Competitive Advantage and Business Strategies

This assignment delves into the concept of competitive advantage, discussing how firms can establish a distinct edge over competitors. It analyzes various strategies employed by organizations to secure this advantage, emphasizing the role of pricing, brand recognition, and innovation. The document highlights the challenges businesses face in a competitive landscape and emphasizes the importance of adaptability and strategic decision-making for long-term success.

STRATEGIC
MANAGEMENT

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................1
TASKS ............................................................................................................................................1
A) ................................................................................................................................................1
B).................................................................................................................................................2
C).................................................................................................................................................3
D).................................................................................................................................................4
E) ................................................................................................................................................5
F) ................................................................................................................................................6
CONCLUSION ...............................................................................................................................7
REFRENCES ..................................................................................................................................8
.........................................................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
The manager of an organisation is responsible for strategic management activities, this
helps to improve performance and competitive advantage for their industry. This is all about
description and identification of strategies that are useful for organisational growth. Strategic
management is an activity of formulating, implementing and evaluating functional decisions that
helps an organisation to attain its objectives and goals (David, 2011). It is an continuous process
used by an industry to maintain their competitive advantage. Every organisation is concern about
their market position. The report content study about three different organisations that are placed
in Malaysia. The major purpose of FAREEDA, OLD TOWN WHITE COFFEE, CROCS is to
maintain competitive advantage across the country. FAREEDA is a brand name, they produce
and sell exclusive scarves and shawls. Their basic aim is to expansion of business at
international level. OLD TOWN COFFEE is famous for providing roasted coffee with the use of
original method. They ensure that every cup of coffee give same taste to consumers. CROCS is
leading company, they produce innovative footwear for men, women and children. Their major
strength is to offers a huge portfolio of every season goods.
TASKS
A)
The basic state of affairs of business strategy is to find out competitive advantage in
which firm can compete with other organisation who are available at the market place. Business
strategies that are design by an organisation are helpful in achieving sustainable competitive
advantage. Porters' Generic business model are followed by the organisation which are
successful in attaining competitive advantage for Fareeda.
Porters Generic Model constitute of four major strategies which involves cost leadership, cost
focus, differentiation leadership, differentiation focus. In market and industry segments cost
leadership and differentiation strategies lead to competitive advantage. These models are
describe as below:
Cost leadership : The basic objective of this strategy is to become the lowest cost
operator in firm. There are lots of completion available at market place for a single product,
every firm wants to achieve high profit position (Dezsö and Ross, 2012). Fareed mainly focuses
towards providing best and quality services at very low price then the pricing strategies adopted
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by competitors. Alexa is major competitor of Fareeda, this strategy is related with large scale
businesses who are offering standardise products to consumers at relatively low prices. It focuses
on minimising the cost of goods so that sales can be increases rapidly. Low pricing strategies can
be adopted like discounted price, offers, coupons, vouchers etc (Freeman, 2010).
differentiation focus: In this strategy firm focuses towards differentiate their product form
other market segments. Differentiate goods are provided to customers according to their specific
needs which helps to satisfied them. According to different need and wants of consumers market
are segmented which are helpful in easily reaching customers according to their desired needs.
Fareeda use niche marketing strategy in which products are undifferentiated and the prices are
relatively high as the product is launch first time in market. Company produce scarves and
shawls with use of silk and chiffon which are undifferentiated from other competitors.
Differentiation leadership : Through this strategy business targets large market. Their
basic aim is to reach at competitive advantage. According to this strategy company position their
market on the basis of unique criteria which is selected by buyers. The firm sell their products at
premium price. These products have some value added features which are helpful in satisfy need
of potential customers.
Fareeda apply cost leadership strategy for attaining their aims and objectives. There is huge
competition available at market place so they sell their products at lowest price just to make extra
profit then their competitors and to achieve competitive advantage.
B)
According to me this marketing strategy has a competitive advantage at market place.
Major aim of every organisation is to earn high profit with the use of appropriate marketing
strategy. The firm concentrated on selling large volume of goods at very low prices, this situation
allows an industry to maintain their profit or expand their market share. Most of the consumers
are attracted towards low price, they wants to satisfy their own needs at very less price. There is
lots of substitute available for a single product at market place, if consumers are not satisfied
with services of particular brand or shop then they can easily switch to the others. Fareeda apply
cost leadership strategy for attract large number of consumers towards their brand. It is a most
applied strategy for maintain sustainability in competitive advantage. The company is famous for
providing high quality material in their scarves and shawls. They sell their product at very low
price which is lower as compared to its competitors (Helfat and Winter, 2011). Every different
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consumer having their own set of choice, and they want goods as per their own needs or wants.
