Every time, there are many new brands and products launched by competitors. To retain customers, you will, of course, need a strategy. One of them is a defensive marketing strategy.
What’s the strategy like? Come on, find out more in this article!
What is Defensive Marketing Strategy?
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Reporting from Marketing Schools, defensive marketing strategies are marketing actions taken to protect target consumers, profits, and brand positioning from competitors.
This strategy assumes that several consumers will switch to competitors, which can cause the competitor to lead the market share.
This marketing strategy is different from the offensive marketing strategy, which is carried out to build and develop the brand by attacking competitors’ weaknesses.
Types of Defensive Marketing Strategy
According to the Harvard Business Review, there are four defensive marketing strategies.
These types of procedures are divided into two categories, namely, based on their objectives and based on the means of achieving their goals.
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1. Based on the purpose
Based on its objectives, this marketing strategy is divided into two, namely:
- A positive approach is a strategy designed to retain customers.
- The inertial method is a strategy designed to slow down the rate of consumer loss.
2. Based on how to achieve the goal
Furthermore, based on how to achieve its goals, the defensive marketing strategy is also divided into two strategies:
- A retarding strategy that focuses on the strength of your brand.
- A parity strategy that focuses on the perceived power of your competitors.
How to Apply Defensive Marketing Strategy
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After understanding what a defensive marketing strategy is and its types, how do you apply it?
Don’t worry; you can follow the tips wannawishyou has summarized from Loomly below.
1. Do a self-attack
Self-attacking your brand may seem counterintuitive to the purpose of your marketing strategy. However, this strategy is even implemented by big companies like Google.
You can do this self-attack strategy by developing and launching new products that are more than the previous products.
This will force your customers to use the new product and leave the old product.
This strategy is widely used by technology companies such as Apple, which annually launch products that have better features than previous products.
2. Surprise your customers
When various Android-based cellphones bloomed, Apple began to launch iPhone products with various exclusive features.
This forces consumers to continue using the iPhone even though they already have an Android phone.
This is one of the defensive marketing strategies you can use to attract the attention of consumers from competitors.
But you don’t have to wait until competitors attack your brand to do this strategy.
You can use this strategy to remind consumers and attract the attention of your potential customers with a marketing campaign that protects your brand positioning.
3. Take advantage of customer insight
Furthermore, you can also use customer insight to design the right defensive marketing strategy for your brand.
By understanding what consumer behavior, interests, and mindset look like when buying your product, you can create a more effective marketing strategy.
4. Improve product quality
Sometimes, a defensive marketing strategy requires minor adjustments to your product.
Previously, wannawishyou had explained how Apple faced its competitors by improving the quality of its products.
In other cases, you may need to make more drastic changes and substantially improve your product to beat the competition.
However, you must be careful not to change the existing product too much so that consumers do not switch to competitors.
For example, Coca-Cola changed their drink’s taste and produced a new, sweeter Coke to match Pepsi.
This strategy backfired as it undermined the brand and disrupted its core consumer base.
As a result, Coca-Cola had to switch back to its original recipe to appease its customers and maintain its brand position instead of trying to win over Pepsi’s customers.
5. Make price adjustments
One of the most widely used defensive marketing strategies is price adjustment. This does not mean you have to lower the price of your product, you know.
There are four price adjustment options that you can do:
- Reduce prices to match or beat competitors.
- Increase the price to position your brand as a premium option and make consumers feel special.
- Keep costs down and add extra value to products with more features and benefits.
- Offer new pricing models, such as multiple pricing types with subscription services.
6. Advertise the strength of your brand
The classic defensive marketing strategy when facing competitors is to use advertising. Moreover, established brands should have more money to invest.
Let’s say a brand has ten times as much revenue as competitors, and they each invest 20% of their income in advertising.
An established brand may have ten times more capital to invest.
However, the most important part of this strategy is not how much it costs to spend on advertising. Instead, how do you manage existing costs and design effective ads?
For that, focus your ads on highlighting your brand‘s strengths and targeting your competitors’ weaknesses.
Well, that’s the understanding, the types, and how to apply a defensive marketing strategy.
In addition to this strategy, you can apply various other marketing strategies to defend consumers from competitors.
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