Defensive Marketing Strategies : Protectionist Ways of Companies During Marketing

What are Defensive Marketing strategies?

Defensive marketing is the strategy for the industry leaders and employees to maintain their current position in the market. The strategy mainly focuses on protecting the business value of a company so that it does not lose customers because of the competition. It helps a company perceive the profitability market position and engage customers better. It is important because it provides business confidence and shares against competitors or rivals. A brand needs to stay aware of the competitors so that the process of work is focused and specific when it is needed. Dalhousie Company, to protect the existing customer engages new customers and helps to beat the competitors in the market. Among all the market strategies, defence strategies can be classified when a company uses the strategy in marketing leadership to maintain the position and defend the market share of the individual from attacks by competitors. Six common strategies are position defence, counteroffensive defence, mobile defence, contraction defence and franking defence.

What are the strategic points of defensive marketing strategy?

The major strategic points of a defensive strategy are-

• Attacking the benefits that mean companies are required to see the proper way of highlighting the product in the competition and weakening the other products in the competition.
• The companies are also required to highlight the risks, which means the company must measure and state the risks that the brand may face during the marketing.
• Changing the product price as per the market value of the product in the industry is another strategic point of defensive strategy that may help in gaining attention from the customers.
• Another effective strategic point is to block competitors' channels in the market so that the brand can take most of the attention of the customers in the market.
• Maintaining the advertisement of the products the brand is currently working on is another key point of defensive marketing where the brand is required to highlight the specification of the product and maintain its value in the market.

• Improving the threatened or rare product can also be considered a strategic point where the brand must maintain and produce a product that is rarely available and popular in demand.

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How to Protect Your Brand and Market Position?

Different strategies can help to protect a brand and the brand position in the market like-

• Protecting the web content of the brand. Many founders know how to trademark the brand name; still, some founders will overlook protecting the content. Making the copyright of the content and making it certified can enhance the value of the business brand.
• IP protection should also be used to protect a brand. While securing a brand and its contents, it is important to use proper intellectual property safeguards. It can be done using trademarks, copyright symbols, patents, and other safety measurements.
• Protecting a brand considers protection from competitors also. The best way to do this is monitoring the market by monitoring the competition gives the brand a pre-alert about the scenario in the market and helps the individual prepare and take the needed action.
• In the growing world of technology and new competition every day, a company must match and provide better services than the competitors. To do that, the company needs to keep in mind reducing prices or matching the price can help in beating the competitors in the market. While reducing the price, the company can position itself as the premium option to provide extra special offers at a higher price, which can attract customers better.
• Providing better prices will not improve the brand value and customer experience properly. To stay in the market, the companies must provide better products by improving them properly. The brands are required to be careful while changing the existing product because it may affect customer satisfaction also. While improving the product, it needs to keep in mind that the product's originality does not get lost.

What is the difference between offensive and defensive marketing?

Offensive and defensive marketing both have proper benefits depending on the position of the brand and how successful the business is in the market. The offensive strategy generally means heating the market strong and establishing a presence. In contrast, defensive marketing refers to the meaning of keeping the current position of the brand in the industry as well as maintaining its protection. Each type of marketing requires proper planning and resource allocation to engage the largest number of customers. A defensive marketing strategy is mainly reactive to the competition in the market. It seeks to counter the different product claims made by the competition or utilise the competitor's advantage. The companies use defensive marketing to establish and present the product's effectiveness in the wake of competition. The offensive marketing strategy seeks to attack the market or competitors by targeting the specific weakness of the individuals. The offensive approach highlights the company's strengths and pink points to the competitor's weakness by comparison in the market. This strategy is mainly used by companies with higher worker shares and high power.

What are the examples of Successful defensive strategies? 

There are different types of differences strategies like-

The joint venture, where two businesses formally set the cooperation for achieving certain goals. For example- Microsoft and general electric started the joint venture with the name "Caradigm" back in 2011. Both shared and worked with the resources to develop a better service.

Retrenchment is an aggressive Business strategy where the business heads boldly decide to reduce the business operation and expenses. For example- a specific location of a company is closed and not in use, and then the management decides to sell the asset to invent something else.

Liquidation is similar to a retrenchment strategy for helping the business when they are cutting down the prices specifically. It is used when a part of the business continuously declines and loses shares. There is no specific way to set the business back then the organisation besides selling the assets off.