Would you like to take your company from market leader to household name overnight? A new research study finds that marketers who build excitement, early impressions, and trust among consumers are the ones who will ultimately be successful. Efforts to increase customer satisfaction and reduce costs have only increased consumers’ confidence in businesses and products. But as some of these efforts may go unheeded, others are being overlooked.
Market leader strategies refer to the actions and approaches undertaken by a company leading within a particular industry or market segment. Being a market leader means having the largest market share, often accompanied by a strong brand reputation and customer loyalty. Market leader strategies are designed to maintain or strengthen the company’s dominant position, ward off competition, and drive further growth and profitability.
Read on for a look at some market leader strategies and action plan ways to implement them wisely.
Contents
Market Leader Strategies: The Need for a Strategy
In an ever-changing world, business competition is intense. Companies compete head-on with one another to A Complete SWOT Analysis Of Swiggy. While this may seem like a constant source of stress and anxiety for businesses, it makes sense from a business standpoint. It’s not always possible to control the choices available and what services or products are available. However, you can manage your environment in various ways to increase your chances of attracting and retaining customers. While it may feel intense, you can learn from some market leader strategies to help you stand out.
The global marketplace is still in flux, and the market remains unpredictable. However, several factors have conspired to make the current period exciting for digital transformation and e-commerce marketers. Here’s why you should learn and implement market leader strategies:
- The growth potential is now bigger than ever.
- Second, as we enter a critical period for digital transformation and e-commerce marketing, we see opportunities that were non-existent a few years ago.
- Third, the competition is fierce. Learning from market leader strategies can help you stand out from the crowd.
- Finally, as we enter this critical phase of our transformation and e-commerce transformation journey, we see new types of marketers. They are capitalizing on the unique benefits of digital transformation and e-commerce to drive more extraordinary customer experiences.
See Also: What are the Disadvantages of eCommerce?
Live Examples
Now that we have gone through the need to come up with ideal strategies as a market leader let’s look at the best market leader strategies:
Apple
Undeniably, Apple is one of the finest examples of leadership in marketing in the electronics industry. In the early 1980s, Apple faced financial problems that led to a decline in market share. This decline resulted from an inability to produce products fast enough and cheaply to compete with IBM. They also lost market share because they could not react quickly enough to changing technology, customer needs, and preferences.
Apple’s centralized structure made it difficult for them to respond quickly enough because everything had to go through the CEO for approval. They also lacked vertical integration, which meant they could not control all aspects of production from start to finish, which led them to have less control over quality and costs, especially when outsourcing production overseas.
The company’s response was the “Apple Turnaround” plan, which would decentralize their organization and create six autonomous business units. These units would be responsible for designing, manufacturing, and marketing their products with little oversight from headquarters. This remains one of the best market leader strategies. It also led to them gaining and maintaining a market share leadership in the phone industry.
Apple also has an excellent supply chain strategy. They have worked with suppliers to create a closed-loop supply chain that allows them to monitor all aspects of production from start to finish. This allows them to track and correct problems quickly, which helps keep costs low while ensuring product quality remains high. This is a type of Diversification process that is essential for a business.
Advantages
- High-quality products based on the latest technology
- Strong brand image and loyal customer base
- Excellent supply chain strategy allows them to monitor all aspects of production from start to finish.
- A closed-loop system that allows them to monitor all aspects of production from start to finish.
- This also helps them track and correct problems quickly, which helps keep costs low while ensuring product quality remains high.
Disadvantages
- Highly centralized, which can lead to lower quality control in some locations.
- A lack of vertical integration can lead to higher costs and less flexibility.
Apple has had a very successful market leadership strategy. They have maintained its strong brand image by consistently producing high-quality products and providing excellent customer service.
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Coca-Cola
Coca-Cola is another example of excellent market leadership that has done exceptionally well in its industry. The company began by promoting its brand through local bottlers. Still, it soon gained enough popularity to sell directly to consumers and bottlers, distributors, retailers, and even restaurants under license agreements.
