TMC Vocabulary
Compiled by Chris Halliwell, TMC Director
Offensive Strategy
Offensive Strategy is available to market players holding second or third market share position, but should only be implemented if the supplier is strong enough to sustain an attack against the Market Leader. Offensive Strategy requires good, unbiased information about the Leader's strengths and weaknesses so that the weakness inherent in the strength may be identified and exploited. Another key tactic of Offensive Strategy is to provoke the Leader into public acknowledgement and direct comparison: the leader's public acknowledgement provides crucial credibility to the offensive competitor.
Opinion Leaders
An Opinion Leader is an individual or organization in a Community that is able to influence the attitudes and behaviors of others. Opinion leadership is based on technical competence, social accessibility and conformity to Community norms. An Opinion Leader is "just like me only better." In technology business terms, "better" almost always refers to majority market share, or fastest growing market share, in the segment of influence. Opinion Leaders may, as in early adopting segments, or may not be Early Adopters
Positioning
Positioning is a perception created in the minds of a certain segment of customers about the unique aspect of a supplier's offering relative to competitive alternatives. A supplier's position evolves in the minds of customers whether or not company management is proactive about the positioning process. But a company can positively influence the perceptions through enlightened strategic actions. The outcome of the Positioning process is the supplier's acquisition of mindshare, which can be measured using a variety of quantitative tools such as conjoint analysis or multi-dimensional scaling.
