Marketing Warfare and Dominance Strategies

Marketing warfare strategies are a type of strategies, used in business and marketing,
that try to draw parallels between business and warfare, and then apply the principles of
military strategy to business situations, with competing firms considered as analogous
to sides in a military conflict, and market share considered as analogous to the territory
which is being fought over. It is argued that, in mature, low-growth markets, and when
real GDP growth is negative or low, business operates as a zero-sum game. One
person’s gain is possible only at another person’s expense. Success depends on
battling competitors for market share.

The use of marketing warfare strategies

Strategy is the organized deployment of resources to achieve specific objectives,
something that business and warfare have in common. In the 1980s business
strategists realized that there was a vast knowledge base stretching back thousands of
years that they had barely examined. They turned to military strategy for guidance.
Military strategy books like The Art of War by Sun Tzu, On War by von Clausewitz, and
The Little Red Book by Mao Zedong became business classics.

From Sun Tzu they learned the tactical side of military strategy and specific tactical
proscriptions. In regard to what business strategists call "first-mover advantage", Sun
Tzu said: "Generally, he who occupies the field of battle first and awaits an enemy is at
ease, he who comes later to the scene and rushes into the fight is weary." From Von
Clausewitz they learned the dynamic and unpredictable nature of military strategy.
Clausewitz felt that in a situation of chaos and confusion, strategy should be based on
flexible principles. Strategy comes not from formula or rules of engagement, but from
adapting to what he called "friction" (minute by minute events). From Mao Zedong they
learned the principles of guerrilla warfare.

The first major proponents of marketing warfare theories was Philip Kotler and J. B.
Quinn. In an early description of business military strategy, Quinn claims that an
effective strategy: "first probes and withdraws to determine opponents' strengths, forces
opponents to stretch their commitments, then concentrates resources, attacks a clear
exposure, overwhelms a selected market segment, builds a bridgehead in that market,
and then regroups and expands from that base to dominate a wider field."

The main marketing warfare books were:[citation needed]

 Business War Games by Barrie James, 1984

 Marketing Warfare by Al Ries and Jack Trout, 1986
 Leadership Secrets of Attila the Hun by Wess Roberts, 1987
By the turn of the century marketing warfare strategies had gone out of favour. It was
felt that they were limiting. There were many situations in which non-confrontational
approaches were more appropriate. The Strategy of the Dolphin was developed in the
mid 1990s to give guidance as to when to use aggressive strategies and when to use
passive strategies. Today most business strategists stress that considerable synergies
and competitive advantage can be gained from collaboration, partnering, and co-
operation. They stress not how to divide up the market, but how to grow the market.
Such are the vicissitudes of business theories. At last, a recent contribution for
understanding and using marketing warfare strategies is the visual business war game
proposed by S. Goria.

Marketing Warfare Strategies

 Offensive marketing warfare strategies - are used to secure competitive
advantages; market leaders, runner-ups or struggling competitors are usually
attacked
 Defensive marketing warfare strategies - are used to defend competitive
advantages; lessen risk of being attacked, decrease effects of attacks,
strengthen position
 Flanking marketing warfare strategies - Operate in areas of little importance to
the competitor.
 Guerrilla marketing warfare strategies - Attack, retreat, hide, then do it again, and
again, until the competitor moves on to other markets.
 Deterrence Strategies - Deterrence is a battle won in the minds of the enemy.
You convince the competitor that it would be prudent to keep out of your markets.
 Pre-emptive strike - Attack before you are attacked. (see Defensive marketing
warfare strategies for a description)
 Frontal Attack - A direct head-on confrontation. (see Offensive marketing
warfare strategies for a description)
 Flanking Attack - Attack the competitor’s flank. (see Flanking marketing warfare
strategies for a description)
 Sequential Strategies - A strategy that consists of a series of sub-strategies that
must all be successfully carried out in the right order.
 Alliance Strategies - The use of alliances and partnerships to build strength and
stabilize situations.
 Position Defense - The erection of fortifications. (see Defensive marketing
warfare strategies for a description)
 Mobile defense - Constantly changing positions. (see Defensive marketing
warfare strategies for a description)
  Encirclement strategy - Envelop the opponents position. (see Offensive
marketing warfare strategies for a description)
 Cumulative strategies - A collection of seemingly random operations that, when
complete, obtain your objective.
 Counter-offensive - When you are under attack, launch a counter-offensive at
the attacker’s weak point. (see Defensive marketing warfare strategies for a
description)
 Strategic withdrawal - Retreat and regroup so you can live to fight another day.
(see Defensive marketing warfare strategies for a description)
 Flank positioning - Strengthen your flank. (see Defensive marketing warfare
strategies for a description)
 Leapfrog strategy - Avoid confrontation by bypassing enemy or competitive
forces. (see Offensive marketing warfare strategies for a description)

