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Blue Ocean Strategy
Companies have long engaged in head-to-head competition
in search of sustained, profitable growth. They have
fought for competitive advantage, battled over market
share, and struggled for differentiation. Yet in today’s
overcrowded industries, competing head-on results in
nothing but a bloody “red ocean” of rivals
fighting over a shrinking profit pool. In a book that
challenges everything you thought you knew about the
requirements for strategic success, W. Chan Kim and
Renée Mauborgne contend that while most companies
compete within such red oceans, this strategy is increasingly
unlikely to create profitable growth in the future.
Based on a study of 150 strategic moves spanning more
than a hundred years and thirty industries, Kim and
Mauborgne argue that tomorrow’s leading companies
will succeed not by battling competitors, but by creating
“blue oceans” of uncontested market space
ripe for growth . Such strategic moves—termed
“value innovation”—create powerful
leaps in value for both the firm and its buyers, rendering
rivals obsolete and unleashing new demand.
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Differentiate or Die: Survival in Our Era of
Killer Competition
Consumers today have an endless number of choices among
products that are virtually identical. Short of slashing
your prices and wrecking your margins, differentiating
is the only way to gain market share and win. Since
its original publication, Differentiate or Die has become
the bible for marketers who must find a way to separate
their products and brands from the competition. Meanwhile,
competition among similar products and services has
only intensified—making differentiation even more
important. Full of practical case studies that show
great differentiation in action, including new case
studies from Russia and China, Differentiate or Die,
Second Edition, shows you how to tap into core differentiating
ideas like heritage, market leadership, and being first
to emotionally connect customers to your products. In
addition, this revision includes new research on brand
commoditization, new insight on using buzz to your advantage,
a new chapter on differentiating absolutely anything,
and a detailed look at the perils of line extension
in today's marketplace. These are only a few of the
valuable, proven differentiation strategies included
in the book, giving you unparalleled insight into one
of marketing's most intractable problems. From the classic
"unique selling proposition" approach to the
ins and outs of product positioning, this book contains
all the best, most effective strategies for differentiating
your product from the competition in tight quarters.
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Your Marketing Sucks
This is an extreme, effective, and highly original marketing
guide. Most companies don't have a clue about good marketing,
argues entrepreneur Mark Stevens, in this slender but
vociferous guide. What they need are the principles of
"extreme marketing," in which, every dollar
is part of an integrated plan and brings in more than
a dollar in return-strategies. Stevens bashes marketers'
"conventional wisdom" and proposes big changes:
stop all marketing if you can't prove it works; don't
use your competitors' marketing as a benchmark; don't
depend on the results of focus groups; fire sellers that
don't sell; and cross-sell to consumers. With charges
like "Be persistent, relentless, inventive, counterintuitive,
challenging, combative, strategic and tactical,"
readers may be tempted to think: easy for you to say.
But, this gem of a book is brimming with anecdotal evidence
of advertising strategies gone awry, and full of examples
of better plans. Diversification of programmes is key,
as are market testing and tracking. And, if Stevens's
examples aren't enough to convince (though they should
be), his passion for his subject may carry the day.
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2003.
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