Identify Your Competitive Advantage And Set Up A Winning Framework In 6 Steps

If you’re like me, you’ve heard the term ‘competitive advantage’ over and over and probably thought it was kind of a philosophical idea that only applies to your ideal business (aka the one that lives in your dreams, without shifting priorities, last-second changes, and so on.)

But the truth is that having a competitive advantage can make or break your real company. It’s what sets you apart from your competitors and makes customers choose you over them.

So, how do you identify and use your competitive advantage to create a winning framework for your business?

What is competitive advantage?

A competitive advantage is what makes you stand out in your market. It’s the unique edge that draws customers to your business over others.

This could be anything from a proprietary technology, exceptional customer service, lower cost, or a product feature that no one else offers (more on this later.)

At its core, it’s your company’s signature—something distinct that you bring to the table, attracting and retaining customers by offering them value that they can’t find elsewhere.

By identifying and nurturing your competitive advantage, you ensure that your business remains attractive and relevant to your target audience, giving you a steadier path toward growth and, ultimately, superior margins.

Eight types of competitive advantage

In the definition above, I casually mentioned that a competitive advantage refers to more than one thing, even in the same industry; what it really means is that it can be very different depending on your company.

Let’s see eight types of competitive advantage that you can use to overtake your competitors’ products or services:

[Author’s note: Bear with me; this section will help you shape your competitive advantage framework below. Once you know the different types of competitive edge are there, you’ll be able to identify which strategies companies in your industry are using and adapt quickly]

1. Cost advantage. Also called cost leadership strategy. It is achieved when a company can deliver the same quality products or services as its competitors but lower costs. Companies with a cost advantage can either price their products more competitively to gain market share or maintain average industry prices to enjoy higher profit margins.
2. Differentiation advantage. A differential advantage occurs when a company offers products or services that are perceived as having unique qualities or being superior in some aspect compared to what the competition offers. It usually also allows the company to charge a premium price. Products that effectively tackle common concerns like battery issues can command even higher prices due to their perceived added value.
3. Innovation advantage. It stems from a company’s ability to develop new products, processes, technologies and solid online service marketplace platform before its competitors. Being the first to market with a new offering can attract early adopters and build brand loyalty before others have a chance to follow.
4. Focus advantage. A focus strategy involves concentrating on a specific niche market or segment. By understanding and addressing a particular group’s unique needs and preferences more effectively than competitors who target a broader audience, you can achieve greater customer loyalty and higher margins.
5. Speed advantage. It refers to a company’s ability to bring products to market faster than competitors, respond more quickly to market changes, or adapt swiftly to customer needs. This agility can provide a significant edge, especially in industries where trends and customer preferences evolve quickly.
6. Quality advantage. Quality advantage is when a company’s products or services are of higher quality compared to those of its competitors, in terms of durability, reliability, superior performance, or aesthetics. High-quality offerings can lead to greater customer satisfaction, retain customers, and attract more customers.
7. Customer service advantage. This advantage is achieved when a company delivers superior customer service. Outstanding support, personalized attention, and going above and beyond to meet customer needs can differentiate a company from its competitors, fostering loyalty and encouraging word-of-mouth promotion.
8. Globalization (dis)advantage. This refers to how well a company can operate and compete across international borders. Your company may enjoy a globalization advantage if it can efficiently enter new markets, adapt to local cultures and regulations, and manage global supply chains, i.e., thanks to a strategic geographic location. Conversely, if you struggle with these aspects, you may face a globalization disadvantage.

Build a sustainable competitive advantage in 6 steps

Building a sustainable competitive advantage ensures that your business stays ahead of emerging competition, not just momentarily, but for the long haul. Here’s how you can achieve that in six deliberate steps.

1. Study your target market and audience

Understanding who your customers are, what they value, and how their needs evolve is foundational. You must immerse yourself in their world, using market research and data analytics to grasp their preferences, pain points, and purchasing behaviors. This deep understanding will guide every strategic decision your company makes.

There are a few tactics you can use:

1. Segment your market. This involves dividing a broad target market into subsets of consumers with common needs, interests, and priorities. Use demographics, psychographics, behavioral patterns, and geographic criteria to create detailed profiles for each segment. Understanding these segments allows you to tailor your products, services, and marketing messages to meet specific needs and preferences more effectively.
2. Employ quantitative and qualitative research. To truly understand your target audience, blend both quantitative (surveys, analytics, polls) and qualitative (interviews, focus groups, observations) research methods. Quantitative data will give you the numbers to support your strategies, such as market size, average spend, and conversion rates. Qualitative research, on the other hand, offers insights into the why behind customer behavior, providing depth to the story that numbers tell.
3. Analyze digital footprints. It’s no secret that your audience leaves a vast trail of data online. Analyzing social media behavior, search patterns, and online reviews can offer deep insights into what your audience cares about, their pain points, and how they feel about your competitors. Tools like social listening platforms, Google Analytics, and SEO tools can help you capture and analyze this data.
4. Understand the customer journey. Using customer success software to map out the customer journey from awareness to consideration to decision can help you identify crucial touchpoints where you can engage meaningfully with your audience. This knowledge enables you to create more relevant and timely interactions that resonate deeply with your target audience.
5. Keep a pulse on trends and preferences. Market preferences are not static; they evolve with trends, economic shifts, and societal changes. Regularly monitoring these changes helps you adapt your offerings and communications to stay relevant. This might involve revisiting your segmentation and research efforts periodically to ensure your understanding of the market is current and accurate.
6. Leverage feedback loops. Finally, establish mechanisms to gather and analyze feedback from your target audience continuously. Whether through direct customer feedback, net promoter scores, or social media sentiment analysis, maintaining a loop where you listen, learn, and adapt based on customer input is crucial. This keeps your strategies aligned with customer needs and demonstrates to your audience that their opinions are valued, fostering loyalty and trust.

