Marketing is extremely important for companies with an established reputation as well as newly developing firms. One of the key parts of an organization’s marketing strategy is a mission statement. It is a short written sentence which describes the aims of a company, its competitive advantages and policies. Usually, it is a statement beginning with the word “to” which serves as the marker of an action (Hofstrand, 2016). For example, “to create a competitive product of high quality” could be the mission statement of a company which goal is to abolish monopoly on the market. Thus, the purpose of a mission statement is to convey the company’s set of beliefs. Its precise wording and reasonable length allow an organization to efficiently answer several questions in one sentence. It can include the problems a company strives to solve, define its goals and the actions which it takes in order to achieve them.
An efficient marketing campaign is of essence in the context of a healthy competitive environment. It is a dynamic system in which the competition between companies occurs. A business’s competitors can be divided into two groups defining the major types of this system. The first one is direct competitors which is companies selling the same items or providing the same type of services (What is a competitive environment, 2015). For instance, The Coca-Cola Company and PepsiCo are large and well-known beverage corporations with similar drinks as their flagship products.
Indirect competitors, on the other hand, are businesses competing with each other, even though they sell different products and provide different types of services. The reason for this competition is that two companies’ products can be used as substitutes for each other (What is a competitive environment, 2015). An example of such competition could be two restaurants located in close proximity to each other but aimed at different preferences. If a place offering Italian food is nearby a place offering Mexican food, they may have to compete for a passerby who has no direct inclination to either of the two. In this case, a person will prefer a place which he or she would consider more attractive from the advertising perspective.
It is only logical that conditions of competition allow rival companies to gain additional benefits in comparison to each other. This is called a competitive advantage which is a set of factors making one company superior among competitors. This advantage can be based on the product’s lower price, better quality, overall availability, and other aspects. In general, it depends on three things which are crucial for competition. In order to gain competitive advantage, a company must know its product well with regard to its benefits and understand the scale of demand for it on the market. Furthermore, a company should identify target customers and use different tools to engage them. Finally, a business should be aware of its competitors, their potential weaknesses and advantages (Amadeo, 2020). All of these factors help a firm create an effective marketing campaign.
One of the examples of clear competitive advantage is Apple Inc. This company possesses certain strengths giving it superiority on the market. Thus, it knows its potential customer, a modern young person looking for technologically advanced software, and understands how to promote the product to this target market. Furthermore, all of its products share the same software which makes it easy to navigate the whole specter of devices after a short time of using them. Finally, Apple is a well-recognized name nowadays, which makes the brand appeal a strong marketing strategy.
References
Amadeo, K. (2020). What is competitive advantage? The Balance. Web.
Hofstrand, D. (2016). Vision and mission statements – a roadmap of where you want to go and how to get there. Iowa State University Extension and Outreach. Web.
What is a competitive environment in business? – Definition, examples, advantages & disadvantages. (2015). Web.