問7
頻出度★★★
業界内の企業の地位は, リーダ, チャレンジャ, フォロワ, ニッチャの四つに分類できる。フォロワのとる競争戦略として, 最も適切なものはどれか。
平成22年度 秋期 ITパスポート試験 問7
ストラテジ系経営戦略マネジメント › 経営戦略手法
This question's explanation and your answers so far.
解説
問 7
Incorrectア
"Focusing on a specific market that large companies find hard to enter, and maintaining brand strength by mastering expertise in that domain" describes the nicher (the niche strategy). A nicher concentrates its management resources on a limited area that is small within the market as a whole but that large companies find hard to touch, for reasons such as profitability, and builds a distinctive position and high added value inside it. A follower does not narrow the market down and specialize in this way; it is in the position of following, with low costs and low prices, into the existing market that the leader has opened up, so this does not apply.
- イ
正解 The correct answer is イ. A follower is a company that sits below the leader and the challenger in an industry and whose management resources (funds, technical capability, brand, sales network) are relatively limited. Because it does not have the strength either to open up a new market on its own or to challenge the top company head-on, a follower's basic strategy is imitation. That is, it takes as a reference the products that the leader company has already proven to be accepted by the market after spending heavily on research and development and on advertising, while holding down its own development risk and up-front investment. It lowers its costs by that much, offers products with equivalent functions at low prices, wins over price-sensitive customers, and secures a certain share and profit. Another key point is not provoking retaliation. If it goes straight at the leader, which is superior in resources, to take share away, it will meet counterattacks such as price-cutting offensives or being shut out of sales channels, and the follower, with less staying power, is the one worn down first. It is therefore rational to follow along only within a range where it does not stand out too much. Choice イ has all the elements of a follower strategy — being careful not to provoke retaliation from competitors, referencing the leader company's products, reducing costs, and competing with low prices — and is therefore the most appropriate.
Incorrectウ
"Investing in expanding the user base and increasing usage frequency in order to grow the overall market size, and striving to maintain market share" is the leader's strategy. When the whole market grows, the leader, which holds the largest share, gains the most in sales, so there is a point in investing in expanding surrounding demand. A follower has no spare capacity for investment on that scale, and most of the demand created would be taken by the leader, so it is not rational. In addition, "maintaining share" is the thinking of the side defending the top position, and does not fit a follower's situation.
Incorrectエ
"Aiming to seize the top market share and developing a differentiation strategy that sets the company apart from the leader company" is the challenger's strategy. A challenger, as part of the industry's number-two group, has a certain amount of management resources, and because doing the same things as the leader will not win, it mounts differentiation in function, quality, channels and the like to go after the top spot. A follower does not set taking the top spot as its goal; rather, it follows along while avoiding the leader's retaliation, aiming to survive and secure profit — in this respect the direction is exactly the opposite.
ここがポイント
- Memorize Kotler's four competitive-position strategy types together with the aim of each: leader = growing the overall market size and maintaining share on all fronts; challenger = seizing the top share through differentiation; follower = following at a low price by imitating the leader's products and cutting costs; nicher = concentrating on a specific market that large companies find hard to enter and establishing expertise and a brand.
- The keywords for spotting a follower are "imitate / use as a reference," "cost reduction," "low price," and "not provoking retaliation." Note also that the move in which the leader immediately copies a challenger's differentiation and thereby cancels out its advantage is called an imitation (matching) strategy; the word "imitation" appears on both sides, but the actor here is the leader, and that is what keeps it distinct from the follower's imitation strategy.
用語