holder to license or sell those rights to others. They therefore constitute potential 
marketing assets of the company.
Franchises and licences
The negotiation of franchises or licences to produce and/or market the inventions or 
protected properties of others can also be valuable assets. Retailers franchised to use the 
‘Mitre 10’ name in hardware retailing in New Zealand, for example, benefit from the strong 
national image of the licensor and extensive national advertising campaigns.
Similarly, in many countries American Express cards and products are marketed under 
licence to the American Express Company of the USA. The licence agreement is a significant 
asset for the licensee.
Partnerships
Increasingly, companies are going to market using collaborative or alliance-based strategies 
(as we shall see in more detail in Chapter 15). We should not neglect the importance of 
existing partnerships as marketing assets, and also the management capability to manage 
marketing strategy in alliance-based networked organisations.