Differentiation strategy-competitive strategies to employ

Assignment Help Operation Management

Reference no: EM131759054

Differentiation Strategy

In the initial stages of crafting a strategy, company managers have to decide which of the five basic competitive strategies to employ—overall low-cost, broad differentiation, focused low-cost, focused differentiation, or best-cost provider.

Broad differentiation strategies seek to produce a competitive edge by incorporating attributes and features that set a company's product/service offering apart from rivals in ways that buyers consider valuable and worth paying for. Successful differentiation allows a firm to (1) command a premium price for its product, (2) increase unit sales (because additional buyers are won over by the differentiating features), and/or (3) gain buyer loyalty to its brand (because some buyers are strongly attracted to the differentiating features and bond with the company and its products). Differentiation strategies work best in markets with diverse buyer preferences where there are big windows of opportunity to strongly differentiate a company's product offering from those of rival brands, in situations where few other rivals are pursuing a similar differentiation approach, and in circumstances where technological change is fast-paced and competition centers on rapidly evolving product features. A differentiation strategy is doomed when competitors are able to quickly copy most or all of the appealing product attributes a company comes up with, when a company's differentiation efforts meet with a ho-hum or so-what market reception, or when a company erodes profitability by overspending on efforts to differentiate its product offering.

Answer the assignment questions for this exercise after reading about Broad Differentiation Strategies in Chapter 5 and exploring Airstream’s website at www.airstream.com. The exercise should help you gain command of the major avenues for achieving a competitive advantage based on differentiation and see if you can identify at least three ways in which the company seeks to differentiate itself from rival recreational vehicles. Is there reason to believe that Airstream’s differentiation strategy has been successful in producing a competitive advantage? Why or why not?

1. Identify at least three ways in which the company seeks to differentiate itself from rival recreational vehicle manufacturers.

2. Is there reason to believe that Airstream’s differentiation strategy has been successful in producing a competitive advantage? Why or why not?

Reference no: EM131759054

Questions Cloud

Single-parent households have lower unemployment rates : Do municipalities with fewer per capital single-parent households have lower unemployment rates?

Attitude influence level of satisfaction among team members : How can her emotions and attitude influence the level of satisfaction among team members?

Define the causal attribution distortion : Define attitude and its three components. Define the causal attribution distortion and give an example.

Shooting times are negative exponentially distributed : Also assume that? Tarun's shooting times are negative exponentially distributed.

Differentiation strategy-competitive strategies to employ : Company managers have to decide which of the five basic competitive strategies to employ—overall low-cost, broad differentiation, focused low-cost,

Changes do you think will most impact risk management : There are a number of changes with 21st Century Risk Management. Which of these changes do you think will most impact risk management?

Different types of employees-servers-hosts and hostesses : Imagine that you manage a high-volume bar/restaurant with many different types of employees: servers, hosts and hostesses, bartenders, bussers,

Company value chain analysis : Company Value Chain Analysis-Which of Boll & Branch’s costs correspond to the primary activities depicted in Figure 4.3?

Multi-business global company that wants to implement : A multi-business global company that wants to implement a PMO on a phased basis, starting with a small pilot and growing it over time.

User Account

All Pages