Planning Review: Volume 17 Issue 5

The nuts and bolts of formulating differentiation strategy

Gary A. Getz, Frederick D. Sturdivant

All the functions of a company must support a differentiation strategy or it will be doomed to failure. This step‐by‐step, team‐oriented approach to differentiation development…

From mass marketing to mass customization

Philip Kotler

This famous marketing guru tells how to create a differentiation strategy specifically for the mass market, segmented markets, micromarkets, and—the latest evolution—individual…

How Citibank created a retail niche for itself in Japan

Kenneth A. Grossberg

In 1984 only a gaijin optimist would have believed that Citibank could overcome its operational handicaps in Japan. But by using a differentiation strategy that benefited the…

Deciding how to compete

George S. Day

Many firms wage internal warfare over the choice between two competitive strategies: differentiation (high customer value), or low cost. But Kellogg had its competition for…

Differentiating a commodity: Lessons from Tyson Foods

Joe G. Thomas, J.M. Koonce

In a feast of differentiation, Tyson Foods slices up more than 57 varieties of chicken products for four different major markets. Instead of selling broilers at 69 cents a pound…

Pricing and differentiation strategies

Andrew A. Stern

Differentiated pricing for every customer is a nifty strategy, but will it fly? Airlines divide the business folks from the tourists (the criteria being a reservation with a…

Achieving management consensus around value‐creating strategies

Bernard C. Reimann

First Prize: This winner of our annual contest, in association with the Foundation for Administrative Research (FAR), describes an innovative strategy‐refinement process that uses…