Coopetition describes a recently modern phenomenon where organizations both compete and cooperate, which is also known as cooperative competition. A recent example is how the Netflix streaming platform has been among the major customers of Amazon AWS cloud infrastructure, while Amazon Prime has been among the competitors of the Netflix Prime content platform.
Aspect
Explanation
Concept
Coopetition, a portmanteau of “cooperation” and “competition,” is a business strategy where organizations simultaneously cooperate with some competitors while competing fiercely with others. This approach acknowledges that in certain industries or markets, cooperation can be just as valuable as competition. It involves a delicate balance between collaborating on mutually beneficial goals and protecting one’s competitive advantage. Coopetition allows companies to leverage the strengths of both collaboration and competition to drive innovation, expand markets, and achieve shared objectives.
Key Components
Coopetition involves several key components: – Collaboration: Organizations cooperate with competitors on specific projects, initiatives, or objectives where they share common interests. – Competition: Simultaneously, they compete with these same competitors in other aspects of their business. – Mutual Benefit: Coopetition should result in mutual benefits for all parties involved. Each organization gains value from the collaboration while preserving its competitive edge in other areas. – Strategic Alliances: Strategic alliances, joint ventures, partnerships, and industry consortia are common forms of coopetition.
Application
Coopetition is widely applied in various industries and scenarios: – Technology: Tech companies often collaborate on open-source projects while fiercely competing in the market. – Automotive: Car manufacturers cooperate on the development of common technologies like electric vehicle charging standards while competing for market share. – Pharmaceuticals: Pharmaceutical companies may collaborate on research for rare diseases but compete in the sale of drugs for more common conditions. – Sports: In sports, teams cooperate with each other to organize leagues and events while competing on the field.
Benefits
Coopetition offers several benefits: – Innovation: Collaboration with competitors can lead to innovation, as organizations pool resources, share expertise, and tackle complex challenges together. – Market Expansion: By working together, companies can enter new markets or expand their reach more effectively than they could individually. – Risk Mitigation: Sharing risks and costs can be advantageous, especially in industries with high research and development expenses. – Cost Efficiency: Coopetition can reduce duplication of efforts and save costs in areas where collaboration is more efficient.
Challenges
Challenges associated with coopetition include: – Trust: Building trust among competitors can be challenging, as organizations must strike a balance between cooperation and protecting their interests. – Conflict of Interest: Differing objectives and strategies can lead to conflicts of interest within coopetition arrangements. – Intellectual Property: Safeguarding intellectual property and proprietary information in a cooperative setting requires careful management.
Real-World Application
Examples of coopetition can be found in industries such as telecommunications, where companies collaborate on the development of industry standards (e.g., 4G, 5G) while fiercely competing for customers. – The airline industry sees coopetition with airlines forming alliances (e.g., Star Alliance) to offer passengers a broader network of routes while maintaining competition on ticket pricing. – In the retail sector, retailers may collaborate on supply chain efficiencies while competing for market share.
Online content provider Netflix can support seamless global service by using Amazon Web Services (AWS). AWS enables Netflix to quickly deploy thousands of servers and terabytes of storage within minutes. Users can stream Netflix shows and movies from anywhere in the world, including on the web, on tablets, or on mobile devices such as iPhones.
Netflix never built its own data centers (today, Netflix is mostly hosted on Amazon AWS).
Amazon AWS infrastructure and architecture, which hosts Netflix’s content platform
Why didn’t Netflix build its own data centers?
In reality, Netflix is focused on providing great content and building its brand through that.
That is why, in these years, we’re assisting the “mediafication” of Netflix, and I won’t be surprised if in the coming years, at a certain point, produced content investments will pass the licensed content investments.
Netflix is a subscription-based business model making money with three simple plans: basic, standard, and premium, giving access to stream series, movies, and shows. Leveraging on a streaming platform, Netflix generated over $29.6 billion in 2021, with an operating income of over $6 billion and a net income of over $5 billion. Starting in 2013, Netflix started to develop its own content under the Netflix Originals brand, which today represents the most important strategic asset for the company that, in 2022, counted almost 223 million paying members worldwide.In 2022, Netflix had 230 million paid subscribers, a growth compared to the almost 222 million paid subscribers in 2021.