2. Conduct a competitive intelligence analysis

As the saying goes, knowing your enemy is as important as knowing yourself. By analyzing your competitors’ strengths, weaknesses, strategies, and customer feedback, you can uncover gaps in the market and opportunities for differentiation.

There are many competitive intelligence tools you can use to compile your competitive report, and from my seat here at Unkover, I know that pitching you our solution may seem a bit cheesy.

But hear me out; here are some notes I made while I was writing this piece that represent what Unkover is right now (and what will be live soon):

• Super quick setup: 1 minute per competitor
• Just signals: all you need to know about your competitors, in real time.
• Always available to all your company’s departments.
• Your enabler for quick and effective decision-making on critical business matters.

These may look like just words, so I figured you might want some pics to see what I’m talking about:

Just type in the names of your competitors, and we’ll fetch their email flows and high-value pages. You can still add pages you want to track (but they’ll likely be there already)

You’ll get a Slack notification every time there’s a change in the pages you track and every time there’s relevant news about your competitors (acquisitions, press mentions, new founding rounds, you name it).

[Coming Soon] Get an actionable overview of your competitors’ content strategy: what they are publishing, when, and where.

[Coming Soon] Know what current customers of your competitors are saying about their product quality and build on that to create comparative advantages for your own business models.

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3. Identify your competitive advantage

Pinpoint what sets you apart with a clear understanding of the market landscape and your unique strengths.

As we saw above, there are at least eight types of competitive advantage, which could be anything from product innovation, superior quality, exceptional service, or cost efficiency.

Remember, your competitive advantage should be difficult for others to replicate and highly valued by your target audience.

4. Create your business strategy accordingly

Translate your competitive advantage into actionable strategies.

Easier said than done, you say. [I mean, I agree. But this entirely depends on your business strategy and the result of your competitive analysis, so there can only be some directions depending on what comes up there].

Whether you invest in technology to enhance product quality or streamline processes to offer better prices, your business strategy should capitalize on your strengths and address market opportunities head-on.

One other important thing to take into consideration is to always strive to align your human resources, operations, and marketing efforts to support these strategic goals–it may not be that easy depending on your org, but it’s worth a try.

5. Measure and validate your strategy through customer feedback (and other key indicators)

The true test of any strategy lies in its execution and the results it yields.

Collect customer feedback to gauge your brand’s satisfaction, loyalty, and perception compared to competitors [yes, Unkover also monitors your results and benchmarks them against those of your competitors, so you have one dashboard with all the info you need.]

Utilize other key performance indicators (KPIs) relevant to your industry to measure success, such as market share growth, profit margins, and customer acquisition costs.

This data will provide invaluable insights into whether your strategy is working or if adjustments are needed.

Aaand… this brings us to the last point of our competitive advantage framework.

6. Rinse and repeat

You’ll likely need some adjustments from time to time.

This is because building a sustainable competitive advantage is not a one-time effort but a continuous process. Markets evolve, technologies advance, and customer preferences change.

Regularly revisit and revise your strategy based on updated market research, competitive analysis, and performance metrics. Staying agile and responsive to changes ensures your competitive advantage remains robust over time.

Gain and keep a sustainable competitive advantage for your business today

In this article, we talked about gaining a sustainable competitive advantage and why it’s important for your team and company to focus on having a differential advantage rather than relying on generic strategies.

Finding and nurturing your competitive advantages over other businesses is crucial to success in any industry.

But while it may seem like a one-time effort, gaining and maintaining a sustainable competitive advantage is actually an ongoing process. To stay ahead of the competition, your business must continuously adapt and improve upon its unique strengths and differentiating factors.

Use a tool like Unkover to benchmark your product or service against your competitors and gain a competitive advantage today. Grab your free trial!

FAQs

What is an example of a competitive advantage?

An example of a competitive advantage is Apple. The company uses a product differentiation strategy to appeal to its consumer base. It provides iconic designs, innovative technologies, and, therefore, highly sought-after products, which ensures that consumers are willing to pay a premium for Apple devices.

What are the 7 competitive advantages?

The seven competitive advantages are cost leadership, differentiation, innovation, focus, speed, quality, and customer service.

These competitive advantages help businesses stand out by offering superior products or services, delivering them more efficiently, catering to specific market niches, or excelling in customer engagement.

Mastering one or more of these areas can significantly help in boosting a company’s own market leadership position and sustaining superior performance.

What is the meaning of competitive advantage?

Competitive advantage refers to the attributes or conditions that allow a company to produce goods or services better or more cheaply than its competitors.

A company’s competitive advantage makes its offerings more attractive to the market, including factors like advanced technology, skilled labor, efficient processes, brand identity and reputation, superior quality, or unique product features.

A strong competitive advantage enables a business to achieve higher sales, margins, and customer loyalty, contributing to its long-term success and sustainability.