Analysis of Market Competition Strategies of Specific Enterprises I. Basic Strategies of Market Competition From the general law of market competition, there are three basic market strategies for enterprises to enhance their competitiveness and gain competitive advantage: cost-leading strategy, product differentiation strategy and centralized strategy (1) cost-leading strategy. Cost-leading strategy, also known as low-cost strategy, refers to reducing the production and sales costs of products in an effective way, and making the price of their products lower than that of competitors on the premise of ensuring the quality of products and services, thus rapidly expanding sales. Competitive strategy to increase market share. This strategy is mainly used in these situations: when the output of similar products produced by enterprises is large and the cost reduction potential is great; When enterprises want to maintain and expand market share in the face of strong competitors; In order to prevent more competitors from infiltrating into the sales market of similar products and build higher barriers to entry; When enterprises face the penetration of substitutes into the market, etc. There are many ways for enterprises to reduce costs. The basic methods include two aspects: first, expand the production scale, adopt advanced special technical equipment and production technology, and improve labor productivity and work efficiency; The second is to improve management, reduce the reserve of products in process, reduce waste and defective products, shorten the production cycle, and save all kinds of productive and unproductive expenses. In addition, enterprises can also take advantage of patented technology and raw material concessions to form a cost-leading advantage in the same industry. To achieve the above points, there must be two prerequisites: first, there is sufficient financial support; Second, there is extensive market support. (2) product differentiation strategy. Product differentiation strategy means that enterprises rely on their own proprietary technology and professional knowledge or master some patented technology and management facilities to provide products with better performance and quality than the existing standards for the society, which can be unique in the same industry or have special measures in the service field, and establish a special reputation among users through advertising and promotion activities, thus forming differentiation. The guiding ideology of product differentiation strategy lies in the uniqueness of product or service function, so that the price of products sold by it can be higher than that of general standard products. (3) Centralized strategy. Centralized strategy means that enterprises focus on a specific group of buyers, or a product with special purposes, or a specific region, in order to establish their own competitive advantage and market position, and at the same time, establish their own differences in product functions or production costs in this specific field and gain a dominant position. This strategy is suitable for enterprises that are not strong enough to gain advantages in the whole market, but only have local advantages. Second, competitors' competitive strategies in different competitive positions According to the differences in their competitive positions, market competitors can be divided into four types: market leaders, market challengers and market followers. (1) Market leader strategy. Market leader refers to the enterprise with the highest market share of related products. If market leaders fail to obtain legal monopoly position, they will inevitably face ruthless challenges from competitors, so they must be highly vigilant and adopt appropriate strategies. Market leaders can usually adopt the following three strategies in order to maintain their own advantages and leading position. ① Expand the whole market demand. Generally speaking, when the whole market develops, leading enterprises will gain the most, so market leaders should find new users, explore new uses and increase the usage of their products. Find new users, open up new uses, improve utilization rate and maintain market share. Enterprises in the position of market leaders must always guard against the challenges of competitors and defend their market position. Market leaders can adopt several defensive strategies. Position defense. This defense strategy is to build a defense line around the existing position, maintain the existing market strategy, and focus on maintaining the existing sales, products and shares. Flank defense. This defensive strategy means that market leaders should not only defend their own positions, but also establish some auxiliary bases as defensive positions. Attack first and then defend. Defense strategy refers to pre-emptive strike before competitors attack themselves. Counter-offensive defense When market leaders are attacked, they can counter the invaders' main market position. Mobile defense. This defensive strategy is not only to defend the current position, but also to expand new market positions. Market expansion can be achieved in two ways: market expansion and market diversification. Market expansion means that enterprises shift their attention from current products to the basic needs of current products, and develop all the science and technology that can meet this demand; Market diversification, that is, expanding to other markets unrelated to current products and implementing diversified operations. Retreat and defend. Defending all market positions is sometimes not worth the candle. In this case, we can implement strategic retreat, that is, give up some weak product markets and concentrate on doing a good job in major products and markets. ③ Increase market share. It is also an important way for market leaders to increase market share and maintain their leading position. Market leaders must consider the following three factors before pursuing market share. Anti-monopoly law. In order to protect free competition, the laws of many countries stipulate that when a company's market share exceeds a certain limit, it must