Follower marketing strategies

"Followers" refers to companies that use the strategy and tactics of the leader's marketing strategy.

The main goal of the "follower" is to retain existing customers.

Follower strategies are:

compilation strategy,

imitation strategy,

adaptation strategy.

Compilation strategy - the use of the marketing strategy of the market leader in full (in terms of commodity, price, marketing and advertising activities).

Imitation strategy - based on the use of individual elements of the market leader with the introduction of certain differences in the brand, advertising, pricing policy.

Adaptation strategy - improvement of some elements of the market leader's marketing mix or adaptation of its strategy to certain markets.

Compared to the leader, challenger, and nicher, the follower has the greatest competitive vulnerability.

Challenger marketing strategies

Challengers are companies that are successfully developing and striving to increase their market share.

The main type of challenger strategy is the offensive strategy.

Challengers can attack:

Market leader.

A similar challenger company.

Smaller company.

Challenger marketing strategies are of the following types:

frontal attack (when the challenger attacks the leader in all his positions),

flank offensive (concentration of efforts on the weaknesses of a competitor),

bypass offensive (this strategy is designed for the long term; its variation is the strategy of the "guerrilla" offensive).

These strategies are achieved through the introduction of certain competitive advantages, which are mainly related to:

price,

quality,

price/quality,

using a wide range of products

best service,

reduction in production costs.

Market leader marketing strategies

There are the following types of market leader marketing strategies:

1. Strategy to increase market capacity:

attracting new customers to the company's product,

search for new needs that can be satisfied by the company's product,

increase in consumption of goods by consumers.

2. Increasing the market share with the existing market capacity:

improving the quality of goods,

product modification,

diversification,

gaining price leadership,

activation of advertising activities,

activation of sales activities,

integration.

3. Protection of market positions:

positional protection (protection of the company's market share in occupied sales markets across the entire product range),

flank defense (protection of the weak points of the leader),

proactive defense (transition to offensive preemptive actions against a competitor),

mobile protection (mobile protection strategy is implemented through two strategies - market development strategy and differentiation strategy),

counteroffensive (strategy for defending the positions of the market leader, which involves a series of actions regarding the aggressive pricing, innovation, marketing and advertising strategies of competitors),

cramped defense (retreat strategy, when the leader realizes the impossibility of protecting all of his product and market positions).

Marketing competitive strategies

Marketing competitive strategies are distinguished according to different criteria.

Arthur Little (American marketer) identifies the following competitive marketing strategies:

leader strategies,

strategies of companies with a strong position,

strategies of companies that are in a favorable position,

strategies of companies that are in a satisfactory position,

strategies of companies that are in an unsatisfactory position.

M. Porter identifies such marketing competitive strategies:

price leadership strategies

differentiation strategy,

concentration strategy.

F. Kotler identifies the following competitive marketing strategies:

market leader strategy

challenger strategy,

follower strategy,

nicher strategy.

Market leaders are the companies that hold the largest market share in a particular market.

Challengers are companies that occupy the second and third positions in the market, develop rapidly and set themselves the goal of increasing their market share.

Followers are companies that successfully operate on the market, the marketing direction of which is not to win market championship (unlike challengers), but to maintain and protect their market share.

Nishers are companies that serve small segments of the market that are left out of the attention of large enterprises (using a market niche strategy).

Positioning marketing strategies

Positioning - determining the place of the company's product on the market among analogue products.

Types of positioning strategies:

positioning in terms of quality,

positioning in terms of "price-quality" ratio,

positioning based on comparing the company's product with competitors' products,

positioning according to the field of application,

positioning according to the distinctive features of the consumer to whom the product is offered,

positioning on the variety of goods that are offered for sale,

positioning at a low price,

service positioning,

positioning on the positive features of technology,

image positioning.