The strategy of behavior in a competitive environment. Strategies of behavior in a competitive environment

Improving the effectiveness of the marketing system is associated with choosing the right marketing management strategy. The strategic planning process for individual enterprises and business areas includes 8 steps:

1. Business mission

Each strategic division of the company must define its specific mission, which fits into the overall mission of the company. This mission specifies the specifics of the goods, their scope, competitive position, market segments, vertical positioning, geographic location.

2. Analysis of the external sphere: its opportunities and dangers It is necessary to know what external factors should be kept under control in order for the enterprise to achieve its goals. Macro- and micro-factors affect the profit making of the enterprise, and therefore it is necessary to monitor changes in these factors and the main trends in their development.

To succeed, a company must not only meet the requirements of the market in which it intends to operate, but also exceed the potential of its competitors. The best chance of success is with the company that offers the most valued product on the market that can stand the test of time.

Threats can be defined as a hazard caused by unfavorable trends or developments that, in the absence of defensive marketing action, will lead to a drop in sales or revenues. These factors are classified by severity and possibility of occurrence.

3. Analysis of the internal environment: advantages and disadvantages

Favorable conjuncture of circumstances only of an external character is not enough. An enterprise must have the inner strength to succeed in these circumstances. Therefore, it is always necessary to know the level of competitive strength of your enterprise.

Benefits can be assessed by the company's management or an independent consultant on the following parameters: marketing, financial, production and organizational aspects. The purpose of studying the strengths and weaknesses is for the company to decide for itself whether it is worth calming down with the achieved position or whether it is necessary to fight for the best.

Sometimes the poor performance of an enterprise is explained not by the fact that individual services are weak, but by the fact that they lack coherence in their work. Therefore, it is necessary from time to time to assess the relationship between departments in order to check the state of its internal environment. In order for an enterprise to survive in a highly competitive environment, it is necessary to learn how to manage these processes so that they run in harmony.

4. Formulating the goals of the enterprise

After the enterprise has determined the main, strategic, mission, analyzed its strengths and weaknesses, favorable opportunities and threatening factors, it can formulate its goals for the planning period. This stage is called "goal setting".

As a rule, an enterprise pursues the achievement of several goals, among which are such as increasing the income of the enterprise, increasing sales, increasing market share, reducing the risk of activities, maintaining reputation. In order to better coordinate the planning and implementation of the plan, it is necessary to determine the significance of the goals in a hierarchical order, starting with the most important. In this case, it is necessary to quantify the goals set. For example, achieve a 20% increase in return on investment in the next 2 years. Detailing long-term goals simplifies the process of planning, implementation and control.

The achievement of the goals set must be carried out sequentially. Sometimes they are achieved through compromises, the most typical of which are the following:

high profit or a large share of the enterprise in the market;

profitable or non-profitable goals;

risky goals that carry rapid growth, or not risky, but do not promise anything special.

5. Strategy formulation

Goals indicate the milestones that the company wants to achieve, strategies are ways to achieve them. The company develops its strategy to solve its problems. It is customary to distinguish four types of competitive strategies:

1) Leader strategy.

The firm occupies a dominant position, and this is recognized by its competitors. Often the leader represents a "point of reference" for competitors to attack, imitate or avoid.

The leader makes the greatest contribution to the development of the underlying market. By expanding the underlying market, the leader benefits the totality of competitors in the market. A similar strategy (expansion of primary demand) is chosen at the initial stages of the product life cycle.

The goal of a defensive strategy is to protect your market share by countering your most dangerous competitors. It is often adopted by an innovator firm that, after opening a new market, is attacked by imitation competitors. An offensive strategy is designed to increase market share. Used by dominant firms, applying the experience effect.

The demarketing strategy is aimed at reducing its market share and is designed to protect the firm from accusations of monopoly.

2) The "challenger" strategy.

A firm that does not occupy a dominant position can either choose to follow the leader or attack the leader, i.e. challenge him. In this case, two problems arise: the choice of a springboard for attack and the assessment of its reaction and defense capabilities.

When choosing a bridgehead, two alternatives are taken into account.

A frontal attack consists in using the same means that the leader himself uses, without trying to find his weak points. This method requires a significant superiority of forces from the attacker (in military strategy, this ratio is taken as 3:1).

