Daniel Esty and Andrew Winston’s Green To Gold is a detailed look at the link between environmental strategy and competitive advantage. It is an ambitious book, seeking to reframe green issues as a way for businesses to drive success. This contrasts with green choices being things that are done out of a sense of duty….
Category: Competition
Points Of Parity And Points Of Difference
Marketing theory contains the idea of points of parity and points of difference. In some ways, these are very logical. A point of difference is where you have an attribute of the product that is different from the competition. A point of parity is when you match the competition. Balancing Points Of Parity And Points…
The Matthew Effect: Who Gets Rewards
Today I’ll talk about a classic article. Robert Merton’s “The Matthew Effect In Science”. This is an important and useful idea. You can tell it is has been successful as it has gained its own Wikipedia page, here. The Matthew Effect There are many things in life where perceptions drive success. This is often true…
Sage Advice On Positioning
Kim Whitler, author of Positioning for Advantage, has had a fascinating career. This has taken her through senior marketing roles at some notable companies. She is now at Darden, the University of Virginia (my MBA alma mater). Her book brought back a lot of memories. She has managed to distill the spirit of academic advice,…
Understanding Data Analytics, And ‘Competitive Advantage’
Anil Maheshwari’s Data Analytics Made Accessible is a helpful book. Schools use it as a textbook and it has that feel. There is a lot of information there in a somewhat ‘just the facts’ sort of format. It should help with understanding data analytics. Useful Information To Aid In Understanding Data Analytics The book is…
Corporate Political Advocacy
A fascinating question for corporations is how much they should get involved in politics. What is the role for Corporate Political Advocacy? Sometimes Politics Just Comes For You It can be hard to avoid politics sometimes; it just involves some companies by accident. I have no inside knowledge but I doubt Delta really had an…
Marketing Strategy and Electoral Politics
As part of our special issue on political marketing, Sridhar Moorthy wrote a piece explaining marketing strategy and electoral politics. This uses ideas from competition theory. He focuses on analytical models. These are models based on mathematical theory. (Empirical models, on the other hand, are based upon observed data). Spend Does Not Necessarily Deliver Results…
Pareto Efficiency In Markets
A key idea when analyzing markets is Pareto efficiency. This is also called Pareto optimality. Despite the name it is a simple idea. We see Pareto efficiency in markets whenever you can’t make anyone better off without making someone else worse off. There is thus a number of optimal points. Each point involves a different…
Stereotyping And Market Entry Strategy
I have a paper just published in Customer Needs and Solutions on stereotyping and market entry strategy. This paper has quite a history, with early versions arising from my dissertation (13 years ago). It was quite a journey. The final paper looks nothing like where it started. (For example, it contains a minor nod to…
The Impact Of Conformity And The Need For Uniqueness
Analytical models are fascinating ways to look at what happens in markets. They can look a bit odd from the outside. These models tend to have a ton of strong assumptions which might lead to questions about their value. They can, however, help us think through some commonly observed phenomenon in markets. What then can…
