Exam 18: Creating Competitive Advantage

Profitability increases as a business gains share relative to competitors in its ________.

Tomorrow's leading companies will succeed by seeking out unoccupied positions in uncontested market spaces. Such strategic moves, termed ________, create powerful leaps in value for both the firm and its buyers, creating new demand for new products.

Michael Porter suggested four basic competitive positioning strategies that companies can follow, three winning strategies and one losing one. Name and describe these four different strategies.

The existence of competitors in a market may cause a decrease in total demand.

Which of the following is most critical for successful niching?

Dell produces and delivers PCs of competitive quality at lower costs. The company constantly aims to achieve low production and distribution costs to win a large market share. Dell utilizes a(n) ________ strategy very effectively.

Which of the following are market challenger strategies?

Which of the following conditions would enable higher market share to produce higher profits?

Give examples of competitor objectives and discuss the importance of knowing a competitor's mix of objectives.

Discuss why a company really needs and benefits from competitors.

Discuss the functions and goals of a competitive intelligence system.

At the narrowest level, a company can define its competitors as other companies offering similar products and services to the same customers at similar prices.

Refer to the scenario below to answer the following question(s). Essential-Beauty is a rapidly growing firm that manufactures women's makeup, perfumes, and nail-care products. The company has established itself as a high-end cosmetic product brand available at most national drug stores. In the past, almost all of the advertising for Essential-Beauty has been in women's fashion magazines. The firm is now launching a new line of skin care products, ranging from facial cleansers to body lotion. These products are designed to be marketed to a broader audience, so the marketing team is exploring the effectiveness of different promotional mixes. -Entrepreneurial marketing exclusively involves developing formal marketing strategies and adhering to them closely.

An industry often contains "good" and "bad" competitors. Good competitors ________.

Sears and Holiday Inn encountered difficult times because they did not stand out as the lowest in cost, highest in perceived value, or best in service of their primary target market segment. Both companies are ________.

Although competition is most intense within a strategic group, explain why there is also rivalry among groups. Give examples.

An advantage of a competitor-centered company is that it ends up simply matching or extending industry practices rather than seeking innovative new ways to create more value for customers.

In conducting ________, the company first identifies the major attributes that customers value and the importance customers place on these attributes. Next, it assesses its performance against competitors on those valued attributes.

What are the stages that the approaches to marketing strategy and practice usually pass through?

From an industry point of view, Universal Pictures film studio might see its competition as ________.