A flank attack provides for a fight in those directions; where the leader is weak or poorly defended. This may be a regional market or distribution network.

The assessment of response and protection capabilities should take into account the following criteria:

* vulnerability. To what strategic maneuvers, events and actions is the competitor most vulnerable?

* provocation. What actions can threaten a competitor's goals so much that he will be forced to fight back, even if it hurts his economic performance?

repulse efficiency. What actions can be taken that a competitor will not be able to effectively respond to, even if it tries to counter or repeat them?

The classic "challenger" strategy is to attack through the price, ie. offer the same product, but at a significantly lower price. It is all the more effective, the more market share the leader owns, since for him the acceptance of a reduced price means very large losses. The challenging firm has much less to lose, especially if it is small.

3) The strategy of "following the leader."

Competitive firm with a small market share that chooses adaptive behavior. It pursues the goal of peaceful coexistence and conscious division of the market. Such behavior most often occurs in an oligopoly situation, when the possibilities for differentiation are small. This is where creative market segmentation comes into play. The firm may focus on certain segments where it can better realize its specific competencies. Improves technology to reduce costs. Focuses on profit.

4) Specialist strategy.

The specialist is only interested in one or a few segments, and not the market as a whole. The goal is to become a big fish in a small river, not a small fish in a big river. Such a competitive strategy coincides with a concentration strategy.

6. Formulating programs

After the formulation and adoption of the strategy, the enterprise proceeds to draw up a supporting program. For example, a travel company has decided to achieve leadership in terms of high-quality customer service. It must develop a training program for all its employees, hiring new employees who can attract the right people for the company, improve the quality of the product, boost sales, and conduct an advertising campaign.

7. Implementation

No strategy, even the best one, and the programs that support it, can lead to nothing if the company cannot implement it. All company personnel must accept the strategy, believe in it and behave accordingly. It is the responsibility of management to inform their employees of the new strategy well in advance so that everyone understands their role in the joint effort to implement it. To implement the strategy, the company must have all the necessary resources, including qualified personnel.

8. Feedback and control

In the process of implementing its strategy, the firm needs to check the results and adjust plans in accordance with changes in the business environment.

Some factors are quite stable from year to year, others change very quickly, others gradually. Monitoring of the external and internal environment in the fastest way can be done by applying a matrix analysis of the state of affairs of the enterprise, focusing on the positive and negative sides.

In this group of strategies, there are four quite clearly defined positions in which firms can be in the field of competition:

1) Position of the market leader;

2) Position challenging the market environment;

3) The position of the follower;

4) The position of a person who knows his place in the market.

Market leader. A firm that has chosen this strategy may try to implement it in the following ways:

1) Expand the overall market for the product by attracting new consumers, finding new opportunities to use the product, or intensifying consumption of the product:

2) Expand your market share in the event that a course is taken for accelerated growth, or maintain the existing market share if the company is not expected to grow rapidly.

A firm challenging the market environment. The firm that has chosen this strategy must be strong enough, but not occupying a leadership position. The main strategic goal of such firms is to capture additional parts of the market by winning them over from other firms. In the transition to the implementation of this goal, the company must clearly determine for itself from whom it is going to win back a part of the market. In this case, two options are possible:

1) Attack on the leader;

2) Attack on a weaker and smaller competitor.

There are five possible approaches to conducting an attack on the leader:

1) The firm undertakes an open direct blow to the leader. In this case, the competition is based on the principle of "strength against strength". In such a fight, whoever has more resources and who has strong advantages usually wins;

2) The firm carries out a flank attack on the leader. In this case, the attack goes in those directions in which the leader has weaknesses. Typically, these areas are either a region in which the leader does not have a strong position, or a need that is not covered by the leader's product;

3) The firm is attacking in all directions. In this case, the leader has to defend both his forward positions, and the rear, and flanks. This type of attack for successful completion requires much more resources from the attacking firm, since it is supposed to advance to all markets where the leader is present, and for all types of products manufactured by the leader;

4) Bypass attack. In this case, the firm does not attack the leader directly, but creates a new market, into which it then lures the leader and, having advantages in this market, defeats him. The most common types of evasive attack are the creation of a replacement product or the opening of new geographic markets. A bypass attack is also widely used in the form of the development and implementation of new technologies for the production of a product;

5) Partisan struggle. Typically, this type of struggle is resorted to by small firms that cannot afford other methods of attacking the leader. In guerrilla warfare, the firm chooses markets where the leader is weakest and launches rapid attacks on him in order to gain some advantage. At the same time, it is very important for the company to have constant readiness both to start the attack and to stop it.

