Offensive strategy

The great mystery isn't that people do things badly but that they occasionally do a few things well. The only thing that is universal is incompetence. Strength is always specific! - Peter Drucker

Time . . . is less likely to bring favor to the victor than to the vanquished. . . An offensive war requires above all a quick, irresistible decision. .  Any kind of interruption, pause, or suspension of activity is inconsistent with the nature of offensive war."

War! There are two types… one is to defend when attacked and other to just conquer because you wanted to be bigger, stronger and greater and more powerful. It’s an age old strategy, followed by kings and queens who ruled. The new era is not far from that reality, every person who owns a business wants to rule, and in this case money is a matter too. Most of the times when a market is attacked unproved, aggression becomes the key word to wage the war. But is aggression sufficient? A clear strategy should accompany especially when the first move is being made to break smooth flowing stream.

This is a direct attack. There is no waiting involved here for an opponent to make a move. It is almost as good as inviting your defending firm to enter into a war rather than waiting for a reaction. There are multiple ways of planting an offensive strategy. It can be done by cutting off the rivals business from the market either by taking over their company on the whole or by taking over their market share to weaken their position. Sometimes companies keep a low and stealthy profile to hide and pounce and attack at the right moment.

Why should I use offensive strategy?

This strategy comes into play when the war footing needs to be strong and the main agenda is to acquire new and additional customers with a larger market share, and those customers having a bigger purchasing power. There has to be sufficient provision in this case for a more aggressive price war and promotional and advertising strategy. The strategy has a characteristic to attack direct defense and it requires strength and tactic to withstand the defense right from the beginning

Ignore the noise

It is often believed that to have an offensive strategy one needs to think out of the box. What is often a success strategy, and a tried and tested method needs to be counter attacked to bring down the opponent. Encouragement might not be one of the strongest backups for from your peers as it means directly challenging the successful and well established methods of your competitor who has done so well in the market. Hence innovation should be the name of the game to confuse opposition and weaken their foundation.

Example:

MS produced software for Altair the first personal computer. Intel which developed the chip for Altair believed that it’s impossible to produce basic language for it. However MS went ahead and developed a language in 8 weeks and took over its competitor IBMs market capitalization which was already 17 years into business when MS entered.

Don’t play a gentleman’s game

Aggression is the key word to define offensive marketing. The techniques involve pulling up opponent’s weakness mercilessly and highlighting your own strengths. It requires a certain amount of manipulation and explanation of customers to believe that your product is better. However the ground reality should in fact be that your product is better. The countermoves done by competition should be taken seriously and sometimes continuous blows and attacks are required to make the opposition to take a back foot

Example:

With the release of iPhone 5, its most fiercest competition Samsung, launched a full page ad in a lot of countries stating that Samsung galaxy is a lot better than the “FRUITY” ones latest offering and simply does not take a genius to know Samsung was the first to launch a revolutionary phone.

                       Define your target

 Most marketing technique generally is long term. It might take a months or years for one to develop a successful strategy.  However offensive marketing can have both long and short term objectives. In long term the objective might be to achieve something that has been to not look at immediate results but that needs time and gap for long term profitability. For short term goal companies need strong and tactical moves and executions. The turnaround of results needs to be immediate and there can be no room for reactions and counter moves. It’s a onetime act and needs to be undefeatable and very difficult to challenge.

Example:

As a long term plan Singapore airlines always focused on its strength of inflight service. When other competitors adapted to this as their USP as well Singapore airlines made embraced a quick and short term advances for highlighting positivity’s such as modern fleet, outstanding ground service, entertainment and comfort in first class cabins. Why is it short term? These comforts were not created by Singapore airlines suddenly. They always existed and only that it was portrayed in bright light when it was needed.

                          Judge your opponent

Assess and judge opponents strength and position. Every company has a strategy of its own. Identify and attack the strategy. Analyze your own strength against the competition and arrive at a conclusion on how to get there. If the gap between you and completion in terms of strength ramp up yours before the strategy is established. It would also be a good idea to identify the competitions strength weakness instead of just strength. It’s a decision between STRENGTH Vs. STRENGTH OT STRENGTH Vs. WEAKNESS. However the moral of story is know all about the enemy before planning an attack.

Example:

 Coke VS. Pepsi. They have fought from one century to another. There was one particular war strategy adopted by Pepsi which helped them win hands down for a period. The bottle of coke has always been a symbol of its brand with the right size, shape and fit into the hand with a perfect price. Pepsi introduced a larger bottle with a lesser price. Coke could do nothing to increase the size keeping the shape intact. Further the dispensing machines of coke were designed only for nickels and hence price could not be changed. PEPSI HIT THE NAIL TO SEEK THE WEAKNESS ON COKES BIGGEST STRENGTH

Draw your boundaries

Offensive strategy maintains a very thin line between being successful and ending up with a law suit. It is extremely important to discover loop holes before announcing something in the market about competition. What might come up as denial and legal attack from competition must be preempted. However it is best not to give companies an opportunity to sue you in the first place and fine you up with additional expenses and lose time and money rather than gain the same which was the goal to begin with

  

Example: IBM won a law suit against Hitachi on the grounds that they stole IBM software. Ultimately Hitachi had to rewrite all the old programs and develop new ones, so that they did not interfere with IBM intellectual property rights.