Exam 18: Creating Competitive Advantage

A company's close competitors are ________.

Walmart, Costco, and Southwest Airlines serve customers who want reliable, good-quality products or services that are also reasonable and easily available. These companies are all known for pursuing a value discipline known as ________.

Nintendo, producer of the Wii video game console, might define its competitors as other makers of physically interactive video games. But from a(n) ________ point of view, it would include all firms making physically interactive recreational products.

In some markets, competitors live in relative harmony.

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

What is the purpose of benchmarking?

An example of a company exhibiting a blue ocean strategy is ________.

To plan effective marketing strategies, a company needs to find out all it can about its competitors. It must constantly compare its marketing strategies, products, prices, channels, and promotions with those of close competitors. This is an example of ________.

Cozy Country Market entered the candle business with a unique product: a line of candles made from soy that produces less smoke and lasts up to twice as long as other candles. The firm sold this unique product exclusively to a few niches. The candles were priced at twice the cost charged for normal candles. The product was also sold online and in unconventional outlets not dominated by market leaders. In this case, Cozy Country Market was using a(n) ________ against the market leaders.

To remain number one, leading firms can take any of three actions. First, they can find ways to expand total demand. Second, they can protect their current market share through good defensive and offensive actions. Third, they can ________.

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

Country Kitchen and Perkins are both a chain of family restaurants featuring diner-like menus with reasonably priced items. These companies are in the same ________.

Almost every industry includes firms that specialize in serving target subsegments called market ________.

When companies serve customers who are willing to pay a premium to get precisely what they want and the company responds quickly to satisfy these customers' needs, the company has achieved ________.

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.

Which of the following is most critical for successful niching?

The competitive intelligence system does all of the following EXCEPT ________.

Which of the following is the best response a company can make to competitive threats?

Companies can identify competitors from a(n) ________ point of view by defining competitors as companies that are trying to satisfy the same customer need or build relationships with the same customer group.

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.