Firm produce product as per demand of consumer or new market trend, for satisfy their buyers
with services. Fareeda use various unique colours for their scarves and shawls because girls and
women are very much attracted towards unique colours. Alexa is competitor of Fareeda, they
both use similar strategy to reach at high profit position. Fareeda always charge less as compared
to Alexa for maintain large consumers or profit. This strategy is helpful in attaining competitive
advantage at market place (Hill, Jones and Schilling, 2014). For example Fareeda has adopted
differential pricing strategy to sell its product at comparative low cost then the prices adopted by
competitors which helps in growth and success of business. According to the philosophy of
company they produce fashionable or unique scarves or shawls which are different as compared
to other scarves that are available at market place. At the time of selling their products they offer
wide range of choices at very less and affordable price. Their main purpose is to provide best and
beautiful scarves or shawls, so that they look more gorgeous when they wear those scarves and
shawls. Their products are widely used by female Muslim, girls.
C)
Old town white coffee is a famous and largest firm which is placed in Malaysia. This
firm mainly focuses towards providing same service to each and every consumers. They apply
traditional method or production and they ensure that they always give same taste, feature,
texture in their products. Their major purpose is to attract huge buyers towards their firm, so that
they can easily reach at profit position. The company export their goods more then 13 country.
Large number of consumers are attract towards coffee just for the same taste. They put their all
affords to differentiate them form competitors. Old town white coffee use various methods and
strategy to maintain sustainability in competitive advantage. Firm apply unique production
method which is different form its competitors. They produce coffee through traditional
method ,and this is helpful in achieve aims and objectives. They sell their product at premium
price which is beneficial for consumer as well as organisation. They ensure their customers for
providing best and quality services. The company use natural equipments and material for
production function which differentiate it from others. Cost is a major factor which has impact
on consumer choice and preference. Mostly buyers are attract towards low price, they want high
degree of satisfaction at very low price (Hodgkinson and Healey, 2011). So old town white
coffee taking advantage of this philosophy sell their goods at low prices which is lower as
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compared to its competitors. The company offer wide variety of coffees as per taste and
preference of different consumers. They produce more than 200 different types of coffee which
is major strength of this organisation. Company spend huge amount in offering quality and
hygienic services to their consumers. Organisation is very much aware about cleanness of their
cafe. The use beautiful mugs or cups to survey coffee to various consumers. They spend on
decoration just for attract teenagers or children. Some time firm offers products at low price as
compared to daily price. they provide free voucher, offers, coupons, lucky drown for their
regular consumers. These all strategies are helpful for old town white coffee for differentiate
itself form its competitors (Leiponen and Helfat, 2010).
D)
To make the survival possible comparison between stark bucks and old town white
coffee are discussed below.
Old town white coffee
This is an organisation which provide wide variety of coffee to their consumers. They
use traditional method of production, and they ensure their customers that they always provide
same taste, texture and feature product. They adopt various strategies to achieve at sustainable
competitive advantage (hou and Wu, 2010). The major strength of old town white coffee is they
earn high profit as compared to other coffee stores. Their weakness is that their innovation and
development is slow because they depend on single product only. Company mainly target
consumers on the basis of economic profile such as middle class, privileged class, upper
middle. They segment their market demographically in which age, gender, religion, profession
are included. Firm apply various strategies of promotion at their target market where large
number of consumers are willing to consume products which are offered by old town white
coffee. Mostly consumers are concern towards price factor, they mainly attract towards low
price. High price consist that firm provide high quality in their products. So on the basis of
consumer profile they offer different products on different price.
Starbucks
It is a well established company which is deal with coffee across the world. It is famous
for its quality of products which are offered by them. Major aim of Starbucks is to become a
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most recognized and respected bran across the globe. It is a very profitable organisation, firm
generated revenue at very high volume. Major strength of Starbucks is it earn very large volume
of profit as compared to other brands. Weakness of firm is it depends on retail of coffee which
make their operation slow and diversify in other sectors. Starbucks apply smart partnership
strategy which lead the firm at high position, for this their sales is increased. Firm is mainly
concern about providing satisfactory service to their consumers so that they can enjoy last drop
of coffee with same interest and taste. The major attractive strategy which is adopted by
Starbucks is they provide perfect cup of coffee form beginning it is evaluated that price of
Starbucks is comparatively high because of high quality. They set their price in order to
attaining high profit, they segment their market on the basis of income of person. They mainly
target to high profile people, because they want quality products. They never concern about
price factor (Makri, Hitt and Lane, 2010).
From the above comparison it has been evaluated that old town white coffee can survive
while competing with Starbucks. The major reason behind this company use low pricing strategy
to attract consumers even they provide high quality in very low price. Price of starbucks is
competitively high then other brands so it is easy for old town white coffee to compete with
Starbucks and earn profit.
E)
Crocs Inc is worlds leading footwear brand which deals in men, women, children
footwear. Competitive advantage consider with important part of company in order to compete
form all external components. It enlighten the benefits that are received by customers when they
are connect with business organisations. It can be in form of services, products, even location as
well as reputation. Managers of Crocs should have to conduct a market research to know the
needs and wants of buyers; it is also helpful for attracting many potential consumers. Along with
this, for find out the competitive advantage of their entities, employers need to understand its
customers as well as competitors.