Key Highlights
Coopetition: Coopetition refers to the phenomenon where organizations simultaneously compete and cooperate with each other. This term describes a modern business practice in which companies maintain both competitive and collaborative relationships with one another.
Netflix and Amazon AWS: An example of coopetition is the relationship between Netflix and Amazon AWS. Netflix, a major customer of Amazon AWS, relies on AWS’s cloud infrastructure to support its streaming services. However, Amazon Prime, which offers its own content streaming platform, competes with Netflix’s content platform.
Netflix’s Infrastructure Choice: Netflix chose not to build its own data centers and instead relies heavily on Amazon AWS to host its streaming platform. This decision allows Netflix to focus on content creation and brand-building, leveraging Amazon’s robust cloud infrastructure.
Business Model and Revenue: Netflix operates on a subscription-based business model with different plans offering access to streaming content. As of 2022, Netflix had around 230 million paid subscribers worldwide. Its revenue in 2021 surpassed $29.6 billion, with significant operating and net income.
Content Strategy: Netflix started producing its own content under the Netflix Originals brand in 2013. This strategic move has become a vital asset for the company, helping it differentiate from competitors and drive subscriber growth.
Additional Examples
Airline Alliances:
Star Alliance: Comprising airlines like Lufthansa, United, and Air Canada, these competitors collaborate to provide passengers with extensive route networks and shared benefits.
SkyTeam: Airlines like Delta, KLM, and Korean Air form part of this alliance, allowing passengers to seamlessly transfer between member airlines.
Oneworld: American Airlines, British Airways, and Cathay Pacific are among the members, offering passengers a global network of flights.
Automotive Industry:
Toyota and BMW: Collaborated on hybrid technology development to improve fuel efficiency and reduce emissions in their vehicles.
Ford and General Motors: Competing American automakers occasionally collaborate on projects like jointly developing a new generation of automatic transmissions.
Pharmaceutical Research:
Consortia: Various pharmaceutical companies cooperate in consortia to fund and conduct pre-competitive research in areas like cancer treatment and drug discovery.
Clinical Trials: Competing pharmaceutical companies may collaborate on clinical trials to evaluate drug effectiveness more efficiently.
Technology Standards:
Industry Standards Groups: Tech giants like Microsoft, Apple, and Google participate in industry standards groups (e.g., W3C for web standards) to ensure interoperability and promote common technologies.
Open Source Projects: Companies like IBM, Microsoft, and Google contribute to open-source projects, fostering innovation while sharing code with competitors.
Movie Theaters:
Movie Distributors: Competing theater chains cooperate to negotiate favorable terms with film studios for exclusive movie releases, ensuring a broader audience for blockbusters.
Agricultural Seed Industry:
Licensing Agreements: Seed companies like Monsanto and DuPont Pioneer enter licensing agreements to share genetic traits, enabling them to develop competitive seed products.
Sports Apparel:
Sponsorship: Nike and Adidas often compete for athlete endorsements and sports team sponsorships but may sponsor the same athletes or teams.
Satellite Launch Services:
Commercial Space Launch: Companies like SpaceX and Arianespace provide satellite launch services to each other’s customers, expanding their market reach.
Financial Services:
Shared ATM Networks: Banks collaborate by creating shared ATM networks, allowing their customers to access cash at a larger number of ATMs without fees.
Retail Partnerships:
In-Store Sections: Retailers like department stores may host dedicated in-store sections for competing brands’ products, offering customers a wider selection.
Software Development:
Cross-Platform Compatibility: Competing software companies often cooperate to ensure their products are compatible across different platforms (e.g., Microsoft Office on Mac and Windows).
Telecommunications:
Network Sharing: Telecom companies may collaborate on infrastructure sharing to reduce costs and expand coverage, especially in less profitable rural areas.
