Subtle strategic insights from strategic groups analysis

Abstract

This paper gives an account of the insights to be gained from applying a common strategic group methodology to a single industry, food retailing, across two countries, the UK and Spain. Cluster analysis identifies seven different strategic groups in each country; these are described in detail, and their performance compared. There were two cases of UK and Spanish groups following broadly similar strategies. Otherwise, there were clear differences between the Spanish and the British strategic profiles, and the market leaders in each country followed distinctly different strategies. Multi-dimensional scaling is used to assess the extent to which group strategies are changing over time. We show that it is possible and useful to generalize this form of analysis across national boundaries. Comparing the different strategies developed in the two countries, we demonstrate how strategic groups analysis complements other techniques in strategic marketing, such as segmentation analysis or five forces analysis.

Keywords:

• Strategic Groups
• Food Retailing
• International Industry Analysis
• Spain