There are several strategies that market challengers can use to attack market leaders: 1) Directly attack the market leader by having a better product or user experience to overtake them, as Facebook did with Orkut. 2) Attack similar but less active firms to increase market reach and reduce competition. 3) Use a flank attack to target a market segment not served by existing players, like Red Bull did with the energy drink market. 4) Employ guerilla marketing techniques to build public awareness creatively and strategically over time, as Marlboro did to become the top cigarette brand.

1. HOW SHOULD MARKET
CHALLENGERS ATTACK
MARKET LEADERS?

2. ATTACK THE LEADER
•Facebook has always been
an attacking company.
•Google’s Orkut was the
biggest social network in
the world when Facebook
was launched.
•With a better UI and
lesser ads, Facebook was
able to overtake Orkut in a
little over 2 years.

3. ATTACK SIMILAR FIRMS
WHICH ARE LESS ACTIVE
Big firms have
always acquired
smaller firms which
are less active to
increase their
market reach and
reduce competition.

4. TYPES OF
ATTACKING
STRATEGIES

5. TYPES OF ATTACKING
STRATEGIES
Flank attack is a
marketing strategy
employed by firm to
capture the market
which is not well
served by established
players.
FLANK ATTACK
Instead of taking on Coca Cola
heads on, Red Bull decides to
capture Energy drink market.

6. TYPES OF ATTACKING
STRATEGIES
Flank attack is a
marketing strategy
employed by firm to
capture the market
which is not well
served by established
players.
FLANK ATTACK
Instead of taking on Coca Cola
heads on, Red Bull decides to
capture Energy drink market.

7. TYPES OF ATTACKING
STRATEGIES
Launching a new
product in the market
that is very similar to
the opponents to
capture the wide area
of market. Or doing a
grand offensive of
opponents in many
fronts via blitz.
ENCIRCLEMENT
ATTACK
To take on Microsoft, Sun
Microsystems licensed it’s digital
software to thousands of
companies for all sorts of consumer
devices.

8. TYPES OF ATTACKING
STRATEGIES
Attackers attack where
opponents are not
looking and by finding
a new market segment.
BYPASS ATTACK
To counter Procter & Gamble’s
wide reach of products in the
Indian market, Colgate was
launched as P&G had no product in
that area.

9. TYPES OF ATTACKING
STRATEGIES
Form of marketing that
incorporates a series of
creative and strategic
techniques used to
build and maintain
public awareness
GUERILLA ATTACK
In 1954, the Marlboro Man appears
in Marlboro ads, making the
company to become the #1
cigarette brand in the US.

10. Aman Mehta
Thapar University, Patiala
mehtaaman15@gmail.com
08437924582
THANK YOU!

11. “Created by Aman Mehta, Thapar
University, Patiala, during an internship
under Dr. Sameer Mathur, IIM Lucknow.
www.iiminternship.com”