Competitive Advantage Strategies
The business environment is very competitive especially in the modern world where technology has advanced and increased dynamism in the environment. Due to these changes, many organizations operating in different industries are seeking to establish themselves through use of various strategies. One of the common strategies is establishment of a competitive advantage.
A competitive advantage is qualities that characterize a given organization that makes it outstanding from the rest of the competitors in the industry.
Total Quality management is one of the strategies used by firms to create a competitive advantage through development of quality products that fit directly into consumer needs. Despite its common use by many organizations, other strategies could be used by organizations to establish a competitive advantage.
Cost Leadership
Companies that have ability and capacity to produce goods use this generic strategy and services at costs that are lower than those of their competitors are and therefore earn more profit in selling high product quantities. As mentioned by Campbell et al (2002, p. 178), for a company to gain cost leadership, there has to be costs control and efficiencies. The company should seek to gain a unique access to lower cost materials.
Low cost in production could be achieved through vertical integration decisions and optimal outsourcing. As long as cost of production is low, a company can offer products at lower prices and maximize sales. Companies that use cost leadership strategy take advantage of the economies of scale whereby the company produces large amount to enhance its competition in the market.
A good example of a company that has applied this strategy includes Wal-Mart. This is one of the largest retailers across the world. Wratshko (2009, p. 53) argued that low cost strategy is central to the production and delivery of quality and competitive products at Wal-Mart Company.
The company has for years translated its low cost advantage into a price advantage, its customers enjoy low costs, and this has largely improved the company’s market share. The enlarged market share in turn increases the company’s opportunity to enjoy economies of scale with ruthless cost reductions.
Wal-Mart is known as a low price supplier of variety of goods. Wal-Mart compares its every activity with those of its competitors along the value chain and is committed to surpass the competitors through price reduction.
The company has remained innovative; this helps in improving processes and developing new products at low costs. One of the main drivers of low cost strategy at Wal-Mart is its supplier relationships; the company maintains in-bound logistics and supplies.
Market Segmentation
According to Campbell et al (2002, p. 180), a focus strategy focuses on a given market segment in which it applies cost leadership or differentiation strategy. Use of focus strategy helps in gaining customers’ satisfaction and loyalty. Coca Cola Company is well known of using focus strategy to enter new markets as the strategy was successfully used in China.
After establishing the market, the company uses differentiation strategy to provide unique products in the market. Most companies that use differentiation-focused strategy are able to provide a broad range of commodities in a given market. Focus strategy may however suffer changes in targeted segments and imitation.
Product Differentiation
According to Campbell et al (2002, p. 178), differentiation strategy involves creation of unique products and services in a given industry. The unique products and services have to be valued by customers as unique and the uniqueness is reflected in features, product design, brand image, network, and technology and customer service.
Companies that desire to use differentiation strategies have to develop commodities that offer unique attributes, which customers have and will value and perceive different and better than other competitors products.
The uniqueness of the commodity adds value to it and this may require a company to charge a certain premium price, following the product’s uniqueness, the company can pass the increased cost to its customers who may not find substitutes easily.
To succeed in the differentiation strategy, a firm has to invest in research to build innovative ideas; this requires the product development team to be creative and highly skilled. Due to the premium price that may be passed to customers, the sales team has to be strong and aggressive, with ability to communicate the product’s strengths to customers. The strategy also requires corporate reputation for innovation and quality.
Out of the above three competitive strategies, there is no superior strategy as all provide an organization with a competitive advantage over its competitors. It is difficult to combine the generic strategies, mixing the strategies yields either heavy costs or confusion in terms of targeted customers.
A company may use one strategy and after establishing itself in a given market aspect, it can then adopt a different strategy to improve on the existing strategy. For instance, a firm can use focus strategy and after segmenting the market, it can use differentiation or cost leadership strategy. Differentiation and cost leadership strategy cannot be combined since it is hard to differentiate products and at the same time minimize costs.
Company Markets
Various markets in which an organization could sell its products exist. Geographic Segment: This segmentation divides the market into different geographical units such as neighbourhood, city, country, world regions and climate. Due to the diversity of the target markets, employee branding demands according to the geographical area to reach the entire target customer.
