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Counteroffensive Defense

This article covers meaning & overview of Counteroffensive Defense from marketing perspective.

Published by MBA Skool Team in Marketing and Strategy Terms Last Updated: September 03, 2023Read time:

What is Counteroffensive Defense?

Counteroffensive defense is a business strategy adopted by a market leader when attacked by another company. This involves that the market leader will attack the attacker in its main territories so that the attacker will have to put back some resources for the attacked territories and will have to divert its attention from launching attack on the market leader. This may involve significantly lowering the prices of the product or aggressive marketing communications or flooding the market with the products.


The market leader’s objectives would be

i) To expand the total market

ii) To defend the existing market share

iii) To expand the existing market share.


The main strategies of counteroffensive defense include

i) price cuts

ii) offensive promotion

iii) product improvements

iv) sales territory invasion.


The market leader may choose to wait and see the strategies adopted by the attacker and try to identify the areas of weakness of the challenger. Accordingly the market leader will adopt the strategy to offset the attacker’s challenge.


For example if there are two car manufacturers with one manufacturer targeting the high end segment while the other targeting the commuter segment. Now if the company targeting the commuter segment plans to enter the high end segment then it may create challenge to the other company. This company may launch cars in the commuter segment to counterattack the company. This is an example of a counteroffensive defense. An ideal example of counteroffensive defense is the launch of Lexus by Toyota to challenge Mercedes’ challenge.


Hence, this concludes the definition of Counteroffensive Defense along with its overview.

This article has been researched & authored by the Business Concepts Team which comprises of MBA students, management professionals, and industry experts. It has been reviewed & published by the MBA Skool Team. The content on MBA Skool has been created for educational & academic purpose only.

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