Competitive Advantage and Cost Competitiveness

Discuss about the Guaranteeing its Place in the Global Market.

The main aim of any organization is ensuring that it accumulates as much profit as it can, therefore, guaranteeing its place in the global market. Due to this, many corporations have come up with methods that can help them stay relevant in the world market. The primary determinant for their stay in the global market environment is the diversity of their management and the methods the human resource management uses to capture the latest trends in the global economy. The hierarchy of the management has the sole responsibility for ensuring that each person in every department undertakes the responsibility placed on him with due diligence. Through this, all the operations of the organization are easily synchronized, and thus profits are bound to be realized. In the case of online businesses, the company has to make sure that it maintains swift and open transactions with their customers. Through this, they will be able to accumulate a wide range of clients across the globe. Customer satisfaction guarantees the development of any business entity and thus it is the work of the cooperation to ensure that it maintains a rigid customer base. This prompts the imposition of various schemes that will help advance the client base and seek to capture new markets in the global arena and at the same time selling the brand of the company. Brand marketing has been done by many businesses, and this has worked to their advantage making them penetrate newer global markets than most of their competitors in the same field. As observed, customers react to online business in various ways depending on the way the online business is marketed, advertised or branded (Strauss, 2014). The best example of an online business is the Uber taxi services.

The competitive advantage of a product is the major determinant of the quality of the product and its ability to sell itself. When a particular asset has a higher competitive advantage, then it implies it contains an addition of quality which makes it attract a wider consumer base. The most preferred commodity has a set of unique features as perceived by the user and thus gives it an upper hand against other products from other companies competing on the same scale. The competitive advantage is typically viewed, in most cases, as the reason behind brand loyalty thus distinguishing how an individual can prefer one product or service over another. There are many types of competitive advantages the major ones being cost, the product or service differentiation, and the niche strategies. Cost competitiveness is applicable when a particular firm can make proper use of the skilled workforce at its disposal to accumulate profits. The Uber taxi service has been on the forefront in ensuring that it surpasses all its competitors. The company provides a colossal selection and low prices consequently via retailer strength and the size. This makes them capture a wider customer base that prefers to buy the goods in bulk.  The Uber taxi service ensures that they provide cheap and affordable travelling services all around the clock. 

Product Differentiation and Re-engineering

For the case of product differentiation, the Uber taxi service has to formulate the product in such a way they will be able to capture the market and maintain it. A conventional method that has been applied in this field is product re-engineering. By the use of this approach, the company has been able to cut on the cost and also bring on board a new consumer base depending on the extent of advertisement the company has done. Reengineering primarily entails the redesigning of the product in such a way that new product is an improvement of the previous product. This move aims to make the former consumers become faithful customers while on the other hand making new clients gain interest in the product. The most general company that is associated with this kind of transition is the Apple Company that keeps on sophisticating its products and coming up with electronic gadgets that receive universal acceptance. In online business as observed in Uber Taxi Company, the company can also engage in their service or product reengineering so as to attract a massive customer base. They can do so by either introducing a new delivery method for their clients or by the reduction of the time delivery of the items ordered by the customer. Additionally, this can guarantee that it saves the cost of the transactions for the customers and also the company.  A perfect example of service reengineering is seen in Uber Taxi services as well as the airline industry where they have made their services easily accessible online thus one can easily book plane tickets via check-in kiosks and also in the retail supermarkets. Product re-engineering can also be a method of breaking the monotony of always having the same product among the customers. It can be attributed to the fact that when the commodity keeps changing it implies that the company is growing from one level to the other. Technological criticality and increased sophistication suggest that the organization is developing, and the target market is the growing generation which has not being explored.

Product or service differentiation is a vital element when addressing customer tastes and differences in the Uber taxi services. When the company begun offering unique and quality services, then it is evident that they have received customers as a result of the quality of the service delivery. In an instance where a particular company’s products and services are valuable then it implies that consumer loyalty may come in and thus overshadow the competitive cost advantage in the long run. Therefore, it can be noted the fact that consumers in most instances have a swayed opinion and when all factors are kept constant the quality of the product is of utmost importance. Therefore, it is very hard to maintain an edge in the competitive market based on the pricing of the commodity alone because the consumers may require something more other than the reduced prices alone. Thus through this, the online Uber taxi services has been able to set its status in product differentiation basing on the extent of quality service they offer to the clients.

Originality and Clarity in Branding and Advertisement

Online businesses should ensure they sell the actual products that they produce just as the Uber taxi service has done. It is advisable not to use counterfeits but instead maintain clarity and originality. The aspect of copying from other brands tends to affect the performance of any brand. As deduced by Kolb (2016), any firm possessing creativity then the users are bound to remain loyal, and the business ends up incurring profits considering the fact they maintain freshness and is well conversant with the changing global economy. Product originality is identified as a major determinant towards the correct branding and advertisement of the product. Thus provided a firm I able to come up as an original entity, it is always the wish of every client to identify himself with the particular brand as its service provider. The perfect example of the global online shopping site is the Amazon which has fast adequate and satisfactory services of all goods that any individual may want to obtain online. They have a sense of originality, just as the one that markets Uber taxi services.