Behavioural Segment: This segmentation divides the market groups according to the knowledge, attitudes, uses, and responses of customers to the product (Xbox, 2011). For example, customer make purchases based on the benefits they get from the product, level of usage of the product, level of loyalty, user status, and level of their readiness to purchase.
Employees train to distinguish consumers; identify consumer needs, design products that meet consumer needs to maximize their satisfaction, pre and post purchase behaviour, choose relevant marketing strategies, and be able to influence consumers’ perception and decisions.
Psychographic Segment: This segmentation divides the target market according to the social status and lifestyle. The employee is able to know when to trigger the need of consumers, emphasize the dissatisfaction in the consumer, concentrate its efforts to its target market, and understand the changes in the consumer demands
Marketing Plan for a Kinetic Xbox 360
This section examines a marketing plan for a fictitious product Kinetic Xbox 360 an electronic device used in the gaming world.
Product Description
Xbox is one of the two largest gaming devices used in the world. Microsoft has always been on the frontier of computer innovation since its foundation and has innovated Xbox as one of its best products. Xbox Kinetic is the first step in the next big product in gaming. Xbox has come up with a new technology that detects movements of the body and applies them as instructions when playing a game.
That is why the Kinetic Xbox has the motto, “You are the controller. No gadgets, no gizmos, just you!” It works by setting up a centrepiece that has a camera that perceives the body movements and the voice. This movements and use of the voice act as the controllers of the game. Xbox Kinect has started a mini-revolution in gaming due to aerobic portion that people have started to play video games for exercise (Xbox, 2011).
This product offers unique qualities since the controls are the body movements. Games offered by Xbox kinetic range from normal sports video games to shooter games all the way to exercise or workout routines. The sleek design of the product gives the consumer a product that does not look out of place in front of the TV.
The technology innovation was by outside companies Rare and PrimeSense who combined efforts to come up with a system that uses infrared translators of 3D body motion as controls of a game. This product obviously has a brand name associated with it, which is why its success was almost instantaneous. Xbox and Microsoft’s loyal customers trusted that the product would be just as great as their other products.
Target Market and Market Size
Market size is the number of buyers and sellers in a particular market. It measures the total value and volume of sales made to the target customers. It helps emerging enterprises and existing companies to identify the number of their potential customers in their new product or service. According to research done on June 2011, Kinetic Xbox 360 has the largest market size among other consumer software products.
It recorded a total annual sale of 5 million of motion sensing Kinetic from 3 million sales last year. This shows an increase in the annual sales. The company also produces kinetic systems whose sales increase from 2.5 million to 4.1 million sales within a period of 25 days of the marketing campaign (Warren, 2011).
This shows that the company has a greater chance of attracting and maintaining more customers to its new product. The company sold 297,000 units of Xbox 360 in April making it the most preferred and demanded software product in U.S. The products market size increases by 60% each year.
Market Segmentation
Market segmentation is a collection of prospective buyers into groups or segments with common needs and responses to a particular product or service. Given that a consumer is a unique being and tends to control all that goes on his or her mind and life in reference to a given product, the marketer has to understand the consumer and his way of thinking when identifying his target customers (West, 2010).
Market segmentation enables focus on subsets of potential customers. Proper market segmentation enables the business to achieve maximum returns from sales and marketing expenditure regardless of the nature of customers and competitors.
Behavioural Market Segment
This segmentation divides the market groups according to the knowledge, attitudes, uses, and responses of customers to the product. For example, the customer makes purchases based on the benefits they get from the product, level of usage of the product, level of loyalty, user status, and level of their readiness to purchase. For this market segment, the company intends to market Kinetic Xbox through:
Use of waves of body parts and the voice: The customer benefits from doing exercises on all the body parts and at the same time relaxing his or her mind during the entertainment. This interests the consumers to increase their purchase and usage of the product.
Ability to play games on the screen: Games are the most preferred form of entertainment. The product enables the user to play the games he or she likes since the product provides a variety of them. This helps to maintain and attract new customers due to the influence of the benefits of personal experience (Warren, 201).
Extending the product operations in the mobile phones: Most people carry their mobile phones everywhere hence introducing the product in the mobile phones means that customers can use it anywhere they need it (Warren, 2011).
Partnership with Face book: This product helps its customers to socialize with their partners and friends. It encourages customers to use the product to satisfy their needs and wants for instant communication and competition.