Food and Beverage Industry:
Co-Branding: Competing fast-food chains may create co-branded menu items for a limited time, attracting customers from both brands.
Fashion Industry:
Collaborative Collections: Fashion designers from rival brands may collaborate on limited-edition clothing lines to generate buzz and attract new customers.
Case Studies
Scenario
Description
Implications
Example
Research and Development
Competing companies collaborate on research and development projects to share expertise, reduce costs, and accelerate innovation.
– Access to complementary knowledge and resources. – Faster development of new products or technologies. – Cost-sharing opportunities.
Example: Pharmaceutical companies may collaborate on joint research projects to develop new drugs, sharing research costs and expertise while competing in the market.
Industry Standards
Competitors within an industry cooperate to establish industry standards, protocols, or certifications, benefiting the entire industry.
– Enhances interoperability and compatibility. – Boosts customer trust and adoption. – Reduces fragmentation within the industry.
Example: Tech companies cooperate to establish common standards for wireless communication protocols, ensuring compatibility among their devices and products.
Joint Marketing Campaigns
Rival firms join forces for marketing campaigns, promotions, or events that promote the industry or specific products, attracting a larger audience.
– Increased marketing reach and exposure. – Cost-sharing opportunities for advertising and promotion. – Potential to create industry buzz and excitement.
Example: Soft drink competitors may collaborate on a joint summer marketing campaign to promote the overall soda industry and increase consumer demand for carbonated beverages.
Supply Chain Collaboration
Competing companies collaborate on supply chain logistics and transportation to reduce costs, optimize efficiency, and ensure reliable product delivery.
– Lower transportation and logistics costs. – Reduced supply chain disruptions and delays. – Enhanced reliability in meeting customer demand.
Example: Retailers that compete for customers may collaborate on a shared distribution center to streamline inventory management and reduce delivery times.
Patent Pools
Competitors form patent pools to collectively license their patented technologies to third parties, ensuring fair access to essential innovations.
– Provides access to critical technologies. – Reduces legal disputes and patent infringement risks. – Encourages innovation by sharing patents.
Example: Semiconductor companies contribute their patents related to a specific technology (e.g., Wi-Fi) to a patent pool, allowing others to use these technologies under agreed-upon terms.
Industry Associations
Companies within the same industry join industry associations to address common challenges, advocate for shared interests, and promote industry growth.
– Collective advocacy on industry issues. – Networking opportunities and knowledge sharing. – A unified voice on regulatory matters.
Example: Airlines in the same region may be members of an aviation industry association that addresses common concerns like air traffic control, safety regulations, and environmental policies.
Related Frameworks, Models, or Concepts
Description
When to Apply
Game Theory
Game Theory is a mathematical framework for analyzing strategic interactions between rational decision-makers. Game theory models various scenarios, such as cooperation, competition, and negotiation, to predict outcomes and optimal strategies. By understanding the incentives, motivations, and behaviors of other players, organizations can make better-informed decisions and maximize their outcomes in competitive or cooperative situations.
Apply Game Theory when analyzing strategic interactions, such as cooperation and competition, between organizations. Use it to predict outcomes, assess risks, and develop optimal strategies for maximizing utility and achieving desired outcomes in complex decision-making scenarios. Implement Game Theory as a framework for understanding competitive dynamics, negotiation strategies, and decision-making processes to gain a competitive advantage and achieve strategic objectives effectively.
Alliance Portfolio Management
Alliance Portfolio Management is a strategic approach to managing a portfolio of alliances and partnerships to achieve business objectives. Alliance portfolio managers oversee the selection, formation, and governance of alliances, ensuring alignment with organizational goals and effective execution. By balancing risks and rewards across the alliance portfolio, organizations can leverage partnerships to enhance innovation, market access, and competitive advantage.
