Name: Umair Zafar Reg No:46441
Course: CBMS Instructor: Minhaj Ikram
Q # 1)
Answer.
Competition forces companies to constantly engage in offensive and defensive marketing
strategies. Rivalry occurs because one or more competitors either feels the pressure or sees an
opportunity to enter an industry or to improve its position within an industry. Companies respond
to competitor challenges by counterattacking with increasing advertising expenditures, cutting,
prices, increasing innovation and introducing new products.
Defensive strategies:
The purpose of defensive strategies is to make a possible attack unattractive and
discourage potential challengers from attacking another firm.
Incumbents try to shape the challenger's expectations about the industry’s profitability
and convince them that the return on their investment will be so low.
Incumbent needs to take timely action to discourage a challenger from making any
substantial commitment.
Marketing managers and business strategists have developed several defensive marketing
strategies.
This strategy includes two strategies -
1. Pre-entry strategies -
Signaling
Fortify and defend
Cover al bases
Continuous improvement
Capacity expansion
2. Post-entry strategies -
Defend position before entrant becomes established
Introduce fighting brands
Engage in cross-parry
Offensive strategy
Firms engage in offensive marketing strategies to improve their own competitive position
by taking market share away from rivals. This strategy includes direct and indirect attacks
or moving into new markets to avoid incumbent competitors
If a firm possesses superior resources a direct attack may be called for. However, if a firm
faces superior rivals, indirect attacks are more appropriate than direct, frontal attacks.
In this strategy includes -
1) Launch a frontal attack
It involves attacking a competitor head-on. It can be pure frontal attacks by going after
the customers of the attacked firm with similar products, prices, promotion and
distribution. Such attacked sari very risky, however because victory is never assured
unless the aggressor has a clear competitive advantage over the defendant. For this
reason, a modifies frontal attack - a limited version of pure frontal attack - may be a more
appropriate choice.
2) Launch a flanking attack
It is used to exploit an opponent’s weakness while avoiding the risks associated with
other offensive marketing strategies such as frontal attacks. Based on the principle of the
path of least resistance attacking competitors in areas which they are least capable of
defending.
3) Launch a guerrilla attack
It is used against market leaders by challengers who are small and have limited resources.
This strategy is less ambitious in scope than other offensive marketing strategies and it
often aims at harassing, demoralizing and weakening an opponent through random
attacks intended to keep it off- balance and continuously guessing about where the next
attack will take place.
4) Engage in strategic encirclement
It entails targeting and surrounding a competitor with the purpose of completely
defeating it. The strategic objective of encirclement strategies is long-term market
dominance.
5) Engage in predatory strategy
It is typically entails accepting lower profits for the purpose of keeping new competitors
out or inflicting damage on existing rivals and forcing them to exit the market.
6) Seek undefended markets
This market entails avoiding head-on confrontations with entrenched rivals that often
lead to aggressive price-cutting, advertising wars or costly efforts to outspend or out
differentiate their products.
7) Engage in underdog strategy
It involves a small and usually young firm taking on a much larger competitor. It is in
many respects, similar to the classic battle between David and goliath. This strategy
[promise to offer an attractive alternative to what customers have been buying.
8) Engage in judo strategy
It is an offensive marketing strategy suitable for small companies willing to take on larger
opponents. (attack weakness with strength, flexibility, leverage)
9) Engage in the pivot and the hammer strategy
This strategy combines defensive and offensive strategies and it is a strategy associated
with even duduk, a business strategist.
Q # 2)
Answer.
Functions of Attitude
1) The adjustment function-
Some attitudes serve to enable people to attain desired goals or avoid undesirable
circumstance.
2) The knowledge function-
Some attitudes are useful because they help to make the world more understandable, they
help people ascribe causes to events and direct attention towards features of people or
situations that are likely to be useful in making sense of them.
3) The ego-defensive function-
Some attitudes serve to protect the person that holds them from psychotically damaging
events or information by allowing them to be recast in less damaging or threatening
ways.
4) The value expressive function-
Some attitudes are important to a person because they express values that are integral to
that person's self-concept. The attitude is, consequently, part of who they are, and the
expression of that attitudes communicates important things about that person to others.