Customer Analysis
This analysis enables the establishment of a market that survives in the competitive market. The TV commercials advertise the product constantly to remind and inform the customers about the product. Face book enhances social networking of friends and partners.
The product targets family and friends of all gender and age and eliminates the use of education by replacing controlling devices with wave of body parts and use of the voice to control the game.
Consumers have different tastes and preferences hence understanding their needs and want more than they do created market for the product. The marketer wants to examine the effectiveness of these strategies in attracting and maintaining more customers.
Competitor Analysis
The company produces unique and quality products that differentiate the company products and services from its competitors. Its efforts to understand consumer needs and wants of change in the routine of playing games has generated a bigger market share and advanced the profits of the company (Taylor, 2011).
Collaborators
Parents have the chance of protecting their children from influence of the product through interacting during playing the game for example, crime, drugs, and sexually implicit images influence children under 18 years since they experiment that which they see.
This also reduces the chances of penalties for under age negative influence by the Supreme Court when reported by the parents since parents have the responsibility of controlling their children since they understand the games as well.
The parents’ preference for this product for their children will increase the market share of the product. This makes them apart of the company (Taylor, 2011). The retailers and promotional partners for example, the studios, distribute the products (Xbox, 2011).
Macro Environment Factors
These factors are beyond the company’s control hence must be considered in the decision making process since it affects the overall performance and strategies of the company (Taylor, 2011).
Political Factors
Include the pressure groups, government agencies, and the legislation limiting the activities of the company. For instance, the Supreme Court charges high penalties to the company for releasing illegal images, that is, crime and sexually implicit images to children less than 18 years.
The company introduces a product that includes the parents’ participation to ensure that they have control over their children influence. Pressure groups, for example, the ESRB control the software producers from release of images that have negative impacts on the society. The company should consider the rules and regulation set by these organizations to avoid extra expenditure on penalties.
Social Factors
These forces affect the behaviour, attitude, and preference of consumers. The company has introduced a unique product that interests many consumers. The product also includes the parents in the use of the product increasing socialization in the society. The company should consider enhancing these factors to attract and maintain more customers (Taylor, 2011).
Economic Factors
These involve factors that affect the purchasing power of customers. The price of the product is high hence reducing the willingness of the consumer to spend on the product. The company should consider lowering the prices to increase the market size to maximize its profits.
Natural Resources
They include the raw materials and the energy sources. The company has introduced batteries and 2GB broadband to enable efficient use of the product. The company should introduce more improved and durable facilities to cater for long period needs of the consumers (Xbox, 2011).
Technological Factors
These forces affect introduction of new products and creation of markets and opportunities for the product. The company produces the best technology compared to the other software companies. It is the high time the company hires qualified employees to enhance technology to compete effectively in the future with its competitors and to maintain its position in the technology sector.
Demographic Factors
These factors involve the size of population, location, race, and occupation. There is a lot of racism in U.S. hence; the company should put efforts to reduce it in order to enhance its product penetration in the market. The company should promote their products severely in dense populated areas to enlarge its market size quickly with less expense (Taylor, 2011).
SWOT Analysis
Strengths
Despite the high prices, the product remains the most demanded in U.S. compared to the other software products. The has a chance of making very high profits now and in the future due to its high acceptability and adaptation by the consumers.
Weaknesses
The high prices discourage customers from purchasing the product since games are associated with gabbling.
Opportunities
The product has unique characteristics that create addiction of the product enabling the company to make more profits. The product use is by anyone despite the age and gender creating greater chances for high usage of the product thus yielding more profits.
Threats
The high prices make the consumers shift from the product to that of the competitors leading to a decrease in its market share.
Media Strategies
According to Kitchen & De Pelsmacker (2004), IMC strategies encompass general advertising, marketing directly to the locals in Australia, sales promotions and public relations. No strategy is superior to the other because all strategies have an equal goal in an integrated marketing communication initiative.
Promotion of Kinetic Xbox 360 would involve the utilization of various media channels in order to convey the message on benefits of the product such as provision of quality games to customers. The first form of media that is very effective is the print media. Under this mode, the IMC director would market the products and its benefits through newspapers, magazines and brochures among other forms of print media.