Consider Alliance Portfolio Management when managing a portfolio of alliances and partnerships to achieve strategic objectives. Use it to assess partnership opportunities, prioritize investments, and optimize resource allocation across the alliance portfolio to maximize value creation and minimize risks. Implement Alliance Portfolio Management as a framework for strategic planning, partnership development, and performance management to achieve business objectives effectively.
Open Innovation
Open Innovation is a collaborative approach to innovation that involves leveraging external ideas, technologies, and resources to develop new products, services, or business models. Open innovation encourages organizations to collaborate with external partners, such as customers, suppliers, and competitors, to access new markets, technologies, and expertise. By embracing open innovation principles, organizations can accelerate innovation, reduce costs, and gain a competitive advantage.
Consider Open Innovation when seeking to leverage external ideas, technologies, or resources to drive innovation and create value. Use it to collaborate with external partners, such as customers, suppliers, and competitors, to access complementary capabilities and accelerate the development of new products, services, or business models. Implement Open Innovation as a framework for fostering collaboration, knowledge sharing, and value creation across organizational boundaries to drive innovation and competitiveness effectively.
Strategic Alliances
Strategic Alliances are collaborative partnerships between organizations to achieve mutual goals or gain competitive advantages. Strategic alliances can take various forms, including joint ventures, licensing agreements, and co-marketing arrangements. By pooling resources, sharing risks, and leveraging each other’s strengths, organizations can access new markets, technologies, and capabilities more effectively than they could independently.
Consider Strategic Alliances when seeking to collaborate with other organizations to achieve strategic objectives or gain competitive advantages. Use them to access complementary resources, capabilities, or markets, and leverage partnerships to accelerate growth, innovation, or market expansion. Implement Strategic Alliances as a framework for building strategic partnerships, managing alliances effectively, and achieving mutual goals and benefits collaboratively.
Value Chain Analysis
Value Chain Analysis is a strategic management tool that helps organizations identify and analyze the activities involved in delivering a product or service to customers. Value chain analysis involves mapping out the primary and support activities in the value chain, assessing their costs and value-added contributions, and identifying opportunities for cost reduction or differentiation. By understanding the value chain dynamics, organizations can optimize their operations, improve efficiency, and create competitive advantages.
Consider Value Chain Analysis when analyzing the activities involved in delivering a product or service to customers. Use it to identify strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities in the value chain, and develop strategies to enhance value creation, reduce costs, or differentiate offerings effectively. Implement Value Chain Analysis as a framework for strategic planning, process optimization, and performance improvement to achieve competitive advantages and organizational goals efficiently.
Collaborative Innovation Networks (COINs)
Collaborative Innovation Networks (COINs) are self-organizing, interdisciplinary groups of individuals who collaborate to generate and develop innovative ideas or solutions. COINs leverage social networks and digital technologies to facilitate collaboration, knowledge sharing, and idea generation across organizational boundaries. By fostering creativity, diversity, and collective intelligence, COINs enable organizations to solve complex problems, drive innovation, and create value collaboratively.
Consider Collaborative Innovation Networks when seeking to harness collective intelligence and creativity to drive innovation and problem-solving. Use COINs to foster collaboration, diversity, and knowledge sharing across organizational boundaries, and leverage social networks and digital platforms to facilitate idea generation and development effectively. Implement COINs as a framework for fostering a culture of innovation, collaboration, and continuous learning to achieve strategic objectives and competitive advantages.
Joint Development Agreements (JDAs)
Joint Development Agreements (JDAs) are legal contracts between organizations to collaborate on the development of new products, technologies, or intellectual property. JDAs define the terms, responsibilities, and intellectual property rights of each party involved in the collaboration. By sharing resources, risks, and rewards, organizations can accelerate innovation, reduce development costs, and gain access to new markets or capabilities through joint development agreements.
Consider Joint Development Agreements when seeking to collaborate with other organizations on the development of new products, technologies, or intellectual property. Use JDAs to define the terms, responsibilities, and intellectual property rights of each party involved in the collaboration, and leverage partnerships to accelerate innovation, reduce costs, or access new markets effectively. Implement JDAs as a framework for structuring and managing collaborative development projects to achieve mutual goals and benefits collaboratively.
