In today’s marketing world, every small business seeks to stand out among a myriad of competitors. Because United States consumers have so many choices, businesses who fail to differentiate themselves from the competition struggle to survive. However, an effective differentiating strategy can help a small business not only to live, but also to thrive in the marketplace. Marketing experts Jack Trout and Steven Rivkin combine their genius to describe practical concepts on business differentiation. From their extensive knowledge, a small business executive can glean three valuable differentiating strategies which help a small business to secure a competitive advantage over the competition. A small, gourmet supermarket chain in Ohio called Dorothy Lane Market will practically illustrate these concepts. Authors Trout and Rivkin share that a wise small business can accomplish brand differentiation by owning a heritage, a uniquely processed product, or a brand attribute. Owning a Heritage The presence of a business heritage provides a business with a differentiating strategy. Trout and Rivkin confirm that a long and successful past leads consumers to believe that the business must being doing something right; the company must be producing a reputable and dependable product or service that is providing for the needs of its customers (2008, p. 125). Owning the differentiating strategy of business heritage powerfully creates a positive image of confidence in the minds of consumers. Authors Trout and Rivkin describe two specific types of heritage that a business could own to differentiate itself. Locational Heritage Locational heritage claims an association with a country which is already well-known for making a specific product. For... ... middle of paper ... ...as “Selling the Highest Quality Natural and Organic Products” (WholeFoodsMarket.com). Notice that, although Dorothy Lane also offers a broad selection of similar natural and organic foods, it does not differentiate itself in this way. DLM chooses to differentiate itself by owning a broader attribute, which infers that its specialty grocery store accommodates all the specialty food needs of its customers. A business needs to create an effective differentiating strategy to succeed. By owning a heritage, a specialty, or an attribute, a business can differentiate its brand and product/service offerings so a customer will know what benefits the business offers. A small business executive who implements any one of these three practical differentiating strategies by marketing experts, Trout and Rivkin, will capture a competitive advantage over the market competition.
Understanding the number of competitors and their capabilities in a particular market is a key function of building strategy. If a company is competing against another company offering the same product or service, it faces limitation in regards to both supplier and buyer power. Customers will always tend to go to the place where they get the same product for a cheaper price, while supplier will tend to flock to places where the deal is considerably high. For CMG, a key differentiation in its competition within the fast food industry is designated I its ability to meet a one of a kind fast food experience where customers experience fine-dining similar to high0end hotels, but a low prices. CMG additionally differentiates totally with its rivals in the sense that they struggle to offer healthy and high-quality food that positively impacts the society.
A grocery store sells multitudes of products ranging from produce to cleaning supplies to appliances for households for consumers. This industry is not only large, but is dominated in the market by many chains such as Publix, Walmart, and Kroger’s, for example. As the market size for this industry is large, competition from competitors increases depicting on various reasons such as prices, marketing strategies, and service to consumers. Moreover, the profitability of firms in this industry depend on the what the other identical firms in the industry are doing i terms of its marketing tactics and price differentiations. Firms need to develop business strategies that match a firm’s vision and how it wants its consumers to view them as. In order for these
The first essential is purpose. The brand must establish that their purpose is more than just to make money. The second essential is consistency. The brand must be consistent in their advertising and their products. Trader Joe’s must keep quality products at low costs consistently throughout all their advertising campaign. Third is emotion. Trader Joe’s must be able to establish an emotional restaurant with their customers. This can be done by buying from local farmers, offering college student discounts, or giving back to the local community. These small efforts build a relationship with the local community. Fourth is flexibility. While maintaining consistent in their message, Trader Joe’s must also be flexible make adjustments to separate themselves from their competitors. The fifth is employee involvement. The target market in this particular area is small and Trader Joe’s must establish a personal relationship with the community. If there is a problem, customers will expect a human to human interaction versus reaching a computer monotone recording for customer service. The sixth is loyalty. One of the main goal for Trader Joe’s is to build loyalty in the community and with the local restaurants. Trader Joe’s must also be willing to reward these loyal customers by incentives and give back for their loyalty. The last essential is competitive awareness. Trader Joe’s must constantly be keeping tags on their competitors and be able to respond to their moves in the market. The marketing team will look at the competitor’s tactics and look at their results as information for possible future strategies (Stec,
To accomplish competitive advantage, and differentiation three elements are crucial; stating the strategies and practicalities, focusing on knowledge based behaviour, and improving the customer relationship management.(Slater and Narve 1995).
