Kellogg on Branding in a Hyper-Connected World

CHAPTER 4Competitive Brand Strategies: Creating Pioneer, Fast-Follower, and Late-Mover Advantage

Gregory S. Carpenter and Kent Nakamoto

Brands achieve remarkable success using very different strategies. Some brands pioneer new markets, as Intuitive Surgical did when it launched the first robotic surgery system, or when Louis Roederer produced Cristal, the first prestige champagne cuvée. Other firms enter an established market soon after the pioneer with a fast-follower strategy. General Electric and Samsung have used this approach with great success. Still other brands challenge established market leaders by entering long after the pioneer. Consider Apple, which launched the iPhone a full 34 years after Motorola invented the mobile phone.

Firms debate when to enter a market. Is it better to pioneer a market, better to be a fast follower, or best to wait and enter as a late mover? For some firms, the debate rests on the assumption that competition is like a game. Firms study the technology and structure of the market, and they conduct market research hoping to discover the rules of the game. These market-driven firms succeed by playing the game and meeting customer needs better, faster, or cheaper than rivals. The ideal timing of entry, however, is difficult to determine before the game begins.¹ Without the ability to predict the timing and strategies of future entrants, firms often rely on simple rules or approaches that have proven successful.

Rather than simply seeking to ...