Marketing Competitive Advantage Exam

Red ocean strategy

-compete in existing market space -beat the competition -explore existing demand

Blue ocean strategy

-create uncontested market space -make competition irrelevant -create and capture new demand

Competitor reactions to changes in price

-develop a fighting brand -reduce prices -increasing advertising spending -increase sales promotions

Four action framework

-eliminate -reduce -raise -create

Market leader strategies

-expand total demand -protect their current market -expand market share

Protect current market

-fixing or preventing weaknesses that provide opportunities to competitors -maintaining consistent prices that provide value -keeping strong customer relationships -promoting continuous innovation

Formulated marketing

Involves developing formal marketing strategies and following them closely

Intrepreneurial marketing

Involves the attempt to reestablish an internal entrepreneurial spirit and refresh marketing strategies and approaches

Entrepreneurial marketing

Involves visualizing an opportunity and constructing and implementing flexible strategies

Competitor centered company

Spends most of its time tracking competitors' moves and market shares and trying to fine ways to counter them (advantage: company is a fighter; disadvantage: company is reactive)

Competitors' strategies

Strategic group offers the strongest competition

Designing a competitive intelligence system

-identifies competitive information and the best sources of this information -continually collects information -checks information for validity and reliability -interprets information -organizes information -sends key informations to relevant decision makers -responds to inquiries about competitors

Expand market share

-increasing profitability with increasing market share in served markets -producing high quality products -creating good service experiences -building close relationships

Competitive positions

-market leader strategies -market challenger strategies -market follower strategies -market nicher strategies

Basic competitive strategies

-overall cost leadership -differentiation -focus -middle of the road

Market follower strategies

-play along with competitors and not rock the boat -copy or improve on leader's products and programs with less investment -bring distinctive advantages -keep costs and prices low or quality and services high

Competitors' objectives

-profitability -market share growth -cash flow-technological leadership -service leadership

Bad competitors

-rather than engaging in market building by bringing new customers to the market, they grow their business by buying shares not earning it -they take large risks that may destabilize the industry resulting in decrease in profits for all firms -they play by their own rules

Good Competitors

-share in the cost of product and market development -legitimize new technology -they may serve less attractive segments or lead more product differentiation -the may help increase total demand

Overall cost leadership

A company achieves the lowest production and distribution costs and allows it to lower its prices and gain market share

Differentiation strategy

A company concentrates on creating a highly differentiated product line and marketing program so it comes across as an industry class leader

Focus strategy

A company focuses its effort on serving few market segments well rather than going after the whole market

Market nicher strategies

An ideal market niche is big enough to be profitable with high growth potential and has little interest from competitors

Assessing

Assess competitors' objectives, strategies, strengths and weaknesses, and reaction patterns

Utility levers

Customer productivity, simplicity, convenience, risks, fun and image, environment friendliness

Customer value analysis

Determines the benefits that target customers' value and how customers rate the relative value of various competitors' offers

Expand total demand

Develop new users, new uses, more usage

Competitive marketing strategies

How companies analyze their competitors and develop value based strategies for profitable customer relationships

Identifying

Identify the company's competitors

Value innovation

New way of thinking about and executing strategy that results in the creation of a blue ocean. About driving costs down while simultaneously driving up value for buyers.

Competitor analysis

Process of identifying , assessing, and selecting key competitors

Buyer's Experience

Purchase, delivery, use, supplements, maintenance, disposal

Product leadership

Refers to a company providing superior value by offering a continuous stream of leading-edge products or services

Customer intimacy

Refers to a company providing superior value by segmenting markets and tailoring products or services to match the needs of the targeted customers

Operational excellence

Refers to a company providing value by leading its industry in price and convenience by reducing costs and creating a lean and efficient value delivery system

Competitive advantages

Require delivering more value and satisfaction to target consumers than competitors

Selecting

Select which competitors to attack or avoid

Market centered company

Spends most of its time focusing on both competitor and customer developments in designing strtegies

Customer centered company

Spends most of its time focusing on customer developments in design strategies. Provides a better position than competitor centered company to identify opportunities and build customer relationships.

Fun and image

The innovation delights customers

Environment friendliness

The innovation facilitates recycling and other environmentally sensitive practices

Customer productivity

The innovation helps customers do things faster, better, or different

Convenience

The innovation makes a desired activity easier to perform

Risks

The innovation minimizes customers' financial or physical risks

Simplicity

The innovation offers enhanced ease-of-use

Competitors' strengths and weaknesses

What can our competitors do?

Estimating competitors' reactions

What will our competitors do?

Create

Which factors should be created that the industry has never offered?

Raise

Which factors should be raised well above the industry's standard?

Reduce

Which factors should be reduced well below the industry standard?

Eliminate

Which of the factors that the industry takes for granted should be eliminated?