The following means can be used to conduct competition in any of the five methods:

§ Establishing prices for products that are lower than those for the products of the attacked;

§ Launching a new product on the market and creating new needs;

§ Improvement of customer service, in particular the system of transportation and delivery of goods;

§ Improvement and expansion of marketing and distribution systems;

Competitive behavior of the follower. It consists in the fact that he does not seek to attack the leader, but he clearly guards his market share. The follower tries to keep its customers, although it does not give up its share of the newly created markets. An important feature of the business of such a firm is that it is quite highly profitable and focuses on profit in its market strategy. This takes her away from intense competition.

Competition strategy for firms that know their proper place in the market. It is focused on finding and capturing those places in the market that do not generate interest or are temporarily not occupied by stronger competitors. In order to do business successfully in these unoccupied niches of the market, a firm must have a very strict specialization, study its market very carefully, develop only within well-defined allowable growth rates, and have a strong and influential leader.

4. Industry strategies. When considering an industry, it is necessary to determine such indicators as its type (administrative or economic), stage of the life cycle, scale, average costs, key success factors, etc. For example, based on the life cycle model, all industries can be divided into three groups: developing, mature and in decline. Businesses in these industries are developing similar strategies:

1) Strategies at the stage of the birth of the industry. Among the most effective strategies at the stage of the emergence of the industry are the following:

§ Strategy for developing and offering new types of goods or services to the market (innovation strategy);

§ Offensive strategy (capturing the most capacious consumer niche in order to thus use economies of scale and successfully counteract competitors);

§ Defensive strategy (to protect its market share and protect against competitors - imitators with the help of patents, know-how, monopoly position, price and non-price competition, etc.);

§ Strategy for the formation of a corporate trademark (brand) - this helps to ensure prestige, confidence in the appropriate level of product quality;

§ “Cream skimming” strategy (setting high prices for a novelty at the beginning, and then lowering them as the market is saturated);

§ Low price strategy to conquer the market and quickly break away from competitors;

§ Global demand expansion strategy (for industry market leaders), which is aimed at finding new consumers of the product, expanding the scope or frequency of use of the product - this strategy is promising if there is a large growth potential for the industry;

§ Strategy of relentless pursuit of the leader (for imitating firms) and conscious division of the market;

§ Strategy of direct attack on the leader.

2) The strategy is at the stage of maturity. The following strategies are recommended at this stage:

§ Ensuring strong long-term relationships with suppliers and consumers based on mutual trust and mutual benefit;

§ Development of the sales network;

§ Search for new market segments, development of new regions;

§ Revitalize the development of a mature industry (through new forms and distribution channels, new original advertising, new pricing policy, use of government assistance, introduction of new technologies, etc.);

§ Low cost strategy (due to economies of scale in production, use of cheap raw materials, cheap labor, etc.);

§ Market expansion strategy for higher profits;

§ Profit stabilization strategy;

§ Strategy for performance improvement.

3) Strategy during the downturn of the industry. At this stage, the following strategies are shown:

§ Strategy for finding market niches or segments of remaining stable demand;

§ A strategy of disinforming competitors, facilitating their mass exit from the industry in order to remain one of the few industry organizations and take a leading position;

§ Strategy of "harvesting" (managed reduction of investments in order to maximize income streams);

§ Strategy for entering international markets;

§ A strategy to narrow the range of products produced in order to maximize economies of scale;

§ Strategy for the introduction of technological and organizational innovations to raise production efficiency;

§ An exit strategy from the industry (sale of some or all assets).

5. Portfolio (corporate) strategies - these are strategies that describe the general direction of development of a company with various types of business and are aimed at ensuring a balance of the list (portfolio) of goods and services. Strategic decisions at this level are the most complex, as they relate to the firm as a whole. This group of strategies includes:

1) Strategy based on the analysis of products of enterprises according to the BCG matrix (Boston Consulting Group).

