Question

Topic: Strategy

Sources Of Competitive Advantage

Posted by Anonymous on 10/4/2004 at 8:19 PM ET 250 Points
I am trying to finish some training on POSITIONING, and want to include some content relating to various sources of competitive advantage. I have a reasonably generalized list based on experience and research, but would like some independent corroboration.

Please post 3-5 of the strongest SOURCES of competitive advantage from your perspective. As an example: fulfilling unserved customer need.
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RESPONSES

  • Posted by Chris Blackman on 10/4/2004 at 8:39 PM Accepted
    Great Question!

    Here's my two cents worth:

    1. Offering a higher level of customer service.

    2. Providing a product or service with higher/better performance than a competitor.

    3. Providing a product or service that is unique in some way that fulfills a customer need or desire (or expectation) or provokes a need or desire that did not otherwise exist.

    4. Providing a product or service that performs as well as a competitor but is priced significantly lower than any competitor.

    5. Providing a product or service in a geographical or chronological situation that is exclusive.

    6. Creating any other form of unique differentiation that ads value to the customer's experience, use or ownership of the product or service.

    I am sure there are others but these seem to be the key ones from my perspective.

    Would love to see your finished paper/presentation when done, if possible!

    ChrisB
  • Posted by SteveByrneMarketing on 10/4/2004 at 8:57 PM Member
    jmasci,

    Chris did a good job of covering key areas of competitive advantage.

    I would add –

    Marketing measurement and math -- Capturing great metric’s can help in understanding the customer’s needs and even reducing costs to be passed on to the customer with lower pricing

    Warranty, adding feeling of security to the customer’s purchase

    Hope this helps,

    - Steve
  • Posted on 10/4/2004 at 11:10 PM Member
    Legal monopolies offer the strongest competitive advantages:
    Copyright - lifetime + 50 years
    Patent - 20 years

    Other competitive advantages include:
    Prime location, being first in a market, and strategic agreements.

  • Posted by koen.h.pauwels on 10/4/2004 at 11:15 PM Member
    As Scott Adams remarked, the only 2 ways to succesfully position an offer for male consumers:
    1) if you buy this, you will date a supermodel
    2) if you buy this, you will save lots of time and money, which you will need when dating a supermodel

    Seriously, the 2 main ways of competitive positioning are either to offer higher customer benefits, or to reduce customer costs (see e.g. 'Market based Management by R. Best) . Examples of the former are offers that are better in terms of performance, conformance, durabilility, reliability, style & design, with better services on ease of ordering, delivery, installation, customer training, maintenance and repair; by contact employees which are competent, friendly, reliable, credible, responsive and emphatic. Examples of the latter are reducing the actual price, and the costs of acquisition, ownership, usage, maintenance and disposal.
  • Posted on 10/4/2004 at 11:50 PM Member
    Here are a few that come to mind:

    -Market Segmentation - e.g. Progressive Insurance
    -Customer Focus - Trilogy Software, Ritz Carlton
    -Systems Design - Toyota, GE

    Good luck on the presentation.
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