Consumer Warfare

Consumer warfare: implications for marketing strategy David J. Burns and Homer B. Warren Consumer warfare: implications for marketing strategy The concept of marketing warfare became popular in response to the environment of the 1970s and 1980s. With an economic slowdown and stagnation of population growth in developed countries, businesses could no longer grow merely as a byproduct of a growing economy or a gr owing populati on as they coul d in the 1950s and 1960s. Instead, gr owth had to be pursued at the expen se of other businesse s – the compe tition . In the midst of this comp etiti ve real ity , a focus on the competiti on appe ared essential and the conc ept of marketing warfare gained wide adherence (Cohen, 1986). Marketing warfare consists of applying the well-proven strategies of the battlefield to the field of marketing. Competitors are viewed as ‘‘enemies’’ and strategies employed for millennia on the battlefield (see von Clausewitz, 1966) are applied to dealings with competitors. The evidence indicates that marketing warfare was very successful as a competitive tool (Ries and Trout, 1986). Today’s business climate bears little relation to that of the 1970s and 1980s, likely mitigating the effectiveness of the strategies dictated by marketing warfare ( Economist , 2005). The business environment of the twenty-first century no longer cons ists of manu factu rers competing among themselves for business, with other business entities, such as retailers, merely acting as components of the supply chain. Instead, some suggest (e.g. Hughes, 2007) that power has shifted down the marketing channel so much that the marketplace tod ay can best be des cri bed as a place whe re powerful con sumers compet e among themselve s. Within this environment of the ‘‘empowered consumer ,’’ inter actio n amon g consumers may be the preferred perspective for viewing the marketplace. The purpose of this paper is to propose a framework of strategies employed by empowered consumers and explore how businesses can relate to each. Changes in the business environment Man y of the most pro fou nd cha nges occurr ing in the bus ine ss env iro nment over the past few deca des involve shifts of the distribut ion of powe r in chan nels of distribution. Sever al cont end a shift in power has occu rred – reta iler s have signifi cantl y incr ease d their power relative to other channel members (e.g. Raju and Zhang, 2005). Consequently, if a single larg e retaile r (e.g. Wal-Mart, Macy’ s, Home Depo t) choo ses not to carry a partic ular prod uct, that manufacturer is locked out of a substantial proportio n of the market. The shift of channel power from manufac turer s to reta ilers lessens the effe ctive ness of mark eting warfare. Further, the success of marketing warfare also appears to have lessened at the retail level since increasingly fickle and independent consumers are not in a position to be ‘‘controlled’’ as the y arg uably wer e by manufacturers in previous dec ades. Instead, retai lers and manufacturers alike have to better understand the needs and motivations of consumers. Many consumers today find themselves in a culture characterized by materialism, where materialism is no longer just a part of the lives of most individuals, materialism is their lives PAGE 44 j JOURNAL OF BUSINESS STRATEGY j VOL. 29 NO. 6 2008, pp. 44-52, Q E me r al d Gr oup P u bl i shing L im i ted, ISS N 0 2 75 -6 6 68 DOI 10.110 8/0 2 7 56 6 60 8 10 9 17 2 37 David J. Burns is the Chair of the Department of Marketing, Xavier University , Cincinnati, Ohio, USA. Homer B. Warren is the Associate Professor of Marketing, Yo ungtown State University, Yo ungtown, Ohio, USA.

Consumer Warfare

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