Many a battle has been won fighting the enemy face to face. It might work in warfare. But it seldom does in the marketing world. More so when you are up against an enemy, who is more entrenched than you are, more experienced than you have been and with more arsenal than you could muster.
So, how do we fight such an enemy in the battlefield?
Simple; you just shift the battlefield. Move the ground to another plane; move in against the enemy’s weakness; pitch yourself in an arena which is least contested and, more importantly, launch an attack in that part of the marketplace that is least conceived; and least expected!
Emami realized taking on Fair & Lovely would leave them battered and bruised; not to talk of them ending up dark and diabolical. So, they took the easier way out. They ran away from that battlefield; and shifted the battleground to men’s fairness. And launched Fair & Handsome.
Two things happened: It was a virgin territory that Emami literally created for itself. And two, HUL just couldn’t react. And even when they did, it was too late, too little and too stupid. Fair & Lovely Men’s Active - their reply, was feeble, frivolous and fantastically stupid that the brand’s advertising only heightened the guys’ need to use a male fairness cream – precisely the platform Fair & Handsome had taken earlier and owns now!
Too many brands get this wrong. They think the best way to take the bigger enemy is facing them ‘heads on’. No one wins by fighting harder. You win by fighting smarter. By running away from the competitor’s strength and moving him away from his area of strength.
The old clichéd question holds well all the time: How do you play Vishwanathan Anand? By playing a game other than chess!
The moral of the story: Next time you have to fight a big competitor, just run away…….and shift the battleground. Force your stronger competitor to lose his strength by taking him on in a new arena; a neutral territory. Where you are as strong. Even Stevens!
Here, is another wonderful exhibition of a brand fighting the leader by moving the battlefield. Watch this video. Enjoy and get enlightened on the art of running away from a battlefield…….only to win it!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o9zcs1dg8qo
P.S: Thank you Ms. Aarthi for sending me this link from Germany and providing me with the necessary grist for this edition of my blog mill.
4 comments:
im totally confused?
the fair and lovely product reach all over the india and become very popular among the girls and women.
why ur blog says shifting to fair and handsome
my question is wthr the fair and lovely product has not given strength
I really agree with the facts that you have shared on this post. An interesting topic like this really enhances reader's mind to have more effective decisions over a certain issue.
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Very true and sensible.... By doing this.. mostly you get the first mover advantage too.... couple of established first mover advantage... you get into the biggie list...
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