• A differentiator gains a competitive advantage because it has the ability to satisfy customers’ needs in a way that its competitors cannot, which allows it to charge a premium price for its product. • Premium prices → increased revenue → superior profitability • A differentiator invests its resources to gain a competitive advantage from superior innovation, excellent quality, and responsiveness to customer needs • A product’s appeal to customers’ psychological desires is a source of differentiation. ▫ Example? 13 Differentiation • Generally, a differentiator chooses to divide its market into many segments and offer different products in each segment • A differentiated company concentrates on developing distinctive competencies in the functions that provide competitive advantage ▫ These are still expensive! • A differentiator must control its cost structure to ensure the price of its products does not exceed the price customers are willing to pay for them • When differentiation stems from the design or physical features of the product, differentiators are at great risk of being imitated ▫ Example?
There are two main profit maximization methods used, and they are Marginal Cost-Marginal Revenue Method and Total Cost-Total Revenue Method. Profit maximization is a good thing for a company, but can be a bad thing for consumers if the company starts to use cheaper products or decides to raise prices. This is what some firms in the leisure industry will aim to do, for instance, Cinemas will hope to achieve the highest level of profits. Although most firms in the leisure industry aim to maximise profit, some firms have other main objectives, such as to maximise growth. Growth maximisation is where the firm’s main goal is to increase the size of the firm as much as possible.
Competitive Strategy: The generic competitive strategy that was selected for Impala Athletics was the best-cost provider strategy. The goal in implementing the best-cost provider strategy was to give consumers more value for the money by offering higher quality products at a lower cost than the competition. This strategy blends elements of differentiation and low-cost strategies in such a way that increases value to the consumer (Thompson, Strickland, & Gamble, 2012). In order to achieve competitive and financial success using the best-cost provider strategy, several actions were built into Impala Athletics’ strategic plan. The first priority was to make changes in order to conduct operations at a higher level of social
LEARNING QUESTIONS WEEK 1 DeVry University 1. It very important for HR to be a strategic business partner that way everyone has the company’s goals and missions at heart and there is no misunderstanding as to what is expected. With the appropriate partners, a company will grow successfully over time. It is hard to have a business relationship if there is no understanding of what is truly needed or if a department is left out of the loop. The HR department is one of the most valuable departments in a company.
However, due to the higher prices, there is a certain segment to which these brands can appeal to – this strengthens the power of the buyers. Because of the high competition and many brands within the industry – there are low switching costs for the buyer. This is complemented by online shopping, which means that the retailers do not even need to be physically in the same place. This lowers the switching costs for the buyer and increases their power. The rise of the ethical social consumer and the information availability that came with the internet made the buyer demanding and less likely to develop loyalty towards a brand – this increases their power.
Benefits There are many advantages for individual buying though from GPOs, one of the major advantages is the ability to provide a lower cost solution. By leveraging the buying power of members of GPOs, the consortium is able to combine the amount of products to gain these critical discounts, which in turn provides the best price to each individual participant. Vendors are willing to extend discounts and additional service levels to the GPOs to gain access to their large networks of buyers. This allows vendors to reduce their sales cycle and have a good forward view into demand - greatly impacting successful production and supply chain management. Other benefits for buying from GPOs may include as following: • Comprehensive sourcing strategies • In-house contracting/clinical expertise • Advanced procurement
Creating more profit opportunities by increasing marketing and promotion will encourage the dealerships to bring in and stock more of Company S’s product. This strategy is advantageous because it increases the opportunities for profit for not only the dealerships, but for Company S as well. If the dealerships sell more units, then Company S will make more money as well. This will create trust between Company S and it’s dealerships. A disadvantage of this strategy would be costly.
The first reason is perceived value. Perceived value is where the consumer feels that because they pay more for an item, the better it will perform. Examples of this would be the BMW and the Jaguar automobiles; which has proven to be true when one examines the service records of these vehicles. Another reason for a higher priced niche product purchase would be the status it implies. People have an inbred need to feel important although they may not be aware of it.
The strongest competitive advantage is a strategy that that cannot be imitated by other companies. Competitive advantage can be also viewed as any activity that creates superior value above its rivals. A company wants the gap between perceived value and cost of the product to be greater than the competition. Michael Porter defines three generic strategies that firm's may use to gain competitive advantage: cost leadership, differentiation, and focus. A firm utilizing a cost leadership strategy seeks to be the low-cost producer relative to its competitors.
A good strategy is a key component to the success of any company internationally and domestically. According to Hill and Jones(2009) ‘superior performance is typically thought of in terms of company’s profitability relative to other companies in the same or similar kind of business or industry’ According to Robert Kelly and Janet Caplanhas a company is said to have superior performance when it has the capacity to recognize opportunities that can add value, the capacity to complete quality work on a time, the ability to act as a change agent, work through organizational politics, the ability to inform the manager of the progress and impacts of the project, the ability to inspire customers on a regular basis and also the ability to work across boundaries. The strategies an organisation pursues have a major impact on its performance relative to rivals. Hill and Jones (2009) define strategy as ‘a set of actions that managers take to increase their company’s performance relative to rivals’. Competitive advantage can only be achieved if the company’s strategy leads to superior performance.