Competitive Advantage Quick Check Lists

Competitive Advantage

Competitive advantage is whatever you can do better than the competition that will attract customers to your business so it can succeed.

Here are some useful competitive advantage check lists:

Competitive advantage comes from one, or a combination, of the following factors:

Which will depend on your customers needs and preferences especially your target customers. Here is each factor with the question you need to answer.

Quality – is your product or service better than your competition provides?
Price – is your price lower on a consistent basis, or, does your price reflect value for its quality?
Location – what is the most convenient location for your target customers?
Selection – do you offer a wide range of choice than your competitors
Service – is your service better, more personal, preferred by your customers?
Speed / turnaround – can you have faster delivery?

The competitive strategies defined by Michael Porter called the generic strategies are:

These are based on the two options of product & market of:

The resulting strategies are:

Cost leadership– lower cost across the industry
Differentiation strategy– better product or service across the industry
Cost focus strategy– lower costs within a segment of the industry
Differentiation strategy– better product or service within a segment of the industry

The terms are explained as:

Here is a list of examples of competitive advantage: