Flanking marketing is a strategy where one company attacks the weak spot of a rival in terms of a geographic region, product or market segment where it is underperforming.
There are four types of flanking marketing: low price flanking, high price flanking, flanking with size, and distribution flanking. Within these types, a company can exploit various weaknesses related to price, product, region, or customer experience.
Real-world examples where flanking marketing has been used effectively include Volkswagen, LG, Apple, Premier Inn, and Mercedes-Benz.
Aspect
Explanation
Definition
Flanking marketing is a strategic approach used by businesses to gain a competitive edge by targeting niche or underserved market segments. This marketing strategy involves identifying gaps or opportunities within a market where competition is limited or non-existent and then tailoring products, services, or marketing efforts to address those specific needs. Flanking marketing aims to avoid direct competition with established players by focusing on areas where they are less dominant or where there is room for innovation and differentiation. It often involves a deep understanding of customer segments and a willingness to explore unconventional or less saturated markets.
Key Concepts
– Niche Targeting: Flanking marketing involves identifying and targeting niche or specialized market segments that may have unique needs or preferences. – Market Gaps: It focuses on identifying gaps or unmet needs within a market, where established competitors may not be fully addressing customer requirements. – Differentiation: Flanking marketing relies on differentiation strategies to stand out in the chosen market segments. This may include offering unique features, benefits, or pricing models. – Innovation: Businesses employing flanking marketing often emphasize innovation to create products or services that disrupt existing market dynamics. – Risk Management: Flanking strategies can carry risks, but they are often seen as calculated risks that offer the potential for significant rewards.
Characteristics
– Targeted Approach: Flanking marketing is highly targeted and focuses resources on specific market segments or niches. – Avoiding Direct Competition: It aims to avoid head-to-head competition with dominant players in the market. – Innovation-Driven: Flanking marketing often involves innovation and creative solutions to address market gaps. – Risk-Reward Balance: While it carries some risks, the potential rewards of successfully targeting untapped market segments can be substantial.
Implications
– Market Diversification: Flanking marketing can lead to diversification by expanding a company’s product or service offerings into new areas. – Competitive Advantage: By avoiding direct competition, businesses can gain a competitive advantage in the chosen market segments. – Customer Loyalty: Serving underserved niches can lead to strong customer loyalty and advocacy. – Innovation Leadership: Successful flanking strategies can establish a business as an innovator in its industry.
Advantages
– Reduced Competition: Flanking marketing allows businesses to operate in areas with reduced competition, potentially leading to higher profit margins. – Specialization: It enables businesses to specialize in addressing the unique needs of specific customer segments. – Innovation Opportunities: The pursuit of flanking opportunities can foster a culture of innovation within a company. – Stronger Customer Relationships: Meeting specific customer needs can lead to stronger customer relationships and brand loyalty.
Drawbacks
– Market Uncertainty: Targeting underserved niches can be risky, as market demand and dynamics may not be well understood. – Resource Allocation: Flanking marketing requires careful allocation of resources, as the focus is on niche markets rather than broader audiences. – Limited Scale: Some flanking strategies may have limited scalability due to the niche nature of the chosen markets. – Competitive Response: Established competitors may recognize the success of flanking efforts and respond by entering the same niche markets. – Marketing Costs: Marketing to niche segments can sometimes be more costly on a per-customer basis.
Applications
Flanking marketing can be applied in various industries and sectors, including technology, consumer goods, healthcare, and more. It is commonly used by startups and smaller businesses looking for opportunities to compete against larger, established competitors.
Use Cases
– Tesla: Tesla, Inc. initially focused on producing high-end electric sports cars, targeting a niche market interested in sustainability and performance. Over time, it expanded its offerings to include more mainstream electric vehicles. – Dollar Shave Club: Dollar Shave Club disrupted the razor industry by offering a subscription-based service, targeting a specific market segment seeking affordable and convenient shaving solutions. – Warby Parker: Warby Parker entered the eyewear market by offering affordable, stylish prescription glasses online, targeting consumers looking for alternatives to traditional eyewear retailers. – Beyond Meat: Beyond Meat developed plant-based meat alternatives, targeting consumers seeking environmentally friendly and ethical protein sources. – Peloton: Peloton revolutionized home fitness by targeting consumers interested in interactive and convenient workout experiences.
