Dictionary of Marketing Terms: follower
follower
marketer whose product or brand did not get to market first or who does not maintain a dominant market share. It is extremely difficult for a follower to take market share from a leader, For example, Xerox, Coca-Cola, IBM, and McDonald's led their markets for many years, and their brands represented the standard for those products as perceived by consumers. Followers need to discover the leader's Achilles heel in order to compete successfully. The Avis "we try harder" campaign exemplified the marketing strategy of a follower establishing a competitive advantage that directly addressed a weakness of the leader.
