Chapter 18 Marketing

Differentiation

3 Competitive Winning strategies are: • _______: The company concentrates on creating a highly differentiated product line and marketing program.

Focus

3 Competitive Winning strategies are: • _____: The company focuses on serving a few market segments well rather than going after the whole market.

Overall cost leadership;

3 Competitive Winning strategies are: • _______The company works hard to achieve the lowest production and distribution costs.

Customer-centered company

A company that focuses on customer developments in designing its marketing strategies and delivering superior value to its target customers.

Market-centered company

A company that pays balanced attention to both customers and competitors in designing its marketing strategies.

Competitor-centered company

A company whose moves are mainly based on competitors' actions and reactions.

Market nicher

A firm that serves small segments that the other firms in an industry overlook or ignore.(10)

Strategic group

A group of firms in an industry following the same or a similar strategy. The more that one firm's strategy resembles another firm's strategy, the more the two firms compete.

define which competitors

A market challenger must first _________to challenge and its strategic objective.

Market challenger

A runner-up firm that is fighting hard to increase its market share in an industry.(30)

Market follower

A runner-up firm that wants to hold its share in an industry without rocking the boat. (20)

market niches

Almost every industry includes firms that specialize in serving _____. Instead of pursuing the whole market, or even large segments, these firms target subsegments.

Competitive advantage

An advantage over competitors gained by offering consumers greater value than competitors do.

Customer value analysis

An analysis conducted to determine what benefits target customers value and how they rate the relative value of various competitors' offers.

big enough to be profitable ; growth; little interest

An ideal market niche is _____and has ____potential. Perhaps most important, the niche is of _____to major competitors.

Formulated marketing

Approaches to marketing strategy and practice often pass through three stages ________: As small companies achieve success, they inevitably move toward more formulated marketing. They develop formal marketing strategies and adhere to them closely

Entrepreneurial marketing

Approaches to marketing strategy and practice often pass through three stages __________: Most companies are started by individuals who live by their wits. They visualize an opportunity, construct flexible strategies on the backs of envelopes, and knock on every door to gain attention.

Intrepreneurial marketing:

Approaches to marketing strategy and practice often pass through three stages __________Many large and mature companies get stuck in formulated marketing. These companies sometimes lose the marketing creativity and passion that they had at the start. They need to reestablish within their companies the entrepreneurial spirit and actions that made them successful in the first place.

gather data ; secondary data, personal experience, and word of mouth; primary marketing research; benchmark

Assessing Competitors' Strengths and Weaknesses: - As a first step, companies can _____on each competitor's goals, strategies, and performance over the last few years. • Companies normally learn about their competitors' strengths and weaknesses through ____, ____and _____• They can conduct ______ with customers, suppliers, dealers, and social networking sites. • They can _______ themselves against other firms, comparing the company's products and processes to those of competitors or leading firms in other industries to find ways to improve quality and performance.

value and satisfaction

Building profitable customer relationships and gaining competitive advantage requires delivering more_____ and ____ to target consumers than competitors do.

customer-centered company

Clearly, the ______is in a better position to identify new opportunities and set long-run strategies that make sense

market

Companies can also identify competitors from a ____point of view. Here they define competitors as companies that are trying to satisfy the same customer need or build relationships with the same customer group.

industry

Companies can identify their competitors from the _____ point of view. A company must understand the competitive patterns in its industry if it hopes to be an effective "player" in that '' '' ''.

Product leadership

Companies can pursue any of three strategies—called value disciplines—for delivering superior customer value. ______: The company provides superior value by offering a continuous stream of leading-edge products or services.

Operational excellence

Companies can pursue any of three strategies—called value disciplines—for delivering superior customer value. • ________: The company provides superior value by leading its industry in price and convenience.

Customer intimacy

Companies can pursue any of three strategies—called value disciplines—for delivering superior customer value. • _______: The company provides superior value by precisely segmenting its markets and tailoring its products or services to match exactly the needs of targeted customers.

competitor myopia

Companies must avoid "__________"A company is more likely to be "buried" by its latent (hidden) competitors than its current ones.

improve profitability

Companies must not think that gaining increased market share will ______automatically. Much depends on their strategy for gaining increased share.

competitor analysis; competitive marketing strategies

Competitive Advantage: The first step is ______—the process of identifying, assessing, and selecting key competitors. The second step is developing ______ that strongly position the company against competitors and give it the greatest possible competitive advantage.

Middle-of-the-road:

Competitive: The losing strategy is: ____The company tries to be good on all strategic counts, but ends up being not very good at anything.

fighter orientation; reactive.

