E-Marketing Professionals

The Envelopment Strategy

Similar in design to the Indirect Attack, the envelopment strategy identifies weakly defended points of entry in order to gain a foothold. Once established, the attacker spreads out in all directions, finding other points of entry or market niches on which to capitalize, then introducing itself to those niches and eventually enveloping the target. Mass marketers of consumer goods often find such a strategy successful introducing first one product, then another, until the marketplace is littered with the company name and its related brands.

Boston Beer Company, producers of the Samuel Adams Beer brands, did that among its customers. The company first introduced it flagship brand, the lager, as an entry into the high-quality craft brewing market that was emerging in the 1980s and established a foothold among drinkers who favored a well-made, full-flavored beer. Once the brand had established a market presence, Boston Beer Company began introducing a wide variety of ales, porters and stouts and, while it didn't leave the craft beer audience, it did envelop a wider segment of that audience until it had a contender in every category. The fact that the market itself was growing significantly helped increase public preference for and sales of that brand.

Military examples of the envelopment strategy are too numerous to mention. The most obvious one would have to do with the ways the defenders of the Alamo succumbed to General Santa Ana's troops, which significantly outnumbered the Texan defenders. The Mexican soldiers eventually found weaknesses in the defenses and flooded in. And the rest, quite literally, is history. That may not be the best example, but it certainly is the most obvious one.