Differentiation – where companies introduce a unique dimension that is considered to be important to the market. Some LCCs have moved onto this strategy.
important. While there are reasons to value heritage, being part of a dominant culture is
Differentiation: by focusing on those activities associated with core competencies and capabilities in order to perform them better than do competitors. The key point of this strategy is to create something that customers feel as being unique.
Porter (1997) suggests in order to gain competitive advantages in the changing business environment, it is essential to design a generic strategy for the business: product differentiation or cost leadership. The competitive strategy is determined at round 2, when recognised our rivals held whole product profile which was the product differentiation strategy. To differentiate our strategy from rivals for competitive advantages, Digby designed to imply the cost
Heritage includes a legacy of physical attributes of the past. Heritage may be inherited and maintained in the present for future generations. Some symbols of heritage can be meaningful to some people, while for others they are meaningless. Traditional heritage plays an important part of everyone’s life. Some people follow a traditional heritage so deeply imbedded in their everyday lives that they do not even recognize them as so.
Dr. Parnell advises that the corporate level strategies “focus shifts to how the firm’s business units should compete and is concerned with the basic thrust of the firm” (2014, p.183). Home Depot is clearly focused on its business units in form of “its own established unique mission, set of competitors, and industry” (2014, p.183). By remaining a competitive force in the home improvement industry and staying true to its company mission of “putting customers first and the rest will follow” Home Depot corporate level strategy is categorized as differentiation strategy. Not only has Home Depot remain a competitive force to reckon with, they also hold the industry title of “the world’s largest home improvement retailer” (Home Depot, 2016). Since Home Depot has already achieved such an esteemed accolade it would not make much since for them to operate at a low-cost strategy. According to Dr. Parnell, the differentiated strategy “seeks to offer unique and/or unusual products and
We propose a branding strategy which takes into account the brands capabilities and competencies, strategies of competition brands and the outlook of consumers experience in their respective societies. As an international brand there is the challenge of staying connected with local customers. We will overcome this by adapting marketing strategy to local needs using a variance of standardized marketing mix and an adapted marketing mix.
The ability of the management in positioning and establishing the product is a success in any company that operates for marketing and profit acquisition. Furthermore, the ability of the company and its management to complete and maintain a competitive edge among its competitor throughout the product differentiation is another basis to say that is successful. Also, innovation and the constant development on the product lines and the growing number of customers also define the corporate standing of a company. Effective branding strategy and strong brand name are an important part of the profitable business. But, all the strategies and all marketing theories can be worth nothing without the compliance of the desires of consumers.
Everybody has heritage which often times brings most people together. Some people are more fortunate than others in the fact that they are able to know about their immediate and extended heritage. It is what makes Alice Walker’s “Everyday Use,” particularly interesting and thought provoking. In “Everyday Use,” it can be seen that heritage is not only a unifying force, but also a force that can tear two people apart if they view it differently.
In the modern world of conducting business, any company that wishes to succeed must differentiate its products or services from others in the industry. Differentiation makes it possible for consumers to point out notable differences between one company’s products as compared to those of competitors. Differentiation helps companies build brand loyalty as the uniqueness keeps customers fixed on a particular product. BMW is one of the most popular automakers in the world today. It definitely uses differentiation as a strategy to beat off competition by building products that are innovative, detailed and incomparable to those of competitors.
Differentiation through marketing strategies, this is a form of innovation driven by the need to create a superior brand (Sadler, 2003).