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Book Review: Defending Your Brand: How Smart Companies Use Defensive Strategy... by Tim Calkins
Author: International Manufacturing Technology Show
Source From: IMTS.com
Posted Date: 2013-01-11
Defending Your Brand: How Smart Companies Use Defensive Strategy to Deal with Competitive Attacks
Tim Calkins
265 pages
Palgrave MacMillan, 2012
You have to love a book that starts out with “an important note” warning you that the content may make you uncomfortable and that defensive strategy is a rough business. Kellogg School of Management and Professor Tim Calkins builds his case for defensive tactics in Defending Your Brand saying that we live in a world of intense competition and that defensive strategy is important. He then provides an in-depth lesson with dozens of examples on how a company can meet a competitive threat with a strong and effective defense plan. If you have ever underestimated a competitor’s ability to cannibalize your market share, this is a must read.
The book can teach you how to survive and even thrive when your competitors attack. It’s practical and should inspire its readers to act.
Calkins begins by explaining why a defensive strategy matters so much. Then it looks at the financial challenge of defending, as well as the financial damage that may come from not challenging.
Two chapters focus on learning about competitors, competitive intelligence ways to work with information about competitors (these two chapters are worth the price of the book alone).
Then Calkins comes to the key question: to defend or not to defend – complete with questions to ask yourself. Is the competitive product a winner? What is the long-term threat to us? What are the costs of defending? Which option has the best long-term return – defending or not defending?
He takes the reader through six chapters on developing the defense plan and specific ways to defend and moves ahead to reasons to think about defense all of the time. One particularly interesting discussion centers on what defense means for innovators giving insight into what the established players are likely to do when you launch your venture. He says before introducing a new product, it is important to think about how the existing players will respond and then revise your launch plan accordingly.
Legal implications of defending are covered throughout the book, and the closing chapter on that topic was written by Stephen Calkins, who is the author’s brother and Professor of Law at Wayne State University.
About the Author
Tim Calkins helps people use marketing strategy and branding to build strong and profitable businesses.
He is clinical professor of marketing at Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management where he teaches marketing strategy, biomedical marketing and strategic marketing decisions in the full-time, part-time and executive MBA programs. He is co-academic director of Kellogg's branding program.