Co-Innovation
Co-Innovation is a collaborative approach to innovation that involves partnering with customers, suppliers, or other stakeholders to develop new products, services, or solutions. Co-innovation enables organizations to leverage external insights, expertise, and resources to address customer needs, drive product innovation, and create value collaboratively. By involving stakeholders in the innovation process, organizations can enhance product relevance, adoption, and market success.
Consider Co-Innovation when seeking to collaborate with customers, suppliers, or other stakeholders to drive product innovation and create value collaboratively. Use co-innovation to involve stakeholders in the innovation process, gather insights, and co-create solutions that address customer needs effectively. Implement Co-Innovation as a framework for fostering collaboration, customer engagement, and value creation through shared innovation efforts to achieve strategic objectives and competitive advantages.
Competitive Intelligence (CI)
Competitive Intelligence (CI) is the process of gathering, analyzing, and interpreting information about competitors, markets, and industry trends to inform strategic decision-making. CI helps organizations understand competitive dynamics, identify opportunities and threats, and anticipate market trends or disruptions. By monitoring competitor activities and market changes, organizations can make informed decisions and gain a competitive advantage in the marketplace.
Consider Competitive Intelligence when seeking to gather insights into competitors, markets, and industry trends to inform strategic decision-making. Use CI to collect and analyze information about competitor strategies, capabilities, and market positions, and leverage insights to identify opportunities, mitigate risks, or develop competitive strategies effectively. Implement Competitive Intelligence as a framework for monitoring competitive dynamics, assessing market opportunities, and making informed decisions to achieve competitive advantages and business success.
Strategic Partnerships
Strategic Partnerships are collaborative relationships between organizations to achieve mutual goals or gain competitive advantages. Strategic partnerships can take various forms, including joint ventures, alliances, co-marketing agreements, or technology partnerships. By leveraging each other’s strengths, resources, and capabilities, organizations can access new markets, expand their product offerings, and accelerate growth more effectively than they could independently.
Consider Strategic Partnerships when seeking to access new markets, technologies, or resources to fuel growth or gain competitive advantages. Use it to identify potential partners with complementary strengths and capabilities, and negotiate mutually beneficial agreements that enable both parties to achieve their strategic objectives more effectively. Implement strategic partnerships as a strategy for accelerating growth, expanding market reach, and leveraging shared resources and expertise to create value collaboratively.
Account-based marketing (ABM) is a strategy where the marketing and sales departments come together to create personalized buying experiences for high-value accounts. Account-based marketing is a business-to-business (B2B) approach in which marketing and sales teams work together to target high-value accounts and turn them into customers.
Ad Ops – also known as Digital Ad Operations – refers to systems and processes that support digital advertisements’ delivery and management. The concept describes any process that helps a marketing team manage, run, or optimize ad campaigns, making them an integrating part of the business operations.
Venture capitalist, Dave McClure, coined the acronym AARRR which is a simplified model that enables to understand what metrics and channels to look at, at each stage for the users’ path toward becoming customers and referrers of a brand.
Affinity marketing involves a partnership between two or more businesses to sell more products. Note that this is a mutually beneficial arrangement where one brand can extend its reach and enhance its credibility in association with the other.
As the name suggests, ambush marketing raises awareness for brands at events in a covert and unexpected fashion. Ambush marketing takes many forms, one common element, the brand advertising their products or services has not paid for the right to do so. Thus, the business doing the ambushing attempts to capitalize on the efforts made by the business sponsoring the event.
Affiliate marketing describes the process whereby an affiliate earns a commission for selling the products of another person or company. Here, the affiliate is simply an individual who is motivated to promote a particular product through incentivization. The business whose product is being promoted will gain in terms of sales and marketing from affiliates.
The bullseye framework is a simple method that enables you to prioritize the marketing channels that will make your company gain traction. The main logic of the bullseye framework is to find the marketing channels that work and prioritize them.
