This document outlines different competitive strategies for firms in a market. It categorizes firms as market leaders, challengers, or followers based on their market share. It describes the leader's strategies to expand or protect market share through increasing barriers or legal action against competitors. For protecting share, leaders employ proactive, responsive, anticipative or creative marketing. Challengers aim to increase share through frontal, flank, encirclement, bypass or guerrilla attacks. Followers employ imitation, duplication, emulation or adaptation strategies compared to the market leader.

1. Competitive strategies
1) How can firms in a market be categorised?
Market
Leader
(40% market share)
Market Challenger
(30% market share)
Market follower
(20% market share)
2) What are the main market leader strategies?
EXPANDING
TOTAL MARKET
SHARE
1)Adding new
customers
2)More usage
3) New ways to
use the brand
PROTECTING
MARKET SHARE
1)Proactive
marketing
2)Defensive
marketing
INCREASING
MARKET SHARE
1) Attracting legal
action against
competitors for
violating laws
2) High entry &
exit barriers

2. 3) What are the various proactive & defensive marketing strategies for the
market leader for protecting its market share?
Proactive strategies
RESPONSIVE
MARKETING
PRO-ACTIVE
MARKETING
ANTICIPATIVE
MARKETING
Responsive marketer finds a stated need and fulfils it.
CREATIVE
MARKETING
Anticipative marketer looks ahead to needs customers may have in future.
Creative marketer discovers solutions customers did not ask for, but may
respond enthusiastically.
Defensive strategies
Position defense: 1) Making the brand impregnable 2) Occupying desirable
space in the minds of the consumer. Example is Tide as a cleaning detergent.
Flank defense: 1) Erect outpost to protect a weak front. 2) Or support a possible
counterattack
Pre-emptive: 1) Attack first by preannouncements of new products. 2) Broad
market engulfment. Ex. SBI expansion to 100,000 villages
Counter-offensive:1) Attack frontally & hit the attackers’ flank.2) Exercising
political clout to crush competitor. Ex. FedEx vs. UPS
Mobile defense: 1) Market broadening. 2) Market diversification Ex. Tobacco
giant ITC focusing on FMCG & food business.

3. Contraction defense: 1) Strategic withdrawal from weaker markets to support
stronger ones. Ex. HUL’s divestment from noncore businesses.
(2) FLANK
POSITION (1)
DEFENDER
(3) PREMPTIVE
(4)COUNTER-OFFENSIVE
4) What are the market challenger strategies?
(5)
CONTRACTION
(5) MOBILE
A market follower can follow any of the strategies towards retaining its
position.
1) General attack strategies
a) Frontal attack: Matching opponent’s 4P’s by convincing the market
that their product is equal to the leader’s with a better value.
b) Flank attack: Attractive to a challenger with fewer resources; spotting
where the opponent is underperforming.
c) Encirclement attack: Attractive to challenger with superior resources
by launching grand offensive on various fronts.
d) Bypass attack: Diversifying into new products, geographies &
technologies.
e) Guerrilla attacks: Small intermittent attacks to harass the opponents &
eventually secure footholds.
2) Specific attack strategies
Any aspect of marketing program can serve as the basis of the attack such
as lower priced or discounted products.
ATTACKER

4. 5) What are the market follower strategies?
According to Theodore Levitt the strategy of product imitation can prove to
be more profitable than product imitation.
Counter-feiter
(Duplicates
leader's product
& sells it)
Cloner
(Emulates
leader's products
with slight
changes)
Imitator
(Copies some
things from the
leader but
differentiates on
packaging,
pricing etc)
Adapter
(Takes the
leader's product
& improvises it)