Pictures and videos containing the necessary attractive features would be conveyed. The broadcast media could also be used to convey the same message. TVs and radio could be used. In addition, public relations strategy could be used with public relations representative informing the locals on the benefits of Kinetic Xbox while doing away with the perception that Gold Coast City is just for international tourists.
Financial Performance of Gap Inc.
Gap Inc is an international business entity that has outlets in various parts of the world. The outlets of Gap Inc deal in personal care products, clothes and other accessories for women, men and even children.
The major brands of Gap Inc in the business include Old Navy, banana republic, and piperlime among other top brands in the world. In the United States of America, the retail industry is one of the largest industries in the economy, recording an average of US $ 3.8 trillion annually. Almost 12.4 % of all business establishments in US are involved in the retail industry and the gross margin of the industry is between 31% and 33%.
There is stiff competition in the retail industry and this has seen the sales of Gap Inc drop significantly. Apart from the drop in sales, the company has also been experiencing a decrease in the number of customers. This prompted the company to explore strategies of improving on their sales.
The company adopted some measures such as markdowns, aggressive promotion and product campaigns among others. This has caused a recent improvement in the sales of the company though slight. A financial analysis of Gap Inc is critical at this time to determine the financial soundness of the company.
Financial analysis is the process of selecting, evaluating and interpreting information from the financial statements of a company in order to obtain information for decision-making. Financial statements have to be interpreted in order to make sense to decision makers in the firm. Financial analysis makes sense out of the financial statements and this enables decision-making.
Financial statement analysis is therefore a very important tool for the success and growth of an organization. It provides information for decision making either outside or inside the organization. The main tool used to carry out financial analysis is the ratio analysis.
The various ratios of the organization will be compared against subsequent years and against the industry in order to determine the growth of the firm in relation to the industry and competitors in the industry.
The data used to carry out financial analysis comes from the financial statements of Gap Inc. Other sources of data include the press releases about the economy or industry performance and economic data such as the gross domestic product (Block & Geoffrey, 2009). It is important for the financial analyst to make a careful selection of relevant data for analysis. All data must be obtained before beginning the process.
There are numerous financial ratios. A ratio is an expression of quantitative relationship between elements (Helfert, 2001). Financial ratios are classified into various categories such as liquidity ratios, profitability ratios and activity ratios among others. These ratios are classified based on the information they provide for decision makers of the company. The ratios are analyzed in the next section.
Ratios of Gap Inc
Ratios measuring the Liquidity of Gap Inc.
The ratios are vital for the operations of the firm since they help in determination of the ability of the corporation from meeting its daily operations. Gap Inc. is expected to have high liquidity in order to assure its stakeholders of continued operations.
Therefore, high liquidity ratios are favorable for the corporation. These assets are also known as liquid assets and they include cash, bank deposits, stock, and notes receivable among others.
Current ratio
Current ratio is the ratio of current assets to current liabilities and it is an indicator of the ability of a company to meet current liabilities using current assets.
Current ratio = current assets / current liabilities
The current ratios for Gap Inc for the years 2011, 2010 and 2009 are 1.87, 2.19, and 1.86 respectively. The ratio fluctuated for the three-year period as indicated. However, the high ratios indicated the ability of the corporation for meeting its liabilities in the short period from the company’s easily convertible assets.
Quick/acid test ratio
The ability of an organization to operate depends on the ability of the firm to finance the daily activities. The activities can be funded from the assets of the firm that can be converted to cash fast. This ratios measures the speed at which the Gap Inc. is able to converts its assets to liquid cash for effectiveness in daily operations. Inventory is factored out of the liquid assets because it takes time to convert to cash.
Quick ratio = (Current assets – Inventory) / Current liabilities
The quick ratios for Gap Inc for the years 2011, 2010 and 2009 are 1.1, 1.5, and 1.16 respectively. The ratio provides a similar indication as the current ratio, the ability to meet short-term obligations. In addition, the ratio fluctuated over the three years.
Net Working capital to sales ratio
It is the ratio between working capital (Current assets less current liabilities) in relation to sales. It is an indicator of the ability of a company to meet liquidity needs (sales) using the amount of current assets which remain after taking care of current liabilities.