Brand building is the set of activities that help companies to build an identity that can be recognized by its audience. Thus, it works as a mechanism of identification through core values that signal trust and that help build long-term relationships between the brand and its key stakeholders.
According to inbound marketing platform HubSpot, brand dilution occurs “when a company’s brand equity diminishes due to an unsuccessful brand extension, which is a new product the company develops in an industry that they don’t have any market share in.” Brand dilution, therefore, occurs when a brand decreases in value after the company releases a product that does not align with its vision, mission, or skillset.
The brand essence wheel is a templated approach businesses can use to better understand their brand. The brand essence wheel has obvious implications for external brand strategy. However, it is equally important in simplifying brand strategy for employees without a strong marketing background. Although many variations of the brand essence wheel exist, a comprehensive wheel incorporates information from five categories: attributes, benefits, values, personality, brand essence.
The brand equity is the premium that a customer is willing to pay for a product that has all the objective characteristics of existing alternatives, thus, making it different in terms of perception. The premium on seemingly equal products and quality is attributable to its brand equity.
Brand positioning is about creating a mental real estate in the mind of the target market. If successful, brand positioning allows a business to gain a competitive advantage. And it also works as a switching cost in favor of the brand. Consumers recognizing a brand might be less prone to switch to another brand.
Business storytelling is a critical part of developing a business model. Indeed, the way you frame the story of your organization will influence its brand in the long-term. That’s because your brand story is tied to your brand identity, and it enables people to identify with a company.
Content marketing is one of the most powerful commercial activities which focuses on leveraging content production (text, audio, video, or other formats) to attract a targeted audience. Content marketing focuses on building a strong brand, but also to convert part of that targeted audience into potential customers.
One of the first mentions of customer lifetime value was in the 1988 book Database Marketing: Strategy and Implementation written by Robert Shaw and Merlin Stone. Customer lifetime value (CLV) represents the value of a customer to a company over a period of time. It represents a critical business metric, especially for SaaS or recurring revenue-based businesses.
Customer segmentation is a marketing method that divides the customers in sub-groups, that share similar characteristics. Thus, product, marketing and engineering teams can center the strategy from go-to-market to product development and communication around each sub-group. Customer segments can be broken down is several ways, such as demographics, geography, psychographics and more.
Developer marketing encompasses tactics designed to grow awareness and adopt software tools, solutions, and SaaS platforms. Developer marketing has become the standard among software companies with a platform component, where developers can build applications on top of the core software or open software. Therefore, engaging developer communities has become a key element of marketing for many digital businesses.
A digital channel is a marketing channel, part of a distribution strategy, helping an organization to reach its potential customers via electronic means. There are several digital marketing channels, usually divided into organic and paid channels. Some organic channels are SEO, SMO, email marketing. And some paid channels comprise SEM, SMM, and display advertising.
Field marketing is a general term that encompasses face-to-face marketing activities carried out in the field. These activities may include street promotions, conferences, sales, and various forms of experiential marketing. Field marketing, therefore, refers to any marketing activity that is performed in the field.
interaction with a brand until they become a paid customer and beyond.
Funnel marketing is modeled after the marketing funnel, a concept that tells the company how it should market to consumers based on their position in the funnel itself. The notion of a customer embarking on a journey when interacting with a brand was first proposed by Elias St. Elmo Lewis in 1898.
Funnel marketing typically considers three stages of a non-linear marketing funnel. These are top of the funnel (TOFU), middle of the funnel (MOFU), and bottom of the funnel (BOFU). Particular marketing strategies at each stage are adapted to the level of familiarity the consumer has with a brand.
A go-to-market strategy represents how companies market their new products to reach target customers in a scalable and repeatable way. It starts with how new products/services get developed to how these organizations target potential customers (via sales and marketing models) to enable their value proposition to be delivered to create a competitive advantage.
