Answer to Question #166693 in Marketing for Sunny

Question

A market follower must know how to hold current customers and win a fair share of new customers. Distinguish the four brand broad strategies of followers.

Answer 1

The four brand strategies of the follower.

1.Counterfeiter or fraudster.

This strategy is common in electronic and auto parts. The followers can be counterfeiters by duplicating leaders' products or packages and the sell them in the market through disgraceful distributors. However, the followers prevent legal complications by marking the products secretly formulating the product's basic features and quality to match the original commodity. The increased availability and affordability of the duplicate product make the commodity be sold without the knowledge.

2. Emulator or clone.

The strategy is typically practiced in computer businesses. The doner emulates product aspects comprised of leader's products, advertising, distribution among others. Nevertheless, the commodity and packaging may resemble that of a leader even if the brand name is slightly different for instance, coka kola instead of coca-cola.

3. Adaptor.

This strategy is widely practiced by most Japanese companies and acquired superior items without bearing innovation costs. The followers adopt and improve the leader's product by modifying the Original commodity and develop little different ones. Moreover, the adopter decides to sell the products in different areas to avoid direct confrontation with the leader.

4. Imitators.

Some followed prefer to copy some aspects of leader product while sustaining the diversity in packaging, sale promotion, distribution, pricing, and so forth. Most often the imitated products are sold at a cheap price compared to the original. Though, the customer can early differentiate between the imitated product from the original the leader does not confront the imitator unless the impostor aggressively attacks the leader.