Clausewitz said: The first, highest and most far-reaching judgment that politicians and commanders must make is to determine the strategic form they are implementing. Just can't make a wrong judgment, and can't let judgment run counter to the essence.
There are four forms of commercial warfare: offensive warfare, defensive warfare, flank warfare and guerrilla warfare, and appropriate strategic forms need to be taken according to the situation.
Which form you take depends on your position in the strategic pattern. Take the domestic automobile industry in the United States as an example. General Motors will fight defensive battles, Ford will fight offensive battles, Chrysler will fight flank battles, and American cars will fight guerrilla warfare.
Article 1: Only market leaders can fight defensive wars.
Rule 2: The best defense is to have the courage to attack yourself.
Article 3: A powerful attack must be stopped.
The protagonist of the defensive war is the market leader. Who is the leader? It is not necessarily the actual leading brand in the market, but who is the leader in the customer's mental cognition. Only by establishing a leading position in the eyes of customers can we have a strong force.
Defensive warfare needs to be ready to fight back at any time, with the goal of winning peace and forcing competitors to turn into sporadic guerrilla warfare.
Article 1: The strength of a leader's position is an important consideration. When the second or third company attacks, it needs to pay attention to what the leader does.
Article 2: Find the weakness in the leader's strength and attack it. This was vividly demonstrated in the Coca-Cola War and the Hamburg War.
Article 3: Attack on the narrowest front possible. The cost of "all-front combat" is too high, and only leaders can afford it. In offensive warfare, we should try our best to narrow the front and move closer to a single product.
Offensive warfare is not an easy task. As clausewitz's second strategic principle (the principle of defensive superiority) said, the defensive side has a greater chance of winning.
It is not impossible to defeat the monopolist in the market by using the strategy of gradual war. Monopolists look particularly powerful, but their strength also has weaknesses.
Rule 1: The best flank action should be carried out in the uncontroversial area. You need to bypass the leader and launch an attack instead of confronting him head-on.
Article 2: Tactical surprise attack should be an important part of the plan. Flank warfare is essentially a surprise attack and needs to be taken by surprise.
Rule 3: Pursuit is as important as attack. Success breeds success. The initial success needs follow-up to win a lasting victory.
Low-cost flank warfare. Tip: Reduce costs in areas that customers don't notice or care about.
High-priced flank warfare. Features: There are many market opportunities, a wide range of applications and many profits.
Small product side station &; Large-scale product flank war. The size of the product can be the key factor of surprise attack, and the key point is to achieve differentiation.
Channel flanking warfare opens up new channels, so don't compete with your opponents in frontal warfare. For example, Avon left the mall and spread among people. For example, the pantyhose brand L'eggs sells stockings and eggs together.
Characteristic flank warfare. Develop the functions of new products and strive for new market opportunities, such as Hao Qing toothpaste impacting traditional toothpaste with gel paste.
Low calorie flank warfare. In view of the fact that consumers advocate slimming, low-calorie products are introduced to meet the demand.
It is necessary to influence consumers' choices and enhance the possibility of users trying new products and brands;
Need the "cooperation" of industry leaders. For example, IBM underestimated the potential of personal computers, leaving a market space for Apple to "take off";
Control the production preparation time and put new products into the market as soon as possible. Once the production cycle is too long, it will lose the advantage of "surprise".
Find a small enough market segment. This does not change the principle of military strength in commercial warfare, but narrows the battlefield as much as possible to obtain relative military advantage;
No matter how hard you work, never act like a leader. Large companies are well-organized and fully staffed, and guerrilla enterprises need to streamline their institutions and be quick and sensitive;
Prepare to retreat at the first sign of failure. "Stay in the green hills, don't be afraid of running out of firewood" and "the boat is small and easy to turn around" is a big advantage of the guerrillas.
Geographical guerrilla warfare. Guerrillas can attack products or services of foreign countries on their own territory;
Population guerrilla warfare. Attract specific groups, such as customer groups divided by age, income, occupation, etc.
Industrial guerrilla warfare. Focus on specific industries and focus on business. The business scale is small, but it is stable enough;
Product guerrilla warfare. Using a single product to focus on the small-scale market, with low sales, will not arouse the interest of large companies;
Flank warfare is very similar to guerrilla warfare. The fundamental difference between the two is that guerrilla warfare takes victory as its first goal and does not seize the territory of market leaders. The purpose of flank warfare is to seize the market leader's territory.
The four forms of commercial warfare here are very similar to those mentioned in Sun Tzu's Art of War. Know yourself and yourself.
Any opponent has weaknesses. According to the characteristics of opponents, formulate corresponding strategies to deal with them. Only the right strategy can lead to the victory of the result.