The term “greenwashing” was first coined by environmentalist Jay Westerveld in 1986 at a time when most consumers received their news from television, radio, and print media. Some companies took advantage of limited public access to information by portraying themselves as environmental stewards – even when their actions proved otherwise. Greenwashing is a deceptive marketing practice where a company makes unsubstantiated claims about an environmentally-friendly product or service.
Grassroots marketing involves a brand creating highly targeted content for a particular niche or audience. When an organization engages in grassroots marketing, it focuses on a small group of people with the hope that its marketing message is shared with a progressively larger audience.
Growth marketing is a process of rapid experimentation, which in a way has to be “scientific” by keeping in mind that it is used by startups to grow, quickly. Thus, the “scientific” here is not meant in the academic sense. Growth marketing is expected to unlock growth, quickly and with an often limited budget.
Guerrilla marketing is an advertising strategy that seeks to utilize low-cost and sometimes unconventional tactics that are high impact. First coined by Jay Conrad Levinson in his 1984 book of the same title, guerrilla marketing works best on existing customers who are familiar with a brand or product and its particular characteristics.
Hunger marketing is a marketing strategy focused on manipulating consumer emotions. By bringing products to market with an attractive price point and restricted supply, consumers have a stronger desire to make a purchase.
Integrated marketing communication (IMC) is an approach used by businesses to coordinate and brand their communication strategies. Integrated marketing communication takes separate marketing functions and combines them into one, interconnected approach with a core brand message that is consistent across various channels. These encompass owned, earned, and paid media. Integrated marketing communication has been used to great effect by companies such as Snapchat, Snickers, and Domino’s.
Inbound marketing is a marketing strategy designed to attract customers to a brand with content and experiences that they derive value from. Inbound marketing utilizes blogs, events, SEO, and social media to create brand awareness and attract targeted consumers. By attracting or “drawing in” a targeted audience, inbound marketing differs from outbound marketing which actively pushes a brand onto consumers who may have no interest in what is being offered.
Integrated marketing describes the process of delivering consistent and relevant content to a target audience across all marketing channels. It is a cohesive, unified, and immersive marketing strategy that is cost-effective and relies on brand identity and storytelling to amplify the brand to a wider and wider audience.
The marketing mix is a term to describe the multi-faceted approach to a complete and effective marketing plan. Traditionally, this plan included the four Ps of marketing: price, product, promotion, and place. But the exact makeup of a marketing mix has undergone various changes in response to new technologies and ways of thinking. Additions to the four Ps include physical evidence, people, process, and even politics.
Marketing myopia is the nearsighted focus on selling goods and services at the expense of consumer needs. Marketing myopia was coined by Harvard Business School professor Theodore Levitt in 1960. Originally, Levitt described the concept in the context of organizations in high-growth industries that become complacent in their belief that such industries never fail.
Marketing personas give businesses a general overview of key segments of their target audience and how these segments interact with their brand. Marketing personas are based on the data of an ideal, fictional customer whose characteristics, needs, and motivations are representative of a broader market segment.
Meme marketing is any marketing strategy that uses memes to promote a brand. The term “meme” itself was popularized by author Richard Dawkins over 50 years later in his 1976 book The Selfish Gene. In the book, Dawkins described how ideas evolved and were shared across different cultures. The internet has enabled this exchange to occur at an exponential rate, with the first modern memes emerging in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
Microtargeting is a marketing strategy that utilizes consumer demographic data to identify the interests of a very specific group of individuals. Like most marketing strategies, the goal of microtargeting is to positively influence consumer behavior.
Multichannel marketing executes a marketing strategy across multiple platforms to reach as many consumers as possible. Here, a platform may refer to product packaging, word-of-mouth advertising, mobile apps, email, websites, or promotional events, and all the other channels that can help amplify the brand to reach as many consumers as possible.
Multi-level marketing (MLM), otherwise known as network or referral marketing, is a strategy in which businesses sell their products through person-to-person sales. When consumers join MLM programs, they act as distributors. Distributors make money by selling the product directly to other consumers. They earn a small percentage of sales from those that they recruit to do the same – often referred to as their “downline”.