According to this matrix, all products of enterprises are conditionally divided into 4 groups that require a special approach in terms of financing and marketing:

§ Stars are market leader products that are at the peak of their productive cycle, but require significant investment to ensure high growth rates;

§ "Cash cows" are former "star" products after the slowdown in market growth. These goods no longer require large investments, but they give a good income at low growth rates;

§ "Problems" - fundamentally new products that have great prospects, but require significant financial investments;

§ "Dogs" - products that have low market share and no growth opportunities, as they are in unattractive industries. Most often, these business units have to be disposed of.

The desired sequence for the market development of most products is as follows:

As a result of the analysis using the BCG matrix, the following strategies are possible:

• Product development - "problems" to the level of "stars";
• Investing in the growth of the "star"
• Maintaining the profitability of "cash cows" and investments in other divisions;
• Liquidation of the unit or "harvesting".

2) Strategy based on the analysis of the McKincey - General Electric matrix;

3) Strategy based on the Arthur D. Little matrix;

They belong to the group of competitive strategies, which can also include strategies for behavior in a competitive environment. Each of them is based on the formation of a certain competitive advantage.

A competitive advantage is a unique tangible or intangible circumstance or an asset of a company, or a special competence (for example, the presence of innovative technologies, modern equipment, a trademark, staff qualifications, financial stability, security, as well as flexibility, adaptability, creativity, etc.)

Key competitive advantage strategies:

1. Cost minimization strategy (Cost Leadership) Assumes the provision of lower system costs for goods compared to competitors, while the price of the goods can either decrease or remain at the previous level. The advantage of this strategy is that it provides relatively effective protection against the 5 forces of competition by M. Porter. Inflation and the emergence of technological innovations have a negative impact on the strategy.

2. Strategy of differentiation. The goal of the strategy is to give the product distinctive features that increase competitiveness and meet the requirements of the buyer. Differentiation can also be carried out in relation to personnel, service offered, image, etc. On the one hand, giving new properties requires additional costs, which increases the cost, on the other hand, profitability is ensured by the fact that the buyer is willing to pay for a differentiated product. Among all the varieties of differentiation strategies, the following come to the fore:

2.1. A new approach to product quality

2.2. The strategy of knowledge management or the use of the intellectual potential of the staff. However, it can be divided into 2 types:

2.2.1. Codification strategy - involves the creation of a database based on the accumulated knowledge, and their fixation with the help of documentation, thus. developed documents or reference and search systems can be constantly used by new employees

2.2.2. Personification - involves the creation of a network of specialists unique in their competence. Knowledge is not codified, but accumulated and transferred by brainstorming, dialogues and consultations.

3. Focus strategy. Assumes specialization in the needs of different market segments (different groups of buyers). The purpose of this strategy is to satisfy the demand not of the entire market, but of a separate segment, and at a better level than competitors. It is usually used in the absence or lack of resources or in the presence of significant barriers to entry into the industry or market.

4. Innovation strategy. The goal is to increase competitiveness by creating fundamentally new products, technologies, or meeting market needs in a new way. The strategy is characterized by high risk, but with a favorable result, it provides a significant jump in the level of profitability. It is carried out, as a rule, by large firms or small venture enterprises.

5. Rapid response strategy. It assumes the achievement of success through a rapid response to changes in the external environment in the shortest possible time.

6. Synergy strategy. It involves obtaining a competitive advantage by connecting 2 or more business units (business units in the same hands). Synergy is achieved through the sharing of resources, through possible cost savings, the formation of joint marketing, management planning systems, etc. The synergy effect, however potentially large it is, does not appear by itself. It needs to be planned and retrieved. With synergy, horizontal and vertical integration is possible.

Strategies of behavior in a competitive environment

Analysis of the competitive environment, the structure of competitive forces, the study of competitors, analysis of the position of the enterprise allows you to develop a strategy for behavior in a competitive environment. The specific behavior of the enterprise depends on the position it currently holds.

