Defensive marketing warfare strategies (2024)

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Inmarketing andstrategic management, marketing warfare strategies are a type ofmarketing strategy that uses military metaphor to craft a businesses strategy. Seemarketing warfare strategies for background and an overview.Defensive marketing warfare strategies are a type of marketing warfare strategy designed to protect a company'smarket share,profitability, productpositioning, ormind share.

Fundamental principles

There are five fundamental principles involved:

1. Always counter an attack with equal or greater force.
2. Defend every important market.
3. Be forever vigilant in scanning for potential attackers. Assess the strength of the competitor. Consider the amount of support that the attacker might muster from allies.
4. The best defense is to attack yourself. Attack your weak spots and rebuild yourself anew.
5. Defensive strategies should be the exclusive domain of the market leader.

Types of defensive strategies

The main types of defensive marketing warfare strategies are:

• Position defense - This involves the defense of a fortified position. This tends to be a weak defense because you become a “sitting duck”. It can lead to asiege situation in which time is on the side of the attacker, that is, as time goes by the defender gets weaker, while the attacker gets stronger. In a business context, this involves setting up fortifications such as barriers to market entry around aproduct,brand,product line, market, ormarket segment. This could include increasingbrand equity, customer satisfaction, customer loyalty, or repeat purchase rate. It could also include exclusive distribution contracts, patent protection, marketmonopoly, or government protected monopoly status. It is best used in hom*ogeneous markets where the defender has dominant market position and potential attackers have very limited resources.
• Mobile defense - This involves constantly shifting resources and developing new strategies and tactics. A mobile defense is intended to create a moving target that is hard to successfully attack, while simultaneously, equipping the defender with a flexible response mechanism should an attack occur. In business this would entail introducing new products, introducing replacement products, modifying existing products, changing market segments, changing target markets,repositioning products, or changingpromotional focus. This defense requires a very flexible organization with strong marketing, entrepreneurial,product development, andmarketing research skills.
• Flank position - This involves the re-deployment of your resources to deter a flanking attack. You protect against potential loss of market share in a segment, by strengthening your competitive position in this segment with new products and other tactics. (seeflanking marketing warfare strategies)
• Counter offensive - This involves countering an attack with an offense of your own. If you are attacked, retaliate with an attack on the aggressor’s weakest point.

Lists of related topics

• strategic management
• marketing strategies
• strategic planning
• marketing warfare strategies
• offensive marketing warfare strategies
• flanking marketing warfare strategies
• guerrilla marketing warfare strategies
• list of marketing topics
• list of management topics
• list of economics topics
• list of finance topics
• list of accounting topics

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Categories: Marketing strategies and paradigms |Marketing | Strategic management