Marketing Strategy and Competitive Positioning pdf ebook

Market expansion 
Build strategies are achieved through market expansion or taking sales and customers 
from competitors (confrontation). Market expansion, in turn, comes through three main 
routes: new users (attracted as products progress through their life cycles from innovators 

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OFFENSIVE AND DEFENSIVE COMPETITIVE STRATEGIES
to laggards via a trickle-down effect), new uses (introduced to existing or new users) and/
or increased frequency of use (by encouraging existing users to use more of the product).
For products that have reached the mature phase of the life cycle, a major task is to find 
new markets for the product. This could involve geographic expansion of the companies’ 
activities, domestically and/or internationally. Companies seeking growth but believing 
their established market to be incapable of providing it roll out into new markets.
Market share gain through competitor confrontation
When a build objective is pursued in a market that cannot, for one reason or another, be 
expanded, success must, by definition, be at the expense of competitors. This will inevitably 
lead to some degree of confrontation between the protagonists for customers. Kotler and 
Singh (1981) have identified five main confrontation strategies (see Figure 10.9).
Frontal attack
The frontal attack is characterised by an all-out attack on the opponent’s territory. It is often 
countered by a fortification, or position defence. The outcome of the confrontation will 
depend on strength and endurance (see Figure 10.10).
The requirement of a similar 3 to 1 advantage to ensure success in a commercial fron-
tal attack has been suggested (Kotler and Singh, 1981), further calibrated (Cook, 1983) 
and questioned (Chattopadhyay et al., 1985). All agree, however, that to defeat a well-
entrenched competitor who has built a solid market position requires substantial superior-
ity in at least one key area of the marketing programme. For a frontal attack to succeed 
requires sufficient resources, a strength advantage over the competitors being attacked, and 
that losses can be both predicted and sustained.
Flanking attack
In contrast to the frontal attack, the flanking attack seeks to concentrate the aggressor’s 
strengths against the competitor’s weaknesses (see Figure 10.11).
A flanking attack is achieved either through attacking geographic regions where the 
defender is under-represented or through attacking underserved competitor segments. The 
principle is to direct the attack at competitors’ weaknesses, not their strengths.