Competitor-centered company approach has pluses and minuses. • On the positive side, the company develops a ________ • On the negative side, the company becomes too _______

customer advantages

Customers will see competitive advantages as ______.

product oriented; customer oriented ; competitor oriented; market oriented

Figure 18.3 shows how companies might move through four orientations over the years. 1. In the first stage, they were _____, paying little attention to either customers or competitors. 2. In the second stage, they became _____and started to pay attention to customers. 3. In the third stage, when they started to pay attention to competitors, they became _____. 4. Today, companies need to be ____, paying balanced attention to both customers and competitors.

market challengers; market followers

Firms that are second, third, or lower in an industry are sometimes quite large. These runner-up firms can adopt one of two competitive strategies: 1. They can challenge the leader and other competitors in an aggressive bid for more market share (________) 2. They can play along with competitors and not rock the boat (______)

frontal attack; head-on,

How can the market challenger best attack the chosen competitor and achieve its strategic objectives? It may launch a full _____, matching the competitor's product, advertising, price, and distribution efforts. It attacks the competitor's strengths rather than its weaknesses. Rather than challenging ______the challenger can make an indirect attack on the competitor's weaknesses or on gaps in the competitor's market coverage.

market concept

In general, the _______of competition opens the company's eyes to a broader set of actual and potential competitors

market-centered companies

In practice, today's companies must be _________, watching both their customers and their competitors. But they must not let competitor watching blind them to customer focusing.

served market

It appears that profitability increases as a business gains share relative to competitors in its ________.

mix of objectives

Knowing a competitor's ________reveals whether the competitor is satisfied with its current situation and how it might react to different competitive actions.

strengths and weaknesses

Marketers need to assess each competitor's ___ and ____carefully in order to answer the critical question: What can our competitors do?

multiple niching

Niching carries some major risks. For example, the market niche may dry up, or it might grow to the point that it attracts larger competitors. That is why many companies practice ________. By developing two or more niches, a company increases its chances for survival.

uncontested market spaces; blue-ocean strategy

Rather than competing head to head with established competitors, many companies seek out unoccupied positions in __________. They try to create products and services for which there are no direct competitors. Called a "_______," the goal is to make competition irrelevant.

more than one; more than one

Some companies successfully pursue ______value discipline at the same time. However, such companies are rare—few firms can be the best at _____of these "value disciplines".

strategic groups

Some important insights emerge from identifying ______. For example, if a company enters one of the groups, the members of that group become its key competitors

Competitive marketing strategies

Strategies that strongly position the company against competitors and give the company the strongest possible strategic advantage.

follower

The ______is often a major target of attack by challengers. Therefore, the market follower must keep its manufacturing costs low and its product quality and services high. It must also enter new markets as they open up.

good offense; continuous innovation.

The best defense is a _____, and the best response is _____

vital types; Continuously collects information; Checks the information for validity and reliability; Sends relevant information

The competitive intelligence system: • Identifies the _____of competitive information and the best sources of this information • ________from the field and from published data • _________, interprets it, and organizes it in an appropriate way • ________to decision makers and responds to inquiries from managers about competitors

Market leader

The firm in an industry with the largest market share. (40)

strategic sweet spot

The key to gaining competitive advantage is to take each customer segment and examine how the company's offer compares to that of its major competitor. The company is searching for that "_______."

second-mover advantage

The market challenger then....The challenger observes what has made the leader successful and then improves upon it. This is known as the "______."

Benchmarking

The process of comparing the company's products and processes to those of competitors or leading firms in other industries to identify best practices and find ways to improve quality and performance.

Competitor analysis

The process of identifying key competitors; assessing their objectives, strategies, strengths and weaknesses, and reaction patterns; and selecting which competitors to attack or avoid.

expand total demand; defensive and offensive actions; expand their market share further

To remain number one, market leader, leading firms can take any of three actions. 1. They can find ways to _____. 2. They can protect their current market share through good ________. 3. They can try to_________, even if market size remains constant.

prevent or fix weaknesses; value promise; consistent with the value; plug holes

What can the market leader do to protect its position? • It must ______that provide opportunities for competitors. • It must always fulfill its _______. • Its prices must remain ________that customers see in the brand. • It must work to keep strong relationships with valued customers. • It should "____" so that competitors do not jump in.

volume; margins

Whereas the mass marketer achieves high ____, the nicher achieves high ____. Nichers try to find one or more market niches that are safe and profitable.

target customer

Why is niching profitable? The main reason is that the market nicher ends up knowing the ______group so well that it meets their needs better than other firms that casually sell to this niche. As a result, the nicher can charge a substantial markup over costs because of the added value.

Nichers

____ are often smaller firms with limited resources. But smaller divisions of larger firms also may pursue niching strategies.

identifying and assessing; attack or avoid.

competitor analysis involves first ____and _____ competitors and then selecting which competitors to _____ or ____.

market follower

the ________can learn from the leader's experience. It can copy or improve on the leader's products and programs, usually with much less investment. Although the follower will probably not overtake the leader, it often can be as profitable.