Net working capital = (Current assets – current liabilities) / sales
The net working capital to assets ratios for Gap Inc for the years 2011,2010 and 2009 are0.13, 0.18 , and 0.13 respectively. The ratio was low and remained constant over the three years.
Ratios of Profitability
These ratios give an understanding of the components of the income of a company in relation to unit sales (Block & Geoffrey, 2009).
Gross profit margin
The ratio is utilized in the determination of the income earned on unit sales of the inventory of the firm without inclusion of the earnings of the company forms other sources.
Gross profit margin = Gross income / sales
The Gross profit margins for Gap Inc for the years 2011, 2010 and 2009 are 40%, 40%, and 38% respectively. The gross profit was constant for the two years before dropping to 38% in 2011.
Operating profit margin
It is the ratio of net income to sales and it show the remains in dollar terms of sales after taking care of cost of sales.
Operating Profit margin = operating income / sales
The operating profit margins for Gap Inc for the years 2011, 2010 and 2009 are 13%, 13%, and 11% respectively. The ratios indicate that the operating profit of the firm indicated a declining trend.
Net profit margin
Net profit margin is the ratio of net income to sales and it point towards the amount of sales in dollar value that remain after taking care of expenses and cost of sales.
Net profit margin = Net income / sales
The net profit margins for Gap Inc for the years 2011, 2010 and 2009 are 8%, 8%, and 7% respectively. This indicates a declining trend for the net profit hence measures should be taken to change to trend to an upward trend.
Activity ratios
The ratios point to the ability of an organization to handle its assets efficiently. They show the benefits that a company derives from various types of assets. They are also used to measure the profitability of a company against all the assets involved (Helfert, 2001).
Turnover of Inventory
The ratio points to the ability of the stock of the corporation to create income for the company.
Inventory turnover = cost of goods sold / inventory
The inventory turnover ratios for Gap Inc for the years 2011, 2010 and 2009 are 5.42, 5.74, and 6.03 respectively. The figures fluctuated, increased first before decreasing.
Turnover on Total asset
Total asset turnover ratio = sales / total assets
The total assets turnover ratios for Gap Inc for the years 2011, 2010 and 2009 are 2.08, 1.78, and 1.92 respectively. The figures begun on a high of 2.08, dropped to 1.78 before showing an upsurge of 1.92.
Financial leverage ratios
These show the company’s long-term financial obligations and its ability to meet the obligations as they fall due. Financial leverage indicates the structure of the sources of finance to Gap Inc. Companies use a mixture of equity and debt to finance their investments. More use of debt leads to high profitability but high financial risk hence it is important for a firm to analyze financial leverage carefully.
Financial leverage ratios of gap Inc. indicate the financial risk taken by the company through use of debt. The ratios are of two types, which are component percentages and coverage ratios. Component percentages show the comparison of debt with either total capital or equity capital. Coverage ratios show the ability of the company to meet obligations arising out of debt such as interest.
Total debt to assets ratio
It is an indicator of the proportion of assets, which are financed using either long term or short-term debt.
Total debt assets ratio = total debt / total assets
The total debt to assets ratios for Gap Inc for the years 2011, 2010 and 2009 are 0.42, 0.63, and 0.42 respectively. The ratio increased to 0.63 before dropping to 0.42.
Long term debt to assets ratio
This ratio shows the percentage of assets financed using long-term debt only.
Long term debt to assets ratio = Long term debt /total assets
The long-term debt to assets ratio for Gap Inc in 2009 was 1.45. There was no long-term debt in the company in 2010 and 2011.
Debt to equity ratio
It is an indicator of relative use of debt and equity as sources of capital for the company.
Debt-equity ratio = total debt / total shareholders’ equity
The debt to equity ratios for Gap Inc for the years 2011, 2010 and 2009 are 0.73, 0.63, and 0.72 respectively. Given that a high debt to equity ratio is not encouraging, the ratios are not high hence acceptable (Yahoo Finance, 2011).
Times interest coverage ratio
This is a comparison of the earnings available and the interest expense.
Times interest coverage ratio = Earnings before interest and taxes / interest
The times interest coverage ratios for Gap Inc for the years 2010 and 2009 are 0.3 and 1.59 respectively. There was no interest expense in 2011.
Shareholder ratios
These are relevant to shareholders and they indicate the profitability of the company in terms of the shareholder investments (Vance, 2002).
