The Nature of Competitive Advantage

The company markets its unique products to youth markets which it feels are underrepresented and inadequately reached by its competitors. The company uses innovative and creative, and it effectively set Jones Soda apart from the competition. By allowing consumers to assist in package design, Jones Soda became a brand that concerned itself more with the consumer than with the actual product. This has made consumers feel more relevant, has given them a sense of ownership over the brand, and has encouraged customer loyalty. Due the field is so competitive with several ways to stay competitive in their designated field. Through distribution, brand name, brand image, price, labeling and packaging, advertising, quality of the beverage, and new ideas they have accomplished this. Jones Soda competes for customer appreciation, retail shelf space and for marketing focus by their distributors, who also distribute other beverage brands. Jones Soda currently distributes their products in several retail outlets. These outlets include Barnes and Noble, Panera Bread Company, Cost Plus World Markets, Starbucks and Target Corporation. As well as these mature locations, Jones Soda also distributes to other independent vendors.

Strategic planning is designed to leverage the strengths of a firm while minimizing the effects of its weaknesses.  It is difficult to know the potential advantage a firm may have unless external analysis is done well.  For example, a company may have a talented marketing department or an efficient production system.  However, the organization cannot determine whether these internal characteristics are sources of competitive advantage until it knows something about how well the competitors stack up in these areas.

1. What is competitive advantage, and how does it relate to a company’s business model?

Good business strategies allow a firm to gain and sustain a competitive advantage over its rivals. Broad generic business strategies can have risks and drawbacks. In a broad generic differentiation strategy, firms run the risk of the product becoming commoditized, and the competitors have matched the quality standards of the product, which then shifts the focus to price. Also, firms need to control costs, and if its differentiated features raise costs but not perceived value in the consumer’s minds, they lose their differentiated status, according to Rothaermel (2017). Profit margins are eroded when costs increase. Another risk for a broad generic differentiated or cost-leadership strategy occurs when consumer’s taste change. With a

In order to achieve a competitive advantage, an organization must have resources, competencies, and capabilities. Resources are what an organization utilizes to create value in the organization. Resources are imperative to the organizations value and are tangible and intangible. Tangible resources are financial, physical, and labor. “Robert Kaplan and David Norton point out that unlike financial and physical resources, intangible resources are hard for competitors to imitate, making them a powerful source of sustainable competitive advantage.” (Ginter, Duncan and Swayne 138) Competitive advantage comes from the organizations resources. The competitive advantage the organization has is its ability to provide quality services than services

Executive Summary.……………………………………………………………….2 Problem Statement ………………………………………………………………...2 Situational Description and Strategic Analyses …………………………………...3 Strategic Analysis Overview & History.……………………………………………..3 External Environment.……………………………………………6 Internal Environment.…………………………………………….6 Intellectual Assets.……………………………………………......9 Strategic Formulation Business Level

In order to have a successful business plan industry analysis is crucial. Industry analysis is an assessment on the internal and external environments that directly affect almost all aspects of a business. By observing the analyses, the business owner can adapt to the market desires and gain a competitive advantage over competition. Everyday new products and services are entering the market that threaten existing firms. These new competitors bring knowledge of what didn’t work for the existing firms and build directly on that. This gives them a huge pre disposed advantage. The benefit of these constant new firms is a healthy rivalry that keeps prices down for consumers but constantly trying to uphold quality standards.

The Porter’s five forces of competitive position analysis helps firms to understand and appreciate factors that impact on profitability in an industry, which assist management in formulating decisions on whether to enter an industry, how long to stay and if there is the need to increase capacity and develop competitive edge.

Competition is a significant factor, which influences strategic planning of Seth GmbH. Knowing the competitors and their strategically poises is a significant key to the success of Seth GmbH. The company should evaluate various factors related to the competitors, such as their size, share in the market, branding strategies and quality, which allows it to feasibly conduct business in the market. In order to achieve competitive advantage, Seth GmbH should look towards strategic planning in terms of marketing its products better than the competitors. Employing quality marketing research would help Seth GmbH in formulating an inherent customer profile and understanding its consumers. Through strategic planning, Seth GmbH could build personal motivation among the management and use proven systems to develop them into the core competencies of the organization, thereby achieving competitive advantage. Other factors that help Seth GmbH in achieving competitive advantage are customer service

Competitive strategy is the moves and methods that the firm has taken and is taking to appeal buyers, improve its market position, and to endure competitive pressures. The strategy is about what a firm’s capability to try to knock off competitors and attain competitive advantage, which can be offensive or defensive. There are three approaches to competitive strategy, which are low-cost leadership strategy where struggling to be the overall low-cost manufacturer in the in industry. Moreover, pursuing to distinguish one’s product offering from competitors (differentiation strategy), and the last one is focus or niche strategy where aiming on thin portion of the market rather than the whole market (Porter, 1998).

A key to achieving competitive advantage is producing a product that has value (Fortenberry, 2010). To achieve value Health Smart Nurse Consulting Group (HSNCG) has to engage in activities that that can build value. Michael Porter Value Chain will be utilized to identify value-producing activities that are within in the consulting group. If these activities run efficiently, the company will gain competitive advantage of the product or service. All the activities in an organization have cost, and generate a return. If rate of return is greater than the cost, the activities will add value to the organization

“Competitive strategy involves positioning a business to maximize the value of the capabilities that distinguish it from its competitor’s” (Porter 1980:47). A successful business plan requires first and foremost the formation of an appropriate strategy. Through the implementation of a suitable strategy, the company is able to obtain its own industry niche and gain an understanding of its customers (Porter 1985). Whichever strategy is adopted it must be adequately integrated within the firms goals and missions to achieve a competitive advantage (Parker and Helms 1992).

Porter set out to define a strategic model to which all companies conform. He maintained that failing to fit into one of his pre-defined categories “the firm stuck in the middle is almost guaranteed low profitability.” (Porter, 1980). The pre-defined categories are noted in appendix 1.

Companies live and breathe innovation; or, at the terribly least, notice it basic to their success. Such companies are those that others ought to emulate for they recognize that to do business, as Peter Drucker prompt in an exceedingly recent Harvard Business review article, “Every firm—not simply businesses—needs one core competence: innovation.”

The business environment in this globalized world is changing every day and is really very difficult to move the business ahead without the proper analysis. There are both internal and external environment affecting the way of doing business. But the major changes in business are due to the impacts of