F. Kotler and R. Turner distinguish 5 possible positions of the enterprise:

1. Market leader position. An enterprise can apply the following strategies:

1.1. Expand the overall market for the product by attracting new customers, by searching for new opportunities for using the product

1.2. Can expand its market share

1.3. The strategy of defending one’s position (leader) in the market through innovation, consolidation strategies (price fixing, changing the appearance of the product), due to confrontation (price change, reputation impact), by delivering anxiety to a competitor (influence on its supply, marketing, consumer opinion, etc.).

2. Position challenging the market environment. At the same time, the firm should be strong enough, but not a leader. Possible strategies:

2.1. Attack on the leader (possible if the leader has flaws)

2.2. Attack of a weaker and smaller competitor.

Attack methods:

1. Open direct strike (competitive struggle is based on the principle of "strength against strength" i.e. attacking strengths)

2. Flank attack i.e. attention is paid to the competitor's weak areas of activity.

3. Attack in all directions (requires significant resources because attention is paid to all competitor products, all markets)

4. Bypass attack (the company does not attack a competitor, but creates a new market, then lures a competitor to this market and, having an advantage, defeats him)

5. Partisan struggle. Those markets are selected in which the competitor is weaker and some competitive advantages are created due to a quick attack.

3. The position of the follower. This strategy of competitive behavior is that the company does not seek to attack the leader, but clearly guards its market share. The follower tries to keep its customers, but when creating new markets, it also tries to win new customers. As a rule, these are highly profitable firms and their main goal is profit, not competition.

4. The position of a person who knows his place in the market. These enterprises are interested in studying those market segments that are not occupied by competitors or are not yet of strong interest to competitors. At the same time, the firm must have a strict specialization, constantly study the market and rely on a certain, as a rule, stable growth rate.

5. The position of fragmented firms. These are firms that do not have a pronounced leading position. When operating among such firms, the following strategies are used:

5.1. Standardization of activities (pharmacies)

5.2. Creation of a narrow production line

5.3. Focus strategy

Industry Strategies

When considering the industry, it is necessary to determine such indicators as its:

2) Life cycle stage

3) Scale

4) Cost level

5) Key success factors, etc.

Of particular importance when developing a strategy for an enterprise of a particular industry is the stage of its life cycle:

1. Strategies at the stage of the birth of the industry. At the stage of the industry's inception, such parameters as market capacity, segment structure, growth dynamics, and others can only be assessed by an expert method, because the industry itself is in its infancy. At the same time, there is uncertainty about the effectiveness of individual technologies, consumer preferences, the possibility of forming a resource base, sales guarantees, etc. At the same time, at the stage of inception, entry barriers to the industry are relatively low, and changes within the industry are quite dynamic. The most effective strategies in this period are:

1.1. Strategy for developing and offering new types of goods and services to the market (Innovation strategy)

1.2. offensive strategy. It involves capturing the most capacious market share and achieving economies of scale

1.3. Defensive strategy

1.4. Assumes protection from competitors with the help of know-how, monopoly, pricing policy, etc.

1.5. Formation of a trademark (brand), which provides prestige and a certain level of quality

1.6. Cream skimming strategy. Setting high prices for new products introduced.

1.7. Low price strategy - provides a quick break from competitors

1.8. Industry leadership strategy, involves the search for new consumers, expanding the ways and frequency of using the product

1.9. Follow the leader strategy

1.10. Direct attack strategy on the leader

2. Strategies at the stage of maturity. The maturity of the industry is characterized by a high level of competition and the difficulty of attracting new customers. On the other hand, there is a high experience of the seller, the optimal level of costs, the availability of service, the passage of the highest point of growth in the number of personnel and production capacities, the presence of marketing innovations, and possibly foreign economic activity. Recommended strategies:

2.1. Ensuring strong long-term relationships with suppliers and customers built on the basis of trust and mutual benefit.