Flanking marketing is a strategy where one company attacks the weak spot of a rival in terms of a geographic region, product or market segment where it is underperforming.
Understanding flanking marketing
Flanking marketing, also known as the flanking attack strategy, involves one company going after its competition in an attempt to win market share from them. This is an effective strategy for the attacker that is also very hard to defend for the company in a weaker position.
Fundamental to this approach is the attacker zeroing in on a competitor’s weak points. This can include deficiencies in almost any aspect of a business such as price point, product features, customer availability, customer support, or underrepresentation in a specific geographic area.
For flanking marketing to succeed, the attacker needs to identify which of their strengths will exploit the weaknesses of a competitor. To do this, a combination of the Value Disciplines model and SWOT analysis can be effective. For competitors with a product or service portfolio, the BCG matrix is also used to identify products that have low growth potential and low market share. Whatever the method is chosen, however, it’s important to be as specific as possible when identifying weaknesses.
Flanking marketing types
There are generally accepted to be four different types of flanking marketing:
Low price flanking – where a company lowers the price of its products or services below those offered by its competitor. When products are more or less identical between brands, the company with the more expensive prices tends to lose market share.
High price flanking – where a company raises the price of its products or services with respect to a competitor. This is often done to alter the status quo, set a new standard, or redefine some characteristic of the market. See the Mercedes-Benz example below for more detail on this strategy.
Flanking with size – Apple referenced the small size of the iPod when it was marketed to customers and won market share from cassette and CD player manufacturers. Volkswagen’s famous “Think Small” marketing campaign also positioned the Beetle as a smaller (and better) alternative to much larger sedans from American makers.
Distribution flanking – new distribution channels can also be incorporated into flanking marketing attacks. American watch manufacturer Timex started selling watches in pharmacies while competitor watches were sold only in department stores.
Some more flanking marketing examples
There are numerous examples of flanking marketing in the real world. We hope that the following examples are of some interest:
Mercedes-Benz – in an early form of flanking marketing in the 1950s, Mercedes-Benz orchestrated an attack against General Motors in the prestige car market. The German manufacturer priced its luxury sedans much higher than the incumbent GM Cadillac as part of a campaign to position it as the superior vehicle. Over 50 years later, Mercedes outsold Cadillac for the first time and the latter lost its reputation as a luxury brand.
Premier Inn – British limited-service hotel chain Premier Inn flanked its competitors by attacking a weakness most of them shared: a lack of quality. While its rivals were focused on low prices, Premier Inn introduced the Good Night Guarantee to take market share from them. Here, the company referenced a quality stay as its strength to emphasize its competitors’ deficiency in this area.
LG Corporation – South Korean multinational LG noticed that rural areas of India were underserved by its competitors in the television market. Other firms were focusing on city areas where consumers could afford to pay higher prices. In response, LG developed a cheaper alternative for rural markets known as the “Sampoorna”. To market the new television, LG sent promotional vehicles across the country covering some 5,000 kilometers each week to increase brand awareness and secure market share before a competitor could move in.
Related Frameworks
Description
When to Apply
Guerrilla Marketing
– A marketing strategy that utilizes unconventional, low-cost tactics to promote a product or service. Guerrilla Marketing often involves surprising and attention-grabbing campaigns executed in unexpected locations or mediums to generate buzz and brand awareness.
– When seeking to disrupt established markets or challenge dominant competitors with limited resources. – Deploying Guerrilla Marketing tactics to create buzz, increase visibility, and differentiate offerings effectively.
Niche Marketing
– A marketing strategy that targets a specific segment of the market with specialized products, services, or messaging. Niche Marketing focuses on meeting the unique needs and preferences of a narrowly defined audience, allowing brands to establish themselves as experts and leaders within their chosen niche.
