Compare and contrast the four competitive positions that are often used to describe market structures

What will be an ideal response?

Determining which competitive marketing strategy makes the most sense depends on the company's industry and on whether it is a market leader, challenger, follower, or nicher. A market leader has to mount strategies to expand the total market, protect market share, and expand market share. A market challenger is a firm that tries aggressively to expand its market share by attacking the leader, other runner-up companies, or smaller firms in the industry. The challenger can select from a variety of direct or indirect attack strategies. A market follower is a runner-up company that chooses not to rock the boat, usually from fear that it stands to lose more than it might gain. But the follower is not without a strategy and seeks to use its particular skills to gain market growth. A market nicher is a smaller firm that is unlikely to attract the attention of larger firms; it often becomes a specialist in some end use, customer size, specific customer, geographic areas, or service.