2.2. Diversification strategy (expanding the range or distribution channels)

2.3. Occupation of new market segments

2.4. Industry revitalization (due to innovation, advertising, prices)

2.5. Cost reduction strategy (by saving or by increasing control)

2.6. Profit stabilization

2.7. Performance improvement (product quality, management)

3. Strategies at the stage of industry decline. The decline stage is characterized by a decrease in demand, increased competition, an increase in the role in relation to price-quality, the emergence of problems in expanding capacity, the difficulty of introducing innovations, increased international competition, a decrease in industry average profitability, the presence of an increase in quantity, mergers, entry, exit from the industry, etc. Recommended strategies:

3.1. Search for a segment with stable demand

3.2. Misinformation of competitors, contributing to their exit from the industry

3.3. Entering international markets

3.4. Harvest strategy (assumes only sales without investment)

3.5. Narrowing strategy

3.6. Implementation of technological or organizational innovations

3.7. Exit from the industry (one-time or gradual)

Functional Strategies

Functional strategies are developed by the functional departments or services of the enterprise. The purpose of a functional strategy is to allocate resources between departments, within a department, and determine the most efficient way to use them. Many economists believe that it is in the formation of functional strategies that a huge reserve of efficiency is hidden, since not only goals for each department are determined, but also ways to save costs. Functional strategies include:

1. Commodity marketing strategy. The main components are:

1.1. Research function. Consists of conducting marketing research

1.2. Commodity policy. Associated with the formation of the assortment, with the description of goods, planning the volume of their sales by type of product, by market segments, incl. according to the product life cycle.

1.3. Pricing policy (includes methods of developing prices, at cost, at markup, based on dumping prices)

1.4. Sales (logistics distribution routes are being developed, factors influencing the distribution network, the offer of intermediaries, financial opportunities)

1.5. Sales intensity system, etc.

2. Strategy of personnel management. (It takes into account that each employee is an individual who has a set of certain qualities and changes his behavior under the influence of various factors) The goal of the strategy is to form a competitive staff of the enterprise that allows achieving the goals of the company and the personal goals of each employee. As a result, the following is being developed:

2.1. Recruitment policy

2.2. Organizational structure

2.3. Job Descriptions

2.4. Methods and system of remuneration

2.5. Policy of work stimulation and motivation

2.6. Professional development policy

2.7. Public relations

3. Innovation strategy. Provides several options:

3.1. Technological leadership (continuous development of technological innovations). The goal is to achieve leadership and gain the position of a technological engine

3.2. Follow the leader

3.3. Involves reactive innovation. The benefit of the strategy lies in having a pattern to follow.

3.4. Diversification strategy. It involves the development of complex innovations in various fields (in technology, in marketing, in finance)

3.5. imitation strategy. Based on the use of known technologies and their necessary development in accordance with market requirements

4. Technological strategy. Associated with the formation of the technical and technological policy of the enterprise. The goal is to ensure efficient production, taking into account cost savings and high labor productivity. Special attention is paid to quality, price and competitiveness. The strategy should contain a description of the technical support of the production process (the availability of fixed assets, their level of productivity, the degree of wear, capital productivity, capital intensity) and technological (the availability of an effective production technology)

5. Strategy of foreign economic activity. Develops rules for the behavior of a company in a foreign market in the role of an exporter and / or importer, or in the implementation of export / import operations. The strategy of foreign economic activity (FEA) may include:

5.1. Moving from aging to efficient sectors of the global economy

5.2. Implementation of foreign direct investment (purchase of 10-20% of the shares of a foreign company)

5.3. Creation of an international concern or a network of branches

5.4. Movement of capital from countries with high taxes to countries with relatively low taxes or to offshore zones

5.5. Use of a special type of lease - leasing

2.2 Strategies for behavior in a competitive environment

Analysis of the competitive environment, the structure of competitive forces, the study of competitors, the firm's understanding of its position in the competitive environment, and allows you to develop an appropriate strategy of behavior in the competition. F. Kotler and R. Turner distinguish four fairly well-defined positions in which firms can be in the field of competition:

1) market leader positions;

2) the position of challenging the market environment;

3) the position following the leader;

4) the position of a person who knows his place in the market.

Market leader strategy.

The firm-leader of the product market occupies a leading position, and this is also recognized by competitors. To defend its leading position, the leading firm has a whole set of strategic alternatives at its disposal.

First, he can pursue an innovation strategy based on leading positions in the creation of new products and systems for bringing them to customers. Second, the leader can use a consolidation strategy to maintain competitive strength. This strategy focuses on maintaining reasonable prices and updating the product with new sizes, shapes and brands. Thirdly, the leader can implement a confrontation strategy that involves quick and directed responses to the challenger.