They have also created a variety of new flavors for their products to help keep up with the ever-changing wants of consumers. It is no wonder that Coca-Cola has maintained its market dominance in the soft drink industry.
Coca-Cola develops a long-term relationship with customers through consistent, high-quality products and services, such as customer loyalty programs (Coca-Cola Rewards), to help develop a brand identity in customers’ minds; this helps increase brand loyalty.
Advantages
- Focus on the product.
- Focus on the distribution channel.
- Focus on the customer.
- Focus on the competition.
- Stay current with trends and technology.
- Use creativity and innovation to solve problems and create new opportunities for growth
- Develop new products and services that meet customer needs or fill new niches in the market.
Disadvantages
- High levels of competition
- Limited resources required to enter the market (e.g., distribution networks, equipment.)
- Consumers are highly loyal to other brands (especially Pepsi) and are not easily persuaded to switch brands.
See Also: The Importance of Service Marketing – Meaning, Types, and Examples
McDonald’s
How can we talk about market leader strategies and not McDonald’s? McDonald’s is another market leader example that has done exceptionally well in its industry. The company began by franchising restaurants to local owners who would buy the rights to use the McDonald’s name and recipes. This strategy allowed the company to expand into different regions without building and maintaining restaurants in those areas.
The company has also expanded its menu to include other items to compete with other food chains. In addition, it has also pioneered offering fast delivery services for customers who want their food quickly.
McDonald’s expands into different countries by franchising restaurants instead of building them from scratch. This allows them to make much more money than if they had to maintain all the franchises themselves.
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Advantages
- They can expand very quickly with little or no capital expenditures since they don’t have to build new buildings or hire new employees. The franchise owners do this for them, meaning they have more money left over for advertising and promotions while still making a profit on each franchise (as long as they have an excellent franchisee).
- Also, since the franchisees take care of many risk factors, McDonald’s can concentrate on business expansion instead of worrying about how many burgers are being sold at each restaurant. Example: Instead of opening its store in Russia, McDonald’s decided to sell franchises there (and in other countries).
- This way, it doesn’t have to worry about finding local suppliers and managing Russian operations because its franchisees handle that side.
- It also has guaranteed revenue streams because it gets a cut of the franchise fees, which is much more predictable than dealing with fluctuating sales.
Disadvantages
- The main disadvantage is that they don’t have as much direct control over what happens at the franchises. For example, if a franchisee suddenly goes out of business, McDonald’s loses money because it doesn’t get any cut of whatever sales are made there.
- They also can’t change the menu or decor at the franchises without getting permission from the franchisee first.
However, McDonald’s has been very successful in mitigating these risks by requiring its franchisees to sign contracts that give them control over nearly every aspect of their business (from how many employees they can hire to where they can advertise) and by heavily promoting itself as a brand name so that people will buy it regardless of who owns or runs each restaurant.
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Frequently Asked Questions
How Important is Brand Identity to Establish Yourself as A Market Leader?
The term brand identity refers to the visual and verbal representation of a brand that is used in marketing materials. The term branding refers to how consumers perceive a brand. It also relates to how a company markets its products and what strategies it uses for promotion.
Why is Coca-Cola so Successful?
Coca-Cola has been able to dominate the soft drink industry for over 100 years because of its marketing strategies. Along with that, a strong focus on the product, distribution channel, customer, and competition helped.
Should A Business Focus on a Niche Market?
A niche market is a smaller subset of a larger market. It is crucial that you start catering to a niche. After that, you can eventually advance to becoming a more general company.
Conclusion
Apple, Coca-Cola, and McDonald’s strategies are the best market leader strategies we can take inspiration from. Standing out from the competition may be accomplished by studying market leader strategies. Businesses that create anticipation, favorable first impressions, and customer trust will eventually succeed.
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