The Net Promoter Score (NPS) is a measure of the ability of a product or service to attract word-of-mouth advertising. NPS is a crucial part of any marketing strategy since attracting and then retaining customers means they are more likely to recommend a business to others.
Neuromarketing information is collected by measuring brain activity related to specific brain functions using sophisticated and expensive technology such as MRI machines. Some businesses also choose to make inferences of neurological responses by analyzing biometric and heart-rate data.
Neuromarketing is the domain of large companies with similarly large budgets or subsidies. These include Frito-Lay, Google, and The Weather Channel.
Newsjacking as a marketing strategy was popularised by David Meerman Scott in his book Newsjacking: How to Inject Your Ideas into a Breaking News Story and Generate Tons of Media Coverage. Newsjacking describes the practice of aligning a brand with a current event to generate media attention and increase brand exposure.
A microniche is a subset of potential customers within a niche. In the era of dominating digital super-platforms, identifying a microniche can kick off the strategy of digital businesses to prevent competition against large platforms. As the microniche becomes a niche, then a market, scale becomes an option.
We can define pull and push marketing from the perspective of the target audience or customers. In push marketing, as the name suggests, you’re promoting a product so that consumers can see it. In a pull strategy, consumers might look for your product or service drawn by its brand.
Real-time marketing is as exactly as it sounds. It involves in-the-moment marketing to customers across any channel based on how that customer is interacting with the brand.
Relationship marketing involves businesses and their brands forming long-term relationships with customers. The focus of relationship marketing is to increase customer loyalty and engagement through high-quality products and services. It differs from short-term processes focused solely on customer acquisition and individual sales.
Reverse marketing describes any marketing strategy that encourages consumers to seek out a product or company on their own. This approach differs from a traditional marketing strategy where marketers seek out the consumer.
Remarketing involves the creation of personalized and targeted ads for consumers who have already visited a company’s website. The process works in this way: as users visit a brand’s website, they are tagged with cookies that follow the users, and as they land on advertising platforms where retargeting is an option (like social media platforms) they get served ads based on their navigation.
Sensory marketing describes any marketing campaign designed to appeal to the five human senses of touch, taste, smell, sight, and sound. Technologies such as artificial intelligence, virtual reality, and the Internet of Things (IoT) are enabling marketers to design fun, interactive, and immersive sensory marketing brand experiences. Long term, businesses must develop sensory marketing campaigns that are relevant and effective in eCommerce.
Services marketing originated as a separate field of study during the 1980s. Researchers realized that the unique characteristics of services required different marketing strategies to those used in the promotion of physical goods. Services marketing is a specialized branch of marketing that promotes the intangible benefits delivered by a company to create customer value.
Sustainable marketing describes how a business will invest in social and environmental initiatives as part of its marketing strategy. Also known as green marketing, it is often used to counteract public criticism around wastage, misleading advertising, and poor quality or unsafe products.
Word-of-mouth marketing is a marketing strategy skewed toward offering a great experience to existing customers and incentivizing them to share it with other potential customers. That is one of the most effective forms of marketing as it enables a company to gain traction based on existing customers’ referrals. When repeat customers become a key enabler for the brand this is one of the best organic and sustainable growth marketing strategies.
360 marketing is a marketing campaign that utilizes all available mediums, channels, and consumer touchpoints. 360 marketing requires the business to maintain a consistent presence across multiple online and offline channels. This ensures it does not miss potentially lucrative customer segments. By its very nature, 360 marketing describes any number of different marketing strategies. However, a broad and holistic marketing strategy should incorporate a website, SEO, PPC, email marketing, social media, public relations, in-store relations, and traditional forms of advertising such as television.
Gennaro is the creator of FourWeekMBA, which reached about four million business people, comprising C-level executives, investors, analysts, product managers, and aspiring digital entrepreneurs in 2022 alone | He is also Director of Sales for a high-tech scaleup in the AI Industry | In 2012, Gennaro earned an International MBA with emphasis on Corporate Finance and Business Strategy.
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