Feature

Enhancing Competitive Advantage

Posted on 28 January, 2010 | Tags: Brand Management

As the race to the top gets tougher, creating one's own brand identity is vital to survive. Albeit, the importance that is given to the materialistic assets, it is the intangibles that eventually help carve the niche

Globalization has played a critical role for the phenomenal progress of various businesses and economies exhibited worldwide.  In the current trade environment, businesses are already witnessing stiff competition, which is bound to get tougher during the years to come for the new entrants.  Each enterprise tries to have a monopolistic market control and tries to differentiate itself from its competitors through its Unique Selling Points (USPs).  In the present scenario, differentiation is becoming difficult in terms of product quality due to common inputs and cost becomes the deciding factor for a customer.  Thus lack of differentiation is ultimately resulting in price wars.

Creating Your Own Identity
For any marketing savvy enterprise to sustain in the current era of increased competition, it is imperative to enhance its competitive advantage. Tangible and intangible components are two significant aspects, which any business must look into discretely to have an edge over its competitors.
Tangible competitive advantages such as machines, technology, manpower, finances, etc can be quantified and replicated. Thus competitors can have the same tangible strengths. On the other hand, intangible competitive advantages are subjective as well as qualitative and are difficult to quantify. Intangibles are the key drivers to develop an inherent customer-oriented approach across the entire business set up that offers an edge to a company over its competitors.  These can be identified in each department of business.  If harnessed, yield higher returns along with a significant edge to the enterprise over its competitors.
A culture of quickly responding to customers, adhering to committed delivery schedules, punctuality, professional attire, clear and cheerful verbal and written communication, familiarity with contemporary technology, great general knowledge, high energy and social graces, etc, can make a brand iconic, if practiced consistently.  Furthermore, one must ensure that the customer gets higher returns on investments, excellent relationship management, an organized workplace, an attitude of culture along with social sophistication and meeting various social responsibilities are the intangibles that impact the subconscious and offer a competitive advantage, which tangibles often cannot.
Brand equity is vital for any organization which is looking at carving its own niche. However, till date in India, most of the organizations do not realize the value of investing into intangibles towards brand building for an enhanced competitive edge.  A simple example can be the psychological distinction that rules our mind between a domestic and a competing Multi National Company (MNC).

R V Krishnan is the Managing Director of Business Development Bureau (India) Pvt Ltd. 
He may be contacted at rvkrishnan@bdbmr.co.in