There are three ways that marketers traditionally
think about market leadership:
• Market share (volume)
• Market share (value)
• Profitability
So if you have the largest market share by volume,
you can claim to be a market leader. Same with value.
Of all these, we think that being most profitable
is also the most significant of these traditional
measures of market leadership. (There is no point
selling without making money!).
But there are far more interesting ways of thinking
about leadership. Here are some definitions:
| |
"Leadership
is influence - nothing more, nothing less."
John
C Maxwell
21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership |
And our favorite:
| |
"The
only definition of a leader is someone who has
followers."
Peter
Drucker
The Leader of the Future |
A beautiful definition, and put that way, any company
can be a market leader. You don't have to be the
biggest or the most profitable, you simply have
to have followers. What is required to have followers?
In his book 'Offensive Marketing' (subtitled 'How
to make competitors followers'), Hugh Davidson says:
"…
it involves aiming to innovate every major new development
in a market, from the humdrum accomplishment of
being first in with a new larger size, to the heady
success of breaking through with a totally new product
or service."
Looked at this way, market leadership does not
require huge financial or material resources. It
requires human capital, ideas, innovation, and determination.
The resources lie within yourself if you choose
to lead your market.
Brand Manual
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