Outline: Chapter 11 Dealing With Competition

Top Ten Concepts:

Concept 1: Building strong brands require a keen understanding of competition. Effective marketing strategies involve studying competitors and competitive forces.

Concept 2: The 5 Competitive Forces that determine the long-term attractiveness of a market are: industry competitors, potential entrants, substitutes, buyers and suppliers.

Concept 3: Marketers need to identify competitors' strategies, objectives, strengths and weaknesses.

Concept 4: A company should identify competitors by using both industry- and market-based analyses.

Concept 5: There are four roles that firms can play in a market: the market leader, the market challenger, the market follower, the market nicher.

Concept 6: If you are the market leader, you must continuously innovate to retain and expand position.

Concept 7: If you are the market challenger, you must address areas that the market leader cannot serve.

Concept 8: If you are the market follower, you must know how to hold current customers and win a fair share of new ones.

Concept 9: If you are the market nicher, you must be a leader in a small market.

Concept 10: Companies should maintain a good balance of consumer and competitor monitoring to satisfy the needs of today's global market. Companies should not overdo emphasis on competitors.

Rye Gutierrez (January 2010)