Adequacy and time consciousness are frequently appreciated while carrying out online businesses. The clients demand that their services are given earnest consideration, and the response they expect should be paid with the urgency which is required. The faster a particular issue is handled then the more clients will be attracted to the particular firm. Even though the companies may charge low prices, due to the huge number of customers they have to attend to, in the long run, they accumulate more profits and end up earning the customer loyalty. Basing on the finding by Bowie, Paraskevas, & Mariussen, (2014), they claim that the consumer behavior is a very unpredictable trend, but when the concise concentration is given in the field then a company can comfortably trace the correct procedure for handling their customer and bringing on board more new clients. One of the major businesses that have flourished in the online marketing platform is the introduction of UBER Taxi services.

Shankar & Carpenter (2012), in their book, they explore the principles that build products and services delivery in online business. They mainly dwell on advertising as the primary element that can boost the competitive advantage of a particular product and makes it have a strong client base. The mode by which the advertising is carried out will matter whether it will capture the intended market base (Shankar & Carpenter, 2012).  Uber taxi service advertisements have been diverse and cut across many cultures and states thus guaranteeing it position in the global economy.

Adequacy and Time Consciousness in Online Business

Additionally, the packaging of the product has also been argued to be another factor that can make a product have a competitive advantage over other products. Well learned scholars, Bloom & Gundlach, (2001), concur with the fact that the mode by which a particular product is packaged and designed it can have an enormous competitive advantage over others. In the book, they highlight that just like Giffen goods, an individual can buy a product not because it is a necessity but simply because of the method by which is packaged. The assumption is brought about by the reasoning behind the fact that that the aesthetic value of a good can make a person become tempted to purchase it and through this; the product can develop its customer base.

As observed, customer satisfaction is a very broad area that cannot be quickly pointed out the preferences and tastes towards a particular product. Therefore it is the mandate of the human resource management of any company to go to the ground, gather information on the tastes and preferences of the client and thus produce goods and services which are in line with what the consumers want. The online taxi company has work hand in hand with their respondents on the ground thus making them able to decentralize their services more into the grassroots. Through this act, most companies can be able to generate more revenue basing on the fact that they rely on the direct information provided by the corporation. On the other hand, the firm is also required to house innovative people who can quickly come up with designs or ways that they can formulate their product thus making it capture a broad client base.

Customer satisfaction is described as the ability to provide the necessary requirements that a consumer requires from the product. The firm should be capable of providing products to the users based on their income capability. Additionally the human resource assesses the real situation of the persons in the target location and ends up producing the product that suits their budget. Daft(2001), in his book, Organization theory, he openly suggests that understanding the target market is the first step of any wise entrepreneur and forging ways of producing goods that correctly fits into the budget line for the consumer. This will work to the advantage of the firm and help them reduce the risks of losses that may be encountered in the process. Uber has infiltrated into major cities in Africa thus rendering other online taxi services vague. 

In conclusion, it is evident that the welfare of any business relies on the ability to be creative and coming up with ways and means that can guarantee customer satisfaction. It is the work of entrepreneurs in the Uber Corporation to ensure that they get deeper into the ground and analyze what the customers require. Through this, they can be able to develop their products into world class products and thus make them expand their online businesses in the long run.  The methodology approach towards the advertising of goods may be a reason that can market a product. Simple captivating and mind-catching advertisements tend to woo customers into buying certain products. This sums up the overall query and states that the method by which a particular product will be able to sell itself, either by global advertisement or by cutting down on the pricing, then it is bound to strategize itself in the global market and provides itself with a competitive advantage over the other commodities.

References

Bloom, P. N., & Gundlach, G. T. (2001). Handbook of marketing and society. Thousand Oaks, Calif, Sage.

Bowie, D., Paraskevas, A., & Mariussen, A. (2014). Technology-Driven Online Marketing Performance Measurement: Lessons from Affiliate Marketing. International Journal of Online Marketing (IJOM). 4, 1-16.

Daft, R. L. (2001). Organization theory and design. Cincinnati, Ohio, South-Western College Publishing.

Kolb, B. M. (2016). Marketing strategy for the creative and cultural industries.

Shankar, V., & Carpenter, G. S. (2012). Handbook of marketing strategy. Cheltenham, UK, Edward Elgar Pub.

Stan, S. A. U. O. B. (n.d.). Strategies For Small Enterprises Negotiating With Large Firms. Studies And Scientific Researches. Economics Edition; No 18 (2013). Vasile Alecsandri the University of Bacau. https://sceco.ub.ro/index.php/SCECO/article/view/208.

Strauss, R. E. (2008). Marketing planning by design: systematic planning for successful marketing strategy. Chichester, England, Wiley.

Swan, K. S., & Zou, S. (2012). Interdisciplinary approaches to product design, innovation, & branding in international marketing.

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