Gurus On Marketing

A differentiation strategy
This strategy would involve an organisation in providing something
unique to its target customers. The uniqueness can be related to products,
the way it delivers its goods and services, the way it markets
its products or anything that shapes a customer’s perception in relation
to differentiation. This could be the way products and services
are branded or designed and the customers perceive such offerings
as unique.
Focus strategy
This strategy involves an organisation being selective in terms of the
segments it wants to serve and focusing on these segments to the
exclusion of other segments. The focus strategy can either be cost
focus or differentiation focus.
If an organisation does not choose generic strategies it wants to focus
on then as Porter puts it, it will be ‘stuck in the middle’.
The extent to which a generic strategy can be sustainable will depend
on competitors’ behaviour and action. The organisation constantly
has to be a step ahead of its competitors.
Generic strategies and marketing
Generic strategies affect the following elements of marketing:
• Costs and Pricing.
• Product design.
• Marketing mix.
• Channels of distribution.
• Promotion.
• Segmentation.
• Branding.
FOUR MICHAEL PORTER 67