 What do they need to do to become successful in future
 Why potential buyers not buy at all
 Why customer purchase form Crocs
 Why users are willing to purchase from competitors
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All these questions are assist in order to conduct a market research. The researcher can
easily identify the factors that impact on organisation's performance in competitive market.
There are mention below some benefits of competitive advantage that are as follow: -
Basic financial planning – Competitive advantage is enable to create plans and strategies for
future. It is also helpful in order to know the strength and weakness of competitors so as
managers can develop their planning according. Along with this, competitive advantage also
beneficial for developing annual budgeting which is enable to reduce financial problems of cited
organisation. The procedure responsible to manage sales revenues, profit & loss statements and
balance sheets of business organisation.
Forecasting for future – Competitive advantage is also helpful in order to forecasting for future
to the development of cited company. With managers can easily identifies which factors will
impact on the growth and performance of company in upcoming period. In addition, it can be
also helpful to reducing the complexities for large enterprises (Powell, Lovallo and Fox, 2011).
Strong action plan – When managers are not able to take long term decisions so then competitive
advantage helps them. They often fail in it due to some external forces. In the absence of all
these strategies it makes easier the process of decision making.
F)
Crocs is a well known footwear brand, they mainly focuses on attracting large number of
buyer with their organisation. At the time of production they are mainly concentrated on
different colours and design because mostly people want unique colour and design in their foot
wears. It is not easy to compete with a famous brand on which people having faith and trust. For
competing with Crocs I am going to add some different feature in my product just to attract
more customers then crocs. Pricing policies will be design to keeping in mind the policies
adopted by competitors. Providing extra voucher, coupons, free offers to their potential buyers.
For making our brand known to public I am conducting some advertisement functions for
providing proper detail of product. Crocs capture the market of more than 90 countries because
of their quality and feature in products. It is not that easy to survive in competitive market my
firm appoint those people who are having knowledge of market. More than one language is
known by them, they need to have nice command on marketing aspects for convene and attract
large number of consumers (Wheelen and Hunger, 2011Z. As per the discussion with my
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manager and employees I m trying to add some advance and innovative techniques for
production function. According to marketing survey my major focus is on price of goods because
more consumers are attract towards low price. For making awareness about the product my
organisation provide goods at very low price then crocs.
CONCLUSION
As per the above discussion it has been founded that every organisation is focuses on
attracting large number of consumers with their products and services. Fareeda, old town white
coffee and Crocs are well known firms, they apply various marketing strategies for achieving
competitive advantage. They three are famous for their uniqueness and best quality of products.
Getting position of competitive advantage firm gets more profit and benefit. In this competitive
world it is not easy to survive in market and competing with others. Mostly organisations apply
price leadership style for pull in consumers towards a particular brand. In today's scenario people
are more brand conscious, they usually run towards attractive and famous brand.
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REFRENCES
Books and Journals
David, F. R., 2011. Strategic management: Concepts and cases. Peaeson/Prentice Hall.
Dezsö, C.L. and Ross, D. G., 2012. Does female representation in top management improve firm
performance? A panel data investigation. Strategic Management Journal. 33(9).
pp.1072-1089.
Freeman, R. E., 2010. Strategic management: A stakeholder approach. Cambridge University
Press.
Helfat, C. E. and Winter, S. G., 2011. Untangling dynamic and operational capabilities: Strategy
for the (N) ever‐changing world. Strategic management journal. 32(11). pp.1243-1250.
Hill, C. W., Jones, G. R. and Schilling, M. A., 2014. Strategic management: theory: an
integrated approach. Cengage Learning.
Hodgkinson, G. P. and Healey, M. P., 2011. Psychological foundations of dynamic capabilities:
reflexion and reflection in strategic management. Strategic Management
Journal.32(13). pp.1500-1516.
Leiponen, A. and Helfat, C. E., 2010. Innovation objectives, knowledge sources, and the benefits
of breadth. Strategic Management Journal. 31(2). pp.224-236.
Makri, M., Hitt, M. A. and Lane, P. J., 2010. Complementary technologies, knowledge
relatedness, and invention outcomes in high technology mergers and acquisitions.
Strategic Management Journal. 31(6), pp.602-628.
Powell, T. C., Lovallo, D. and Fox, C. R., 2011. Behavioral strategy. Strategic Management
Journal. 32(13). pp.1369-1386.
Wheelen, T. L. and Hunger, J. D., 2011. Concepts in strategic management and business policy.
Pearson Education India.
Zhou, K. Z. and Wu, F., 2010. Technological capability, strategic flexibility, and product
innovation. Strategic Management Journal. 31(5). pp.547-561.
Online
What is strategic management. 2013. [Online]. Available Through:
<http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/strategic-management.html>. [Accessed
on 22 JUNE 2017].
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