Skip to Main Content
HBS Home
  • About
  • Academic Programs
  • Alumni
  • Faculty & Research
  • Baker Library
  • Giving
  • Harvard Business Review
  • Initiatives
  • News
  • Recruit
  • Map / Directions
Faculty & Research
  • Faculty
  • Research
  • Featured Topics
  • Academic Units
  • …→
  • Harvard Business School→
  • Faculty & Research→
Publications
Publications
  • 2015
  • Other Teaching and Training Material

Competitive Strategies Marketing Reading

By: Jill Avery and Sunil Gupta
  • Format:Print
  • | Language:English
ShareBar

Abstract

Core Curriculum Readings in Marketing cover the fundamental concepts, theories, and frameworks that business students must study.
This Reading illuminates the dynamics of companies in competition and offers a process for planning and executing marketing strategies to compete in a rapidly changing marketplace. It will also enable marketers to make decisions that account for competitors' likely responses. The Reading delineates processes for understanding the opportunities and challenges of competitive play, providing guidance for choosing contexts that enable success while avoiding those in which profitability will be elusive. It then examines how marketers can create opportunities by alleviating constraining competitive forces and by opening up new ways to compete that are more conducive to growth. The Reading concludes with insights into how consumers respond to marketplace competition and examines how companies can frame competitive games to their advantage in brand positioning and marketing communications.
This Reading includes an Interactive Illustration that explains how the prisoner's dilemma theory applies to pricing issues in industries with two dominant competitors (Pepsi and Coke). It also includes 3 video clips: (1) "The Two Choices to Make in Strategy," which distills strategy into two basic questions: "Where will you play?" and "How will you win there?"; (2) "Marketing Myopia," an animation presenting Theodore Levitt's concept of marketing myopia and identifying ways to avoid it; and (3) "Porter's Six Forces," which explains the key elements of Michael Porter's strategy model.

Keywords

Competitive Strategy

Citation

Avery, Jill, and Sunil Gupta. "Competitive Strategies Marketing Reading." Core Curriculum Readings Series. Boston: Harvard Business School Publishing 8158, 2015.
  • Purchase

About The Authors

Jill J. Avery

Marketing
→More Publications

Sunil Gupta

Marketing
→More Publications

More from the Authors

    • 2022
    • HBS Executive Education Leadership Insights Blog

    Leading Successful Digital Transformation

    By: Sunil Gupta
    • June 2022
    • Faculty Research

    Dollar Tree: Breaking the Buck

    By: Jill Avery and Marco Bertini
    • April 2022
    • Faculty Research

    Mastercard Labs (B)

    By: Linda A. Hill, Sunil Gupta, Emily Tedards and Julia Kelley
More from the Authors
  • Leading Successful Digital Transformation By: Sunil Gupta
  • Dollar Tree: Breaking the Buck By: Jill Avery and Marco Bertini
  • Mastercard Labs (B) By: Linda A. Hill, Sunil Gupta, Emily Tedards and Julia Kelley
ǁ
Campus Map
Harvard Business School
Soldiers Field
Boston, MA 02163
→Map & Directions
→More Contact Information
  • Make a Gift
  • Site Map
  • Jobs
  • Harvard University
  • Trademarks
  • Policies
  • Accessibility
  • Digital Accessibility
Copyright © President & Fellows of Harvard College