《Defensive Marketing》.pdf

BEST PRACTIC E Defensive Marketing How a Strong Incumbent Can Protect Its Position by John H. Roberts Facing deregulation, IARKETING IS TYPICALLY SEEN as ers it wants to keep and how it might M keep them. But a new entrant has the a tool for growth. A company can the Australian telephone use it to successfully launch a product, advantage of being able to cherry-pick connpany Telstra developed make inroads into a new market, or gain valuable customers, raiding the most share with existing products in its cur- fertile segments in the market, while a marketing strategy that rent market. But for nearly every new the incumbent has to defend across its blunted the attack of product launch, market entrant, or in- entire customer base. dustry upstart grabbing market share, When the Australian telecommunica- a potentially powerful there is an incumbent that must defend tions market was fully deregulated in its position. If the defender cant hang on the Iate-i99os, state-owned Telstra faced new rival. to what it has, it loses the foundation competition for the first time. And its on which to build its own growth. new rival, a joint subsidiary of American While there has been much research company BellSouth and UK company on market