Desarrollar una ventaja competitiva sostenible

A sustainable competitive advantage is an advantage in providing value to customers that cannot be imitated.

Numerous cases abound where the first mover in a market develops a competitive advantage, but soon loses it.  In the 1990s, AOL had a competitive advantage as an Internet Service Provider (ISP), becoming the preferred provider for consumers new to the internet. It offered more features in one easy-to-use platform. Some customers used “AOL Keywords” to search just as much as they used Yahoo and Altavista to search. Yet, as customers became more sophisticated and as competing ISPs launched cheaper substitutes (e.g. Netzero, Earthlink), that advantage became difficult to sustain.  It can be a challenge to sustain a competitive advantage because once a product or service is made, other competitors can reverse engineer a company’s success, taking the competitive advantage away.

Fuentes de ventajas competitivas sostenibles:

• Habilidades superiores
• Recursos superiores
• Experiencia de uso única
• Características únicas del producto
• Diseño
• Modo de entrega
• Marca
• CRM
• Investigación de mercado
• Altos costos de cambio
• Barreras de entrada
• Patentes
• Liderazgo en costos
• Diferenciación
• Enfocar

An example of sustainable competitive advantage through differentiation is Starbucks. The company essentially serves a commodity: coffee. But it has made the coffee-buying experience cater to its customers’ lifestyles and psychographics. Customers buy at Starbucks to relax and purchase many of its additional products in the meantime. This superior and unique customer experience is an example of a competitive advantage.

Cómo la investigación de mercado genera una ventaja competitiva

La investigación de mercado es crucial para desarrollar una ventaja competitiva sostenible porque descubre lo que quieren los clientes. Puede:

• Descubra información que no está disponible para la competencia
• Identificar factores clave de éxito
• Orientar el posicionamiento en el mercado.
• Adaptar los movimientos estratégicos para mantenerse por delante de los competidores.

Contáctenos para su próximo proyecto de Investigación de Mercado.