This part of the blog explains what it
takes to create competitive advantage. I learned from the first part of my
marketing plan, that competitive advantage can be the key to success for the
Multi-purpose product “Super-Blue,” that we are introducing to the market. Kotler and Armstrong define
competitive advantage as “An advantage over competitor gained by offering
consumers greater value” (p.525).
The Super-Blue first part of the marketing plan, suggests that
the cleaning manufacturing product industry involves a significant number of competitors.
We know our product has unique environmental
characteristics in comparison to competitors’ brands, and the idea is to use
that advantage to gain customer value. Nevertheless, we are aware that the
product characteristics by themselves are not enough to conquer customer
values. I learned from the text book Principles
of Marketing written by Kotler and Armstrong that companies must avoid “Marketing Myopia.” Marketing myopia is “The
mistake of paying more attention to the specific products a company offers than
to the benefit and experiences produced by these products” (p.7).
The best way to gain competitive advantage is through
the understanding of customers’ necessities. During this process, we might find in the
market customers that are loyal to a specific brand distributed by our competitors. Then, the next step is to investigate the things these competitors are doing great. The following illustration helps to understand the competitor
analysis.
Buss 306 Power Point Slide
I have learned for the marketing class, that the analysis of competitors is unlimited.
Meaning, that the company cannot afford to analyze only close competitors that are recognized
in the industry. The competitor analysis must include companies offering similar
products, and competitors that are looking to satisfy the same customers, either,
offering similar or different product. I remember the Kodak Real Marketing 18.1
from chapter 18 of the text book when this company fall in the mistake of looking
at the film competitor industry, without paying attention to the new and better
digital features of photography that ended up making Kodak products less attractive
to solve customers’ necessities (p. 528).