持続可能な競争優位性の構築

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.

持続可能な競争優位性の源泉:

• 優れたスキル
• 優れたリソース
• ユニークな使用体験
• ユニークな製品の特徴
• デザイン
• 配送方法
• ブランディング
• 顧客関係管理
• 市場調査
• 高い切り替えコスト
• 参入障壁
• 特許
• コストリーダーシップ
• 差別化
• 集中

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.

市場調査が競争優位性を高める仕組み

市場調査は、顧客が何を求めているかを明らかにするため、持続可能な競争優位性を築く上で非常に重要です。市場調査によって、次のことが可能になります。

• 競合他社が入手できない情報を発見する
• 重要な成功要因を特定する
• 市場ポジショニングをガイドする
• 競争相手に先んじるために戦略的な動きを適応させる

次回の市場調査プロジェクトについてはお問い合わせください。