Porter's generic strategies - Case Study Example

The U.S airways and Porters generic strategies The U.S airways has of the recent past tried to adopt different strategies that maximize profits and reduce production or labor costs, which enables them to achieve competitive advantage in the crowded market. Most customers prefer the best services offered to them at affordable costs, and this has made the U.S airways apply Michael Porters generic strategies to compete against their competitors such as Southwest, Delta Airlines, and Jet Blue just to name a few (Eldring, 2009).

The three strategies namely; cost leadership, differentiation, and focus were established by Michael Porter to help businesses gain a competitive advantage over their competitors.The cost leadership strategy has enabled the U.S airways to increase profits by reducing costs that are incurred by the airline, and also enable them to increase the market share by putting cheaper prices while still making a favorable profit on each sale they make (Kossowski, 2007). The U.S airways has made this strategy highly efficient since they have; access to the capital needed to spend in technology that bring costs down, efficient logistics and low cost requirements on labor, materials and facilities. The U.S airways has also applied the differentiation strategy, which involves making their products and services unique and more presentable than those of their competitors, hence making them more efficient in the airline market (InfoRefuge, 2012).

Focus strategy used by the U.S airways entails concentrating on a market and providing it with low costs or well-specified products, which eventually builds a strong brand loyalty amongst their customers making it more attractive compared to their competitors. Airline competitors have been outdone successfully by the U.S airways because of the airlines use of the Porters generic strategies, which ascertain that they are more competitive and get a greater share of the market.ReferencesEldring, J. (2009). Porter ́s (1980) Generic Strategies, Performance and Risk: An Empirical Investigation with German Data.

Hamburg: Diplomica Verlag.InfoRefuge. (2012). US Airways SWOT Analysis.Retrieved on December 3, 2012 from:http://www.inforefuge.com/us-airways-swot-analysisKossowski, A. (2007). Strategic Management: Porter’s Model of Generic Competitive Strategies - Theory and Analysis. Norderstedt: GRIN Verlag.