Flanking
Marketing
“Pursuit is a second act of the victory, in
many cases more important than the first” ---- Carl Von Clausewitz
The term
‘Flanker’ is used in military terms to describe a soldier positioned to protect
the flank of troops in the march. In 1940 German stunned France by going around
its vaunted Maginot line and attacking the country through Belgium. After six
weeks the battle was over. In 1991 US encamped their forces in Kuwait and
eastern Saudi Arabia. General H. Norman Schwarzkopf shifted its forces 100 miles west and
launched the attack from the south surprising the enemy. After 100 hours Iraqi
defense collapsed and US declared the war was over.
In the product
lifecycle stage many companies want to expand their product and service
offerings to reach a number of customers by adding product attributes and
features. The marketers fully dependent on core marketing sector to earn
profit. Here comes the Flanking Marketing. Flanking is the most innovative way
to fight the competitor’s strategy.
Flank Marketing
is the indirect marketing strategy to capture the competitors market segments
which are not established by the well served marketing players. Flanking
threatens the competitors either to allocate the resources to the segments that
are attacked or to step down. Generally, the flank marketing strategy can be
seen between large firms which have multiple number of product and services
with product and service lines. However, a larger established firm takes less
risk by inviting a confrontation in its own core market. The small and medium
scale enterprises can take the risk and act quickly and secretly and makes
profit. As a strategy flanking operation is a bold move.
Some features of
flank marketing are as follows:
v
This
marketing strategy doesn’t confront the two teams openly.
v
The
surprise part of this marketing strategy the winning player gain access in the
market before its competitors realize that.
v
Follow
through once the leading position established.
v
This
strategy works for differentiated product not for the new product.
There are two
possible ways of flank attack:-
Glocal Flank Marketing Strategy: This occurs when a company or a firm
attack different areas of accompany locally, regionally and globally where the
competitor’s resources are not very strong. Mercedes Benz, Pepsi, Coca-Cola
uses this type of marketing strategy to gain access in the market.
Segmented Flanking Strategy: The marketer’s attacks the competitor’s
targeted and niches customers and win over their resources.
The concept of
flanker brand in late 80s also known as fighter brand is used to offer a new
product to the market in order to capture larger portion of the market. The benefits
of flanker brand are multiple. A flanker brand allows the brand owner to capitalize on the reputation of its main brand and on all the messages about
quality and source which are espoused in the existing brand. This allows for potential capturing of new clients, including those who
are unhappy with competitors’ products in the same space, or those who are
looking for a more economic choice.
Example of Flank Attack:
The Japanese company Canon uses flank
marketing strategy and took over the half of the market share from Xerox in
1978. The Canon Company target the niche segment of smaller size copier market
which cannot be affordable to large size copier market of Xerox. This flank
strategy showed up the poor defensive strategy by Xerox and better aggressive
strategy by Canon as it successfully implement the flank strategy.
The success of
flanking strategy depends on marketer’s ability on creation and
differentiation. This has to be carefully handles by the marketer or competitor
as its competitor takes the defensive strategy and try to blunt the flank
attack. To launch a true flank attack the marketer must go segment by segment
of the competitor’s product and services offerings and should clear the
objectives among its clients and to manage their expectations. As there is no
established or skill players in the market for the product and services
flanking skill require good foresight. The traditional marketer may found
difficult to launch a new category of products in a new market as their there
are many competitors but with the flank strategy launching of the products can
be fruitful.
Another example
of flank attack is the flank attack used by Mercedes Benz on Cadillac by
selling more expensive cars. But Mercedes continues its high end position by
selling cheaper version of its luxurious cars like A-Class and C-Class
vehicles. The introduction of high-price Seville helped Cadillac recover
somewhat.
Great flanking
moves are often undermined by the competitors and test marketing researchers which
exposes the strategy in front of its competitors. Test marketing is a proposed
flanking technique if successfully implemented it alerts the market leader to
take necessary steps to ensure failure when the test marketing is expanding its
base locally or nationally.
Many companies
after achieving the initial target move their resources to other sectors. This
is wrong especially in a flanking move. Ancient military maxim: Reinforce
success, abandon failure. Success breeds success. It is very important to use
the marketing weight to get the new product in a hurry before the marketing
leader can cover. The marketing history is filled with flank attack stories
which were initially successful but quit due to lack of resources.
Low Price Flanking: It is the the strategic move to save
money by cutting prices. Day Inns beat Holiday Inns by flanking technique to
become the most profitable lodging chain in US market.
High Price Flanking: There are many products where high price
is beneficial for the marketers. Example:- the price of Barbie doll is the
benefit. The opportunity showed up by Barbie in price segment using flanking
strategy in the modification stage of product life cycle is excellent.
There are 2
reasons why high price is better than low price. One is the product features
and quality with the price. Second is the opportunity by making high profit
margins by high price.
Flanking with size: Steve Jobs of Apple have great marketing
vision. With small and integrated circuits he introduced miniature products
like iPod which at once was taken by the customers. The best example of
flanking strategy is Volkswagen’s Beetle with General Motor’s big cars.
Volkswagen outplayed General Motors by introducing Beetle by flanking
technique.
Distribution Flanking: New distribution channel strategy can be
supported by flanking strategy. Watches used to sold in departmental stores until
Timex watches came and capture the market using flanking strategy by using the
drugstores.
Flanking is very
difficult strategy. It is note for research oriented marketers but hard-core
market leaders who have the ability of strong marketing vision and foresight. A
flanker always get support from industrial leaders who are struggling for
success with flanking moves. Creativity is the flanker’s currency of success.
Smart flanker can able to steal the competitive share with his or her smart
ability. The marketer should always remember the basic principle of flanking: “Rather
than competitor head on look for competitor’s weak point.”
Sources:
Marketing
Warfare by Al Ries and Jack Trout
marketingschools.org
scribd.com
The power of
Flanking by Al Ries
businessdictionary.com
