1. Easier in emerging markets. In emerging sectors, leaderships are provisional. Consumers have not yet opted for one brand or another and their purchasing decisions are not consolidated. This is the best time to try to forge a differential advantage for the future.
2. The leader's reaction. Surely it will occur if you see your domain in jeopardy. Defending market shares is much easier than conquering them, especially due to its great resource potential (sales network, advertising, technology, etc.).
We must calculate the consequences that this reaction will have for us. Although it would not be strange for the leader to adopt a passive attitude and underestimate the attacking action of the competitor. This mistake could be the beginning of the end for your leadership.
3. Don't imitate number one. It is a mistake to think that the strategy followed by the leader is the only possible one. If we try to imitate him in his new products, his advertising or his positioning, we are attacking him in the line in which he is strongest. With this strategy we have guaranteed failure. This is what, for example, happened to Galerías Preciados when trying to imitate El Corte Inglés where it was strongest.
4. Don't try it with operational aspects. Where should we attack? It should not be done due to the operational aspects of the manufacture and marketing of the product, which will be easily copied. Nor will the policy of launching new products or improving existing ones bring great short-term benefits.
However, if we insist in this way, in the long term we will forge an image of an innovative company, which can be very beneficial in the future. This was the strategy followed by Nike to conquer world leadership.
Sources from this company have indicated to Emprendedores that "continuous product improvement has created an innovative and avant-garde image for us, which other brands do not have, and which consumers value very positively."
5 . Leadership can wait. The positions of a ranking are not fixed. If the candidate has sufficient resources, he can launch a frontal attack (new products, advertising, etc.) with which, if successful, the objective can be achieved in the short or medium term. If not, you must design a long-term strategy, creating partial differential advantages that will shorten the gap with the leader.
6. Looking for relative advantages. There is no leader so strong that he can control all the springs in a market. Number two can consolidate partial leadership in specific geographic areas, population segments, or product categories. Thus, the launch of a truly innovative product, or that is not an immediate priority for the leader, can make us the predominant company in the new category.
According to Isidoro Porquicho, director of the PCs unit at Compaq Spain, “a number two must be attentive to market developments: changes in consumer habits, new channels, etc. We must join these trends before the leader and thus promote a strategy for the future ”.
7. The leader's Achilles heel: attack where it hurts the most. When a company increases its market share beyond a certain limit, it can become weaker. Shares that go beyond 60%, although they appear to be great strength, often have hidden weaknesses.
The leader needs, in these cases, large investments to maintain his leadership, neglecting new product categories, new consumers, emerging trends, etc., which can be taken over by other companies. The challenging company must analyze what are these weak points of the leader, and turn them into their strengths.
8. Differentiation strategy. The expert José Carlos Jarillo, in the book Strategic Management, advises the need to build a sustainable differential advantage over its competitors. "A competitive advantage - he affirms - is any characteristic of the company that protects it from the direct attack of the competition, ensuring profits above the average of the sector".
Generally, the leader has the attribute that consumers value the most for this product: whiteness for detergents; the refreshing for drinks, etc. However, in each market, two types of public tend to coexist: those who want to buy from the leader and those who seek other alternatives.
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