Este blog es solo...
un vómito de pensamientos, de esos que se esconden dentro de mi, pero no pueden ser lanzados por mi lengua.
lunes, 26 de agosto de 2013
III. A Sustainable Strategic Position Requires Trade-offs
Choosing a unique position, however, is not
enough to guarantee a sustainable advantage. A
valuable position will attract imitation by incumbents,
who are likely to copy it in one of two ways.
First, a competitor can reposition itself to match
the superior performer. J.C. Penney, for instance,
has been repositioning itself from a Sears clone to a
more upscale, fashion-oriented, soft-goods retailer.
A second and far more common type of imitation is
straddling. The straddler seeks to match the benefits
of a successful position while maintaining its
existing position. It grafts new features, services, or
technologies onto the activities it already performs.
For those who argue that competitors can copy
any market position, the airline industry is a perfect
test case. It would seem that nearly any competitor
could imitate any other airline’s activities.
Any airline can buy the same planes, lease the
gates, and match the menus and ticketing and baggage
handling services offered by other airlines.
Continental Airlines saw how well Southwest
was doing and decided to straddle. While maintaining
its position as a full-service airline, Continental
also set out to match Southwest on a number
of point-to-point routes. The airline dubbed
the new service Continental Lite. It eliminated
meals and first-class service, increased departure
frequency, lowered fares, and shortened turnaround
time at the gate. Because Continental remained
a full-service airline on other routes, it continued to
use travel agents and its mixed fleet of planes and
to provide baggage checking and seat assignments.
But a strategic position is not sustainable unless
there are trade-offs with other positions. Trade-offs
occur when activities are incompatible. Simply
put, a trade-off means that more of one thing necessitates
less of another. An airline can choose to
serve meals – adding cost and slowing turnaround
time at the gate – or it can choose not to, but it cannot
do both without bearing major inefficiencies.
Trade-offs create the need for choice and protect
against repositioners and straddlers. Consider Neutrogena
soap. Neutrogena Corporation’s varietybased
positioning is built on a “kind to the skin,”
residue-free soap formulated for pH balance. With
a large detail force calling on dermatologists, Neutrogena’s
marketing strategy looks more like a drug
company’s than a soap maker’s. It advertises in
medical journals, sends direct mail to doctors, attends
medical conferences, and performs research
at its own Skincare Institute. To reinforce its positioning,
Neutrogena originally focused its distribution
on drugstores and avoided price promotions.
Neutrogena uses a slow, more expensive manufacturing
process to mold its fragile soap.
In choosing this position, Neutrogena said no to
the deodorants and skin softeners that many customers
desire in their soap. It gave up the largevolume
potential of selling through supermarkets
and using price promotions. It sacrificed manufacturing
efficiencies to achieve the soap’s desired attributes.
In its original positioning, Neutrogena
made a whole raft of trade-offs like those, trade-offs
that protected the company from imitators.
Trade-offs arise for three reasons. The first is inconsistencies
in image or reputation. A company
known for delivering one kind of value may lack
credibility and confuse customers – or even under
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