be broken down into several competing small companies. Operating costs. Many products will have an optimal market share when the profit rate is the highest. When the market share continues to increase but does not exceed the optimal share, the profit rate of enterprises will increase with the increase of market share; When the market share exceeds the optimal share and continues to rise, the profit rate of enterprises will decrease with the increase of market share, mainly because the cost of increasing market share will increase. Marketing mix strategy. Some marketing methods are very effective in increasing market share, but they may not necessarily increase income. Only in these two cases, the market share is directly proportional to the rate of return: first, the unit cost does not decrease with the increase of market share, such as the T-car of Ford Company in the United States in the 1920s; Second, when providing high-quality products, the increase in sales price greatly exceeds the cost of improving quality. To sum up, market leaders must be good at expanding the total market demand, defending their market position, defending against the attacks of challengers, and increasing market share on the premise of ensuring the increase of income. Only in this way can they occupy the leading position in the market for a long time. (2) Market challenger strategy. Market challengers and market followers refer to those enterprises that are in a secondary position (second, third or even lower position) in the market. These companies in a secondary position can adopt two strategies: first, strive for market leadership, challenge competitors and become market challengers; The second is to settle for a secondary position, get as much income as possible in the state of "* * *", and become a market follower. (1) Determine strategic objectives and challenges. The strategic goal of most market challengers is to expand market share and improve profit rate. Attacking market leaders. This strategy is risky, but it has great potential benefits, especially when market leaders make mistakes and it has no effect on market services. Carry out product innovation in the whole market segment and surpass the leader. For example, Xerox developed a better copying technology (using dry copying instead of wet copying) and seized the copier market from 3M. Later, Canon occupied a large part of Xerox's market by developing desktops. Crack down on local enterprises with small scale, poor management and lack of funds. This kind of situation is more common, for example, after powerful foreign large enterprises enter the market, they beat up those local weak enterprises. In short, the strategic goal depends on the target. If market leaders are the target of attack, their goal may be to seize some market share; If small businesses are targeted, the goal may be to drive them out of the market. But in any case, as long as we challenge, we must abide by one principle: every action must point to a clear, definite and achievable goal. ② Choose the offensive strategy. After determining the strategic objectives and competitors, we should also choose the offensive strategy according to the situation of the enterprise itself and competitors. There are generally the following strategies to choose from. Frontal attack. The attacker concentrates all his strength to fight head-on with his opponent, which is called head-on attack (punching head-on). At this time, the attacker often attacks the strength of the other side rather than its weakness, and the outcome depends on whose strength and endurance are stronger. In a complete frontal attack, the attacker tries to compete with his opponent in terms of products, advertisements, prices, etc. It is almost impossible to win if the attacker has no advantage over the leader. In order to make a frontal attack work, the attacker must surpass his opponent in products, advertisements, prices and so on. Flank attack The place where competitors are expected to be attacked is often the area with strong defense, while its flank and rear strength are much weaker, so its weakness (blind spot) naturally becomes the target of public criticism. The main principle of flank attack is to concentrate on attacking the weak links of the other side. The attacker can pretend to attack the other side's well-defended front line, contain its main defensive force, and then launch a large-scale attack on its flank and back. This kind of flank attack is an excellent marketing strategy, especially suitable for attackers with less resources than their opponents. The flank attack can be realized from two aspects: one is geography; The other is market segmentation. Geographical flank attack refers to the challenger attacking the weak areas of competitors in the whole country and even the whole world; Segmented flank attack locates the market in the market segment that has not been occupied by the leader. For example, Japanese car companies chose consumers' demand for energy-efficient cars as their service market, thus occupying a blank market segment that was ignored by American car manufacturers. Surround the attack. Simple flank attack is to concentrate on occupying the market demand that competitors ignore, while encirclement attack refers to the attacker launching an all-round attack on several fronts, forcing competitors to make an all-round defense. Attackers can provide the market with all the products and services that competitors can provide, or even more, so that consumers can't refuse. This requires the attacker to mobilize rich resources to ensure that he can quickly defeat his opponent and make him unable to fight back. In addition, market segmentation plays an important role in the attack. Without market segmentation, the attacker's encirclement attack will become a frontal attack. If so, the attacker must have surpassed his opponent in some ways. A circuitous attack is an indirect attack strategy. This strategy refers to avoiding direct confrontation with opponents and attacking more vulnerable markets in order to expand their resource base. There are three ways to take: first, the