Advantage - Research Paper Example

Product differentiation in John Lewis Product differentiation can be defined as a marketing strategy where a business is able to distinguish its products from a similar offering that exists in the market. In many cases for small businesses, the product differentiation strategy often provides a competitive advantage in a market that is dominated by the larger companies. In most cases the differentiation strategy that exists in the business must use a target segment that exists in the market in order to deliver the message that the products is different in a positive way from all the other similar products that exists. John Lewis is a chain of up market stores that exists throughout Great Britain. John Lewis is one of the best known brands in all of Britain, when it comes to the design; the company has what can be described as brand creative teams that consist of 55 people that help achieve differentiation. This paper will describe the differentiation advantages that John Lewis has in the United Kingdom market.
The positive attitude that the company has with design started early in the 1960’s and has continued ever since. John Lewis has been able to take differentiation to another level in the United Kingdom by offering differentiation to its clients as an offer-demand axis. The company initially had a problem with differentiating its products from others in the market because it deals with goods that are standardized. However, despite the fact that the products that the company deals with has the same physical appearance as other companies, it has been able to repackage its products and therefore, the products often appear very different in the eyes of the consumers.
The above image shows the way in which the company packages its products, this has been described as one of the best way of differentiation in the market and has set the company John Lewis way out of league for its competitors. With this differentiation technique the company has been able effectively lead from the top and therefore, attract a lot of high end customers.
The differentiation has also been intangible. John Lewis is known to be a high end store and consequently this has been one of the company’s differentiations from other competitors in the industry. Therefore, in this aspect if can be seen that the differentiation does not come in terms of tangible perception but rather it is the market that the company wishes to get. One can be able to see the value in the brand which sales on itself and therefore, the object of the differentiation at this position can be to attract potential consumers that have a lot of disposable income. The company is also known to tailor needs of the stores according to the locality that the store exists in. This is important as it makes the customer feel wanted and that they are valued by the company, this in turn is a differentiation technique by the company as it often helps the company to target its high end clients. With this differentiation strategy, the company has been able to have an advantage in the United Kingdom market.
Works Cited
Strategic Management: Analysis of Competitive advantage. PPT Read More