– When aiming to carve out a distinct market position and attract highly targeted customers with specific needs or interests. – Implementing Niche Marketing strategies to capitalize on untapped market segments, build brand loyalty, and drive customer engagement effectively.
Blue Ocean Strategy
– A strategic approach that focuses on creating uncontested market space by offering innovative products or services that fulfill unmet customer needs. Blue Ocean Strategy involves shifting the focus from competing within existing market boundaries (red oceans) to exploring new market spaces (blue oceans) where competition is irrelevant or non-existent.
– When seeking to differentiate offerings and escape the competitive pressures of crowded markets. – Applying Blue Ocean Strategy principles to identify new market opportunities, innovate value propositions, and capture untapped demand effectively.
Disruptive Innovation
– A type of innovation that creates new markets or fundamentally transforms existing markets by introducing simpler, more affordable, or more convenient products or services. Disruptive Innovation often starts at the low end of the market or serves underserved customer segments before eventually displacing established competitors.
– When aiming to challenge incumbent competitors and revolutionize industry dynamics with breakthrough innovations. – Pursuing Disruptive Innovation opportunities to create new market space, capture early adopters, and drive industry transformation effectively.
Counter-Branding
– A marketing strategy that positions a brand in opposition to dominant market players or industry norms. Counter-Branding involves challenging conventional wisdom, questioning established practices, and offering alternative narratives or value propositions to attract dissatisfied customers or disrupt entrenched competitors.
– When seeking to challenge dominant market players, disrupt industry conventions, or appeal to contrarian consumers. – Embracing Counter-Branding to differentiate offerings, provoke conversations, and capture market share effectively.
Reverse Innovation
– An innovation strategy that involves developing products or services in emerging markets and then scaling them for global markets. Reverse Innovation leverages insights and needs from developing countries to create cost-effective, scalable solutions that address unmet needs in both emerging and developed markets.
– When aiming to drive innovation by tapping into diverse market insights and adapting solutions for global scalability. – Embracing Reverse Innovation to develop breakthrough products or services, penetrate new markets, and drive sustainable growth effectively.
Agile Marketing
– A marketing approach that emphasizes flexibility, adaptability, and responsiveness to rapidly changing market conditions and customer needs. Agile Marketing involves iterative planning, execution, and optimization of marketing campaigns based on real-time feedback and data-driven insights.
– When operating in fast-paced environments or industries characterized by rapid technological advancements and shifting consumer preferences. – Adopting Agile Marketing methodologies to increase marketing agility, improve campaign performance, and enhance customer engagement effectively.
Lean Startup Methodology
– A startup approach that focuses on minimizing waste, validating assumptions, and iteratively developing and testing product ideas through rapid experimentation and customer feedback. The Lean Startup Methodology aims to reduce risk, accelerate learning, and increase the likelihood of creating successful, market-driven solutions.
– When launching new products, services, or ventures with limited resources and uncertain market demand. – Applying Lean Startup Methodology principles to validate business ideas, iterate product development, and optimize resource allocation effectively.
Pivot Strategy
– A strategic redirection or adjustment of a company’s business model, product strategy, or market focus in response to changing market conditions, customer feedback, or competitive pressures. Pivoting involves making significant changes to a company’s direction or operations to better align with market opportunities and customer needs.
– When facing challenges, setbacks, or shifting market dynamics that require a reassessment of business strategies or priorities. – Implementing Pivot Strategies to adapt to changing circumstances, explore new opportunities, and sustain long-term competitiveness effectively.
Open Innovation
– A collaborative innovation approach that involves sourcing ideas, technologies, or expertise from external partners such as customers, suppliers, competitors, or research institutions. Open Innovation enables companies to tap into external knowledge networks, accelerate innovation cycles, and access resources beyond their organizational boundaries.
– When seeking to leverage external expertise, resources, or market insights to drive innovation and overcome internal constraints. – Embracing Open Innovation practices to foster collaboration, accelerate R&D, and bring innovative products or services to market effectively.
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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