Earnings per share
This is the amount of net operating income per share held in the company.
Earnings per share = Net income available to shareholders / Number of shares outstanding
The earnings per share for Gap Inc for the years 2011, 2010 and 2009 are 2.07, 1.89, and 1.66 respectively.
Price earnings ratio
This is the ratio of market price per share to the earnings per share of common shares.
Price-earnings ratio = Market price per share / Earnings per share
Return on investment ratios
These ratios show the profitability of a company in relation to the amount of assets invested. This is the ratio of the net operating income to total assets of a company (Helfert, 2001).
Return on investment = Net operating income / Total assets
The return on investments for Gap Inc for the years 2011, 2010 and 2009 are 0.17, 0.14, and 0.13 respectively.
In conclusion, Gap Inc is doing well financially since it is able to meet its obligations as they fall due. The assets of the company are also managed effectively and the company does not have high financial risk. There is improvement in the financial position over the three years. However, the firm needs to improve on its financial performance to avoid fluctuations.
Funding for a Business
Small businesses are faced with many issues some of which include financing, running of the business, growth and expansion, liquidity management, succession and strategy choice among many other issues.
Most of the small firms operating in any environment are either family businesses or partnerships, although some are small companies. As these businesses gain a remarkable market share in the market, their management feels that it is time to grow and expand the business to another higher level. However, the major challenge is the source of capital to finance the expansion strategy.
Most of the small businesses and even larger corporations can obtain funds for their business ventures from various means including borrowing from banks and other financial institutions. They could also use accrued profits and firm equity to finance the ventures of the firm. These two options are challenging and it is often not easy for an organization to choose the better option.
Debt Financing
This form of financing the activities of an organization entails the use of loans and borrowing from banks and other people that are in a position to provide funds for the firm. The firm undertakes the responsibility of repaying the investors their capital with some interest.
As noted by Wratshko (2009), main sources of financing using debt to an organization are from banks and other government financial agencies. Borrowing limits the future activities of the firm as it will be tied to repaying the borrowed funds mainly because the lender is not given any ownership in the organization.
The benefits of debt financing are that it provides the organization with the required funds for investment in the intended project. However, this technique of financing an organization has various cons (Waren, 2011). To begin with, the method may not be a viable option for small business that has irregular cash flows as they may be denied the funds or awarded limited funds.
Financing an organization using debt is not a good option as it may leave an organization vulnerable to economic uncertainties including fluctuation in interest rates. Debt financing increases the perceived risk of an organization making it unattractive for any investor.
Financing with Equity
This form of funding an organization involves obtaining money from investors who are in turn offered ownership in the organization. A part from friends and families, wealthy investors and venture capital firms could invest in an organization and become shareholders.
This method of financing the activities of an organization is good for small growing firms, as the firm has no obligation of repaying the money as investors’ intent to obtain their invested funds through profits earned by the firm in future.
As high profile-investors, invest in an organization, its profile and credibility increases thereby bringing about positive impacts to the firm’s business ventures and performance.
In spite of the benefits, funding an organization using equity is that investors become part of the firm and therefore gain a say in the decision making of the firm. The dilution of ownership interests could also reduce the autonomy of managers thereby causing management issues in the organization.
Angel investor Network
Angel investors are affluent individuals that have enough funds that can fund an organization. They usually provide their funds to an organization in exchange of ownership or as a convertible debt to the firm that is to be repaid. Angel investors usually invest their personal funds and therefore, they are not compared to venture capital who manage pooled funds from different individuals (Funding, 2011).
Many business organizations could opt for angel investors for various reasons. First, such investors are able to raise the required capital for a start up of a given business venture. They can also raise the capital in small funds as compared to venture capital that could raise capital in lump sum. Given that most angel investors are individuals, there are high chances that their agreements are flexible.
Moreover, some are experts in business management, have experience in business, and could therefore bring over their expertise to the business in order for it to prosper. Angel investors do not require high monthly fees (Funding, 2011). Moreover, their investment in an organization is considered a high-risk investment as the firm has not yet established itself in the business environment.
References
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Waren, T. (2011). Xbox 360 tops U.S. console sales again in April, nearly a year of domination. Winrumors Web site.
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