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About Us > Help & Support > Tips for better practice > Strengths. Benefits & Features

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Tips & Ideas for Better Competitive Intelligence


Strengths, Benefits and Features!

This tip is based on the tip published in the May 2002 issue of the AWARE Marketing Tips Newsletter.

A key stage in marketing planning is identifying company strengths and weaknesses. Similarly, companies need to understand competitor strengths and weaknesses. The problem facing many companies is

What is a strength?

and

What is a weakness?

Many people confuse strengths, benefits and features - labelling them all strengths. In reality, this confusion can actually damage ones marketing effort because the failure to understand the difference will lead to poor decisions and strategies that fail to address the real issues.

Take for example a product, produced by two competing companies.

Company A produces the product in three sizes - small, medium and large. They also offer the product in red, blue and green colours. The price is $20 for the small size, $39 for medium and $55 for the large size. The costs of producing the small size are $10, $20 for the medium and $30 for the large. I.e.

Company A Product Range & Pricing

Colour

Size

Production Cost

Price

Profit per item

Red Small $10 $20 $10
Blue Small $10 $20 $10
Green Small $10 $20 $10
Red Medium $20 $39 $19
Blue Medium $20 $39 $19
Green Medium $20 $39 $19
Red Large $30 $55 $25
Blue Large $30 $55 $25
Green Large $30 $55 $25

Company B only offers one product size - medium. They also offer only one colour - blue. The price for company B's product is also $39 but it costs them only $19 to produce it. Which of the above is

  1. a strength,
  2. a benefit
  3. a feature?

The answer depends on what customers actually want.

If customers want the product in various sizes and colours then offering this is a benefit. However as it is likely that this can easily be copied by other companies it cannot usually be called a strength. If the different colours are of no interest to customers who always pick the first item available in the desired size irrespective of colour then product colour is not actually a benefit - but a feature. As there is a cost in producing multiple colours, this could even be viewed as a weakness. Finally, although company B does not have the same range as Company A, it's production costs are lower. If this cannot be copied by company A then this is actually a strength.

In summary,

  • A strength is something that one company possesses that cannot easily be copied by competitors. The company has a competitive advantage with the strength.
  • A benefit is something that one company possesses that is not offered by competitors, but could be copied if they felt it would be beneficial for them. It does not convey any competitive advantage - but does result in the company gaining customers attracted by the benefit.
  • A feature is something that the company offers that has no real benefit to customers, but does add variety to the company's product offering. As such, features that are not wanted by customers (i.e. offer no benefit) are likely to be weaknesses, unless there is no cost involved in producing them.

Make sure, when you look at products that you are clear as to the product strengths, benefits and features - and use this understanding in your marketing planning.

If you liked this tip, why not subscribe to the AWARE Marketing Tips newsletter. This contains more than just the Quick Tip produced on AWARE's Internet site. It contains recommended web-sites, AWARE news and much more. Also, visit the rest of our site for further ideas on competitive and marketing strategy. And if you need to obtain information on your competitors, check out AWARE's services pages to see how we can help you.

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Quick Tip: Entrance

Quick Tip

Robert Smith was devastated.

As the owner of a small retail business selling various groceries he had always recognised the threat posed by major supermarket chains such as Tesco, Walmart, Carrefour and the like. Now a branch of Tesco had opened next door, and business was tailing off.

He told all his friends how worried he was - and that things couldn't possibly be worse. And then a branch of Walmart opened on the other side. Robert now told friends that he expected to be out of business within the year.

His friends were really surprised when they met him a few months later - getting out of a top-range Mercedes wearing an expensive suit and with a big smile on his face.
We thought business was so bad that you were about to go bankrupt. What happened?

Robert replied: Well that is what I thought. And then I remembered that one secret to effective marketing is to make sure that your potential customers know where to find you. So I changed the name of my company. Come and look!"

Robert's friends followed him to his shop, sandwiched between Tesco and Walmart. Over the front, the new name was posted in big neon letters ENTRANCE

How do you promote your business? Can potential customers find you? Do your marketing promotions send people away, or invite them to come and buy. You need to ensure that all your marketing promotions allow customers to enter.

(For more marketing and business humour, visit our humour pages)

 

Books - Art of the Long View

Recommended Book

Art of the Long View
The Art of the Long View
Peter Schwartz
Buy UK £ or US$
This is an excellent introduction and guide to scenario planning.

Read our review of this book

If there is one book that is head and shoulders above all the other on the subject of scenario planning, this is it. Schwartz's book is a joy to read and gives a tremendous introduction to the subject, leaving the reader with a firm grounding and understanding in the way that scenario planning has helped many companies gain competitive advantage in their industries. The text includes many case studies and anecdotes making it a must-read book. Peter Schwartz is not only one of the world's leading scenario planners - but an excellent writer also.

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For more recommendations visit our book selection.

 

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Finding Competitive Intelligence using Online Sources

AWARE consultants are experts at discovering competitor information online and have developed a market-leading course on Finding Competitive Intelligence using Online Sources. This course has been given as an in-house course to numerous companies across industries (IT, publishing, telecoms, chemicals....) and countries, as well as publicly at SCIP annual and European conferences, the London International Online Information Conferences and other similar events.

The workshop has received high praise for its unique approach to finding competitive intelligence on the Internet. The workshop - available as a half-day summary, full day or 2-day in-depth training course with extensive practical online sessions - teaches attendees how to find actionable competitive intelligence rather than just present a list of sources that quickly date. Like all AWARE's in-house training, the course can be customised to focus on industry or competitive area.

For more information on this workshop and how it can help you become a more effective Internet researcher check out our Competitive Intelligence Training and ask us about our courses on finding CI information.

 

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Last page / site update: Thursday, May 5, 2011

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