Marketing Warfare

By
Pratik Jadhav
About the Authors-
AL RIES JACK TROUT
Strategic Square

Market Leader Market Challenger

Defensive Strategy Offensive Strategy

Market Follower Niche Marketer

Flanking Strategy Guerilla Strategy

• Firm’s market share relative to that of competitor decides which strategy to adopt
Defensive warfare
Adopted when your organization is clear market leader

Defensive Principle :
No. 1 : Only the market leader should consider playing defensive
No. 2 : The best defensive strategy is to attack yourself
No. 3 : Strong competitive moves should always be blocked

Be Prepared to Strike Back

Keeping Something in Reserve
Defensive warfare- Examples
Google and “cloud” technology services

Tesco v/s Walmart

Facebook
 Offensive warfare
It should be used when : Your organization is No. 2 or No. 3 and it has
resources to sustain a challenge to leader

Offensive Principles:
No. 1: The main consideration is the strength of the leader's position
No. 2: Find a weakness in leader’s strength and attack at that point
No. 3: Launch the attack on as narrow a front as possible

The odds favor the defender

The weakness in strength
The benefit of being narrow minded
 Offensive warfare- Example
• Harley Davidson v/s Japanese and Italian Bike Manufacturing Companies

• Burger King v/s McDonalds

Flanking Warfare
Adopted when your organization is no. 4-6 in market and You have
resources to pursue flanking move

Flanking Principles:
No. 1 : A good flanking move must be made into uncontested area
No. 2 : Tactical surprise ought to be an important element of the plan
No. 3 : The pursuit is just as critical as the attack itself

Flanking with Low Price & High Price

Flanking with Small Size & Large Size
Flanking with Distribution
Flanking with Product Form
Flanking Warfare- Examples
Mercedes-Benz v/s General Motors

Absolut v/s Smirnoff,

 Guerrilla Warfare
Appropriate for other 96 organization in 100 organizations market

Guerrilla principles
No. 1 : Find a segment of a market small enough to defend
No. 2 : No matter how successful you become, never act like the leader
No. 3 : Be prepared to bug out at a moment’s notice

Geographic Guerrillas
Demographic Guerrillas
Industry Guerrillas
Product Guerrillas
High-End Guerrillas
Automobile Industry
• Being a challenger, BMW
Challenged Audi using
Offensive Communication
• Audi, the leader, replied back
immediately to defend
themselves
• Subaru followed both Audi and
BMW and entered into the
battleground
• Lastly, Bentley being a market
nicher piped up with provoking
finishing touch
Toothpaste war in India
• The oral care market in India- estimated annual revenues of INR 80bn ($ 1.2bn),
growth rate of 13%
• The toothpaste market is INR 60bn ($ 0.9bn) growing at 15%
• Players-
• Colgate-Palmolive India Ltd. (COLPAL.NS)

• Hindustan Unilever Ltd. (HUL.BO)

• Dabur India Ltd. (DABUR.NS)

• Procter & Gamble Hygiene and Health Care Ltd. (PNG.BO)

• Vicco Laboratories Ltd.

• Anchor Health & Beauty Care Pvt. Ltd.

• GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare Ltd. (GLAXOCON.BO)

Market Share
Indian Toothpaste Induastry Market
2.50% 5.60%

13.00% Colgate-Palmolive India

HUL
Dabur India
55.90% GSK
23.00% Others
Colgate- the market leader
• Big Portfolio- Catering to every segment

• Strong brand recall & Customer loyalty

• Continues product Innovation
• Better SKUs
• Strong Distribution channel
Pepsodent- the market challenger
Dabur - a market follower

Oral-B - a market follower

Market Nichers- Guerrillas
Sensodyne- by GSK

Vicco

Anchor White

Himalaya toothpaste
Detergent Wars in India
• Organized Retail Sector- 60% MS
• Premium- Surf, Ariel - 15% (of organized market)
• Mid-price- Rin, Henko, Tide - 40%
• Popular segments- Ghari, Wheel, Nirma, Mr. White - 45%
• Regional and small unorganized players- 40% market

• Market leader- Ghari with a market share of 17.3%

• Market Challenger- Wheel is with a share of 16.9%
• Market Follower- Tide with a market share of 13.5%
• Market Follower- Nirma with market share of less than 6% now
Detergent Wars in India (Cont.)
• HLL entered India in 1957, Surf became the market leader
• Nirma Chemicals started in 1969, in 1985 Nirma became the leading detergent in
India
• In 1987, Ghari was launched by RSPL (Rohit Surfactancts Pvt. Ltd.)
• less priced

• targeted at the rural customers, middle class and lower-middle class

customers
• more or less the same positioning strategy as Nirma

• In 1988, HUL launched Wheel to take on Nirma

• In early 2000's Wheel beats Nirma and takes the No.1 spot
• In late 2011 and early 2012, Ghari beats Wheel and takes the numero-uno spot in
Indian detergent industry
What made Ghari the market leader?
• Price- Rs 35 for 1 kg Pack, Rs 85 for 2.5 kg pack
• Advertising and promotions (A&P)
• The company participates in exhibitions, melas and road shows mostly in
rural India
• Spends under 2% of sales on A&P - as against 12-14% spent by its MNC peers

• Sustain its low-margin, high-volume strategy

• In 2010, RSPL flagged off the 'Ghari Detergent Express', a train whose
exteriors are painted with Ghari branding that ran between Lucknow and
Guwahati for two months
• Ghari ad with its classical logo - "pehle istemaal karein phir vishvaas karein" which
means "First use and then trust.“
• Presence in 19 states, through more than 3,500 dealers
• 21 manufacturing units, 15 of which were added since 2006
Thank you!!!