[考古] 【阅读原文】快餐公司营销策略

When your competitor resembles you,chances are it will pursue similar strategies—what we call symmetriccompetition. When companies have different assets, resources, capabilities, andmarket positions, they will probably react to the same market opportunities andthreats in different ways—what we call asymmetric competition. One of the keysto predicting a competitor’s future strategies is to understand how much orlittle it resembles your company.

In the fast-food industry, for example,two leading players, McDonald’s and Burger King, face the same market trendsbut have responded in markedly different ways to the obesity backlash.McDonald’s has rolled out a variety of foods it promotes as healthy. Burger Kinghas introduced high-fat, high-calorie sandwiches supported by in-your-face,politically incorrect ads. As the dominant player, McDonald’s is the lightningrod for the consumer and government backlash on obesity. It can’t afford tothumb its nose at these concerns. Smaller players like Burger King, realizingthis, see an opportunity to cherry-pick share in the less health-consciousfast-food segment. Burger King competes asymmetrically.

Companies can determine whether theyface symmetric or asymmetric competition by using the resource-based view ofstrategy: the idea that they should protect, leverage, extend, build, oracquire resources and capabilities that are valuable, rare, and inimitable andthat can be successfully exploited. Resources come in three categories:tangible assets (for example, physical, technological, financial, and humanresources), intangible assets (brands, reputation, and knowledge), and currentmarket positions (access to customers, economies of scale and scope, andexperience). Capabilities come in two categories: the ability both to identifyand to exploit opportunities better than others do.

…（此处省略其他JJ中没有出现但格式类似fast-food的其他行业的实例）

Applying the resource-based view ofstrategy to competitors in a rigorous, systematic, and fact-based way can helpyou identify the options they will probably consider for any strategic issue.But if you want to gain better insight into which of those options yourcompetitors are likeliest to choose, you have to move beyond a general analysisof their communications, behavior, assets, and capabilities and also thinkabout the personal perceptions and incentives of their decision makers.