A strategy that challenges the market environment

The goal of this strategy is to take the place of the leader. A firm challenging the market environment must be strong enough, but not in a leadership position. The main strategic goal of the growth of such firms is to capture additional parts of the market by winning them from other firms. There are two choices of strategies:

1) attack on the leader;

2) an attack on a weaker and smaller competitor.

So, for example, a firm can start an attack on a leader only if it has clear competitive advantages, and the leader has disadvantages that the firm can use in competition. To conduct competition with any of these methods, the following means can be used:

Establishing prices for products that are lower compared to the prices for the products of the attacked;

Launching a new product on the market and creating new needs;

Improving customer service, in particular the system of transportation and delivery of goods;

Improvement and expansion of marketing and distribution systems;

"follow the leader" strategy

Following the leader is a competitor with a small market share, in its activities it coordinates its decisions with the decisions of competitors. This strategy is typical for small businesses.

The strategy of the follower's competitive behavior is that he does not seek to attack the leader, but he clearly guards his market share. The follower tries to retain its customers, although it does not refuse to receive its share in newly emerging markets.

The strategy of firms that know their proper place in the market

The competitive strategy of firms that know their place in the market is focused on finding and capturing those segments that are not of interest or are temporarily not occupied by stronger competitors. In order to do business in these unoccupied niches, a firm must have a strong specialization.

Competitive struggle can be conducted in secret and open form. The secret form takes place in determining the strategy of behavior between the largest firms, international corporations. The largest firms understand that open struggle is senseless. Therefore, they are forced to collude. Since it is prohibited by law in open form in most countries, it is carried out secretly. Firms, assessing each other's strengths, tacitly recognize the right of primacy for one subject. He becomes a "trendsetter", and the rest adapt to him.

Open competition is conducted by price and non-price methods. The essence of price competition comes down to manipulating the price level and this attracts buyers. A system of various discounts is also used for special conditions for purchasing goods (on credit or in cash). However, a purely pricing strategy in itself is ambiguous, because there is a natural threshold for lowering prices - the level of costs. In addition, dumping policy in most countries is prohibited by law. Competitors are also starting to cut prices. As a result, everyone suffers losses, and the balance of power remains the same.

Therefore, today many enterprises are abandoning price competition and moving to non-price competition. In this case, the quality of products, their after-sales service, organization of payment and other factors become the object of manipulation.

Information about the choice of the type of competition (price or non-price) is important for determining the competitive strategy of the enterprise.

3. Industry strategies based on the industry life cycle model

3.1 Early stage strategies

In the years of the industry's inception, the patterns by which it will function have not yet been formed. Market parameters (capacity, segment structure, growth rate, etc.) can only be assessed by expert methods. There is uncertainty about the effectiveness of individual technologies, consumer preferences, and there may be difficulties in providing raw materials and components. Entry barriers to the industry at this stage are relatively low, so both large and small organizations can enter the industry market. Changes in the industry (innovations) are carried out dynamically, there is a short life cycle of goods (because after the start of sales on the market, they are often finalized and improved).

Among the most effective strategies at the inception stage are the following:

Strategy for developing and offering new types of goods or services to the market (innovation strategy);

Offensive strategy (capturing the most capacious consumer niche in order to thus use economies of scale and successfully counteract competitors);

Defensive strategy (to protect one's market share and protect against imitator competitors with the help of patents, know-how, monopoly position, price and non-price competition, etc.);

The strategy of forming a corporate trademark (brand) - this helps to ensure prestige, confidence in the appropriate level of product quality;

Cream skimming strategy (setting high yen on a new product at the beginning, and then lowering it as the market saturates). This allows you to quickly recoup the cost of R&D and market development;

Low yen strategy to conquer the market and quickly break away from competitors;

Global demand expansion strategy (for industry market leaders), which is aimed at finding new consumers of the product, expanding the scope or frequency of use of the product - this strategy is promising if there is a large growth potential for the industry;

The strategy of relentless pursuit of the leader (for imitating firms) and the conscious division of the market;

The strategy of a direct attack on the leader (most often this is the strategy of small venture capital firms).