{"id":107717,"date":"2021-02-11T16:21:41","date_gmt":"2021-02-11T10:51:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vskills.in\/certification\/tutorial\/?page_id=107717"},"modified":"2024-04-12T14:29:41","modified_gmt":"2024-04-12T08:59:41","slug":"developing-a-sustainable-competitive-advantage","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.vskills.in\/certification\/tutorial\/developing-a-sustainable-competitive-advantage\/","title":{"rendered":"Developing A Sustainable Competitive Advantage"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Marketing Efforts Must be Sustainable<\/strong> – Marketing is a dynamic process of ensuring a close fit between the capabilities of an organization and the demands placed upon it by its external environment. It follows that the marketing mix will need to continually evolve over time in order to meet changes in a company\u2019s internal objectives and in its business environment. It is not good enough for a company to develop a marketing mix strategy that works for a short period, but then fails to make good long-term profits for the company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

History is full of marketing plans that looked too good to be true, and haven\u2019t been sustainable. It is not difficult to develop short-term marketing strategies which at first appear highly successful when judged by sales levels. It is much more difficult to develop a marketing strategy that is sustainable over the longer-term by producing adequate levels of continuing profits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the UK, companies such as Next, Amstrad, Laura Ashley and British and Commonwealth have all risen rapidly and gained much \u201cBusiness of the Year\u201d type of awards on the way. But each of these examples ended up in serious financial difficulties just a short while later. Very few of the so-called \u201cexcellent\u201d companies identified by Peters and Waterman in their book \u201cIn Search of Excellence\u201d were considered to be excellent 15 years later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Who are the Competitors?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Any plan to develop a competitive advantage must be based on a sound analysis of just who a company\u2019s competitors are. At first, it may seem obvious who the competitors are, but as Theodore Levitt pointed out, a myopic view may focus on the immediate and direct competitors while overlooking the more serious threat posed by indirect and less obvious sources of competition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Direct competitors are generally similar in form and satisfy customers\u2019 needs in a similar way. Indirect competitors may appear different in form, but satisfy a fundamentally similar need. A sound analysis of the direct and indirect competitors for a firm is crucial in defining the business mission of an organization.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A useful framework for analyzing the competition facing a company has been provided by Michael Porter. His model illustrates the relationship between existing competitors and potential competitors in a market and identifies five forces requiring evaluation<\/p>\n\n\n\n