Companies typically use many strategies concurrently, some defensive, some offensive,
and always some deterrents. According to the business literature of the period,
offensive strategies were more important that defensive one. Defensive strategies were
used when needed, but an offensive strategy was requisite. Only by offensive
strategies, were market gains made. Defensive strategies could at best keep you from
falling too far behind.

The marketing warfare literature also examined leadership and motivation, intelligence
gathering, types of marketing weapons, logistics, and communications.

Learning from Napoleon

To understand how business strategists used military strategies, we can look at the
innovations of Napoleon and apply them to business situations. Napoleon made four
key innovations. They were 1) increase his army’s marching rate, 2) organize the army
into self contained units, 3) live off the country, and 4) attack the opponent’s lines of
supply. All four provide lessons for business strategists:

1) By increasing the speed that the army marched and fought, they created a military
advantage. They could implement their tactics faster than the enemy. Hitler used the
same strategy with his Blitzkrieg. The enemy was overrun before they were able to
organize a viable resistance. But once these innovations were used, other armies made
adjustments and the nature of warfare changed. All armies had to increase their pace of
operations to be effective. Businesses, like armies must operate at a faster pace than
their competitors in order to have a competitive advantage. They must develop and
introduce products faster, implement strategies faster, and respond to environmental
factors faster. They must be proactive.
2) Napoleon returned to the cohort organization of the Greek phalanx. These were self
contained fighting units of citizens that knew each other in daily life, and had a wide
variety of skills and various skill levels. Under the Roman Empire the phalanx was
replaced by specialized legions containing 100 fighters (centurion). Each legion had a
specialized skill (such as the archer legions from Thrace). For more than 100 years,
businesses have taken Adam Smith’s advice and organized by functional specialization,
just like the Roman legions did. Accountants populated the finance department and
technicians populated the operations department. According to Adam Smith this is the
most efficient way of organizing. But as the speed of business increases we need a
more flexible system. We use cross functional teams (like the Greek phalanx) that have
enough breadth of knowledge to see the big picture, are objective enough to get
accurate and unbiased perceptions of environmental factors, and are flexible enough to
act quickly.

3) Napoleon’s armies lived off the country instead of bringing supplies with them. This
allowed them to march faster. The disadvantage is that stealing from the local
population created resentment. But this was a longer term problem. It could be dealt
with when the time came. The short term advantage outweighed the long term
disadvantage. In business we no longer stock inventory based on an EOQ model. We
use a Just In Time model and this reduces costs considerably. However it makes us
vulnerable to our supply channel partners. Just as Napoleon had to manage the local
people that supplied him his provisions, businesses today have found supply chain
management to be a critically important part of doing business.

4) Striking at the opponents lines of supply is known as a flanking strategy. It is effective

because it eliminates the need to fight the enemy head-on. An attack on a poorly
defended supply line can render the whole enemy army unable to fight. In business
today we attempt to do this with exclusivity agreements with suppliers (if you sell Pepsi,
you can’t sell Coke). If Pepsi has an exclusivity agreement with Pizza Hut, Coke will
effectively be eliminated from that part of the market.