company will diversify products that have nothing to do with the industry, which is beyond the power of market leaders; Second, diversify existing products and enter new markets, so as to stay away from the leaders. For example, in order to gain an advantage over Coca-Cola in China, Pepsi has set up its new bottle-making factory in the inland province of China, far away from the coastal cities where foreign beverage companies have started to operate; Third, adopt a leap-forward strategy and develop new technologies to replace existing products, especially in the high-tech field. This technological "leap" is extremely common. For example, Nintendo has gained a large market share in the video game market by introducing high technology and redefining the "battlefield". Guerrilla attack. This strategy is suitable for small-scale enterprises with insufficient funds. Guerrilla attacks are small-scale and intermittent attacks against different parts of the other side. The purpose is to harass the "enemy" and make it exhausted, and then finally seize the permanent position. Guerrilla attacks can be attacked by traditional or non-traditional methods. Including selective price reduction and fierce promotion. It is difficult to succeed only by a certain strategy. Usually, we can improve our offensive strategy by designing a set of strategy combinations, that is, the overall strategy. The above market challengers are various. It is impossible for a challenger to use all strategies at the same time, but it is also very market-oriented. (3) Market follower strategy. Market followers refer to enterprises that imitate or follow market leaders in marketing strategies such as products, technologies, prices, channels and promotions. The core of market follower strategy is to find a development path that avoids touching the interests of competitors. Followers' strategies can be divided into three categories according to "the closeness of followers". (1) followed closely. Followers try to imitate leaders' strategies in market segmentation and marketing mix, but they never surpass or stimulate leaders. Some even want to survive and develop through leading enterprises to develop markets or products, so as to grow with the market. ② Distance following. Followers still follow the leading enterprises in target market, product innovation, price level and distribution channels, and adopt different strategies from leading enterprises in other minor aspects. 3 choose to follow. Followers follow leading enterprises in some aspects, but in others they are independent and sometimes innovative, but they still avoid stimulating leading enterprises. Enterprises adopting this strategy may develop into market challengers. (4) Market niche strategy. Niche market refers to enterprises that provide products and services for small market segments that are not of interest to large companies, and small market segments that are not of interest to large companies are called niche markets. The role of niche market is to clean up the mess and fill the gap. Although the niche market only occupies a small share in the overall market, it can fully understand and meet the needs of a certain market segment, so it can grow rapidly by providing high value-added products. Most enterprises will adopt this strategy when their strength is weak in the early stage of development. ① Characteristics of niche market. A good niche market should have these characteristics: sufficient market potential and purchasing power; Profits have the potential for growth; Not attractive to major competitors; Enterprises have the necessary resources and ability to occupy this basic point of filling vacancies; The existing reputation of the enterprise is enough to stand up to its competitors. The key to developing niche market is to realize specialization. There are mainly several ways. End-user specialization. Companies can provide services for a certain kind of end users, such as aviation food companies that provide aviation food for civil aviation companies and passengers. Vertical specialization. The company can provide services for some vertical levels in the production and distribution cycle, such as foundries specializing in casting and aluminum products factories specializing in aluminum ingots and aluminum parts. Specialized customer scale. Companies can specialize in serving a certain scale (large, medium and small) of customer groups, and market niches specialize in serving small-scale customer groups that big companies do not pay attention to. Specialization of special customers. Companies can specialize in selling products to one or several big customers. For example, many small companies only provide all products to one big company. Geographic market specialization. The company only operates in a certain place and region. Specialization of products or product lines. The company only deals in a certain product or a certain product line. For example, a hosiery company specializes in producing nylon stockings of different colors, and a paper mill specializes in producing cement wrapping paper. Specialization of product characteristics. The company specializes in a certain kind of products or special products, such as an antique bookstore specializing in antique books, and a company specializing in renting children's toys. Specialization of customer orders. The company specializes in taking orders from customers to produce special products. Quality-price specialization. The company specializes in providing services for a certain level of market. Hewlett-Packard Company, for example, specializes in the microcomputer market with high quality and high price. Service specialization. The company provides one or several services that other companies don't have. For example, a home service company provides on-site pipeline dredging service, and a bank can accept customers' phone calls to apply for loans and send cash to the door. Specialization of sales channels. The company only provides services for certain sales channels. For example, a soft drink company decided to produce only large containers of soft drinks and sell them only at gas stations.