More and more consumers are using social networks as their main navigation tool instead of search engines like in previous years. For this reason, integrating Social Media Optimization with Search Engine Optimization will give online businesses an advantage. The rising trend of social media means individuals are becoming more reliant on what their friends are saying. Web sites liked Angie’s list and Yelp have capitalized on this.

An e-commerce site that allows consumers to interact and share ideas and opinions via social networks will have a competitive edge.  It’s just a matter of using social media effectively. Businesses that want to gain a competitive advantage should connect to all the popular social media platforms in order to maximize site visitors. But simply offering the social media networks alone is not enough. Encourage users to share and engage them with a sense of community around your company’s service or product. And finally, use metrics to get confirmed facts about how much traffic is coming to your e-commerce site through social networks. Ford’s social media strategy has been successful in promoting the “Ford Fiesta Movement”. The social media movement resulted in 11 million social networking impressions, and 38% awareness by Generation Y of the product.

By utilizing simple and effective social media tactics, online businesses can drive more visitors and increase sales. Is your company using social media effectively? Give us your thoughts and opinions here.

Use the Smart Advantage free tools to find out what competitive advantages you possess, if they are being used to their full extent, and what’s the cost of not utilizing them.

An announcement this week by Google’s Vice President Andy Rubin states one more competitive advantage of Android – its next version will fully support Flash by Adobe Systems, while iPhone does not.  Adobe Systems has discontinued its development of Flash for Apple’s iPhone and has instead concentrated its efforts on Android’s open source platform. Rubin said it will only be a “matter of time” before Android tops iPhone’s market shares because of this very valuable competitive edge.

Adobe Flash is widely used on the web for video and interactive animation. Without Flash technology, some fear that Apple iPhone users will not get the full web experience. Android’s full Flash support is a unique selling position for its mobile devices. Because of its competitive advantage, Android has emerged as the clear threat to the Apple iPhone.

Will the availability of Flash support affect your purchasing decision between Android or iPhone mobile devices? Please give us your opinion and submit your comments below.

Finding a unique selling point and creating competitive advantage is crucial to a company’s success. Smart Advantage is a consulting, training and education based company that helps businesses increase sales by touting their competitive advantages.

Just this month Target announced an extensive recycling program. Target has placed recycling stations at the entrances of all its stores, which accept plastic bags, bottles, cans, ink cartridges, cell phones and used MP3 players. They have launched a gift card program that rewards customers for turning in used DVDs, laptop computers, GPS devices and iPods for recycling. Target gives customers an incentive to use reusable shopping bags by taking five cents off the total purchase amount for every bag used in an order. Finally, Target has partnered with TerraCycle to deliver a rebate program – mail in five plastic bags in exchange for one dollar towards the purchase of a reusable bag. TerraCycle then turns the plastic bags into eco-friendly products.

Other retailers are catching on with their own recycling programs. Whole Foods is offering a recycling service for wine corks, while Home Depot accepts used compact fluorescent light bulbs. Best Buy and Office Depot are also recycling electronics and ink cartridges for customers.

Why are so many retailers following the recycling trend? Clearly, retailers are instilling recycling programs to appeal to eco-friendly consumers and to increase sales, but they feel they must offer recycling to avoid losing business to rivals that offer the services.

In the competitive retail industry, businesses need all the competitive advantage they can get, whether it’s drawing in customers through recycling incentives or coming up with other innovative methods. Smart Advantage specializes in helping companies identify or create competitive advantage. As a consulting, training and education based group, Smart Advantage works with businesses to develop a competitive strategy that will increase sales. Use the Smart Advantage tools to take the free competitive advantage self audit form to see if your company possesses an edge.

Does Apple have anything to worry about? It still commands 50% of the worldwide smartphone market, but Android’s steady increase in popularity is certainly a reminder that stiff competition is out there. In fact, looking at figures for the U.S. only, the Android has already taken over 42% of the marketshare to iPhone’s 44%. With numbers this close, there is a high possibility of the new Android mobile operating system overtaking iPhone in the U.S., and maybe even eventually, the global market.

The Android’s competitive advantage is its operating system can function on multiple devices and carriers, while iPhone is housed within only one phone, and in the U.S. , only one carrier- AT&T. To date, there are twelve Android mobile phones across 32 different carriers! Another competitive edge is the Google Android mobile operating system is open source, meaning any phone developer can create applications to be released. iPhone is not- only Apple developers can choose which applications run. 

By using this competitive strategy, Google Android offers a unique selling position in the smartphone market. Had Android been first to market, it may not have pursued the same strategy of open systems.  Being late to the market, however, open systems became their differentiator.  It’s unlikely the Android would have been a success had they not sought to differentiate in a major way (other than price).

Creating competitive advantage is crucial for any company’s lifeblood.  Smart Advantage is a training and education based company that helps businesses create and identify their competitive advantage through research, business consulting, strategic planning, and marketing services. Use the Smart Advantage free tools to find out what competitive advantages your company may possess.

However, the recent controversy of Toyota’s recalls for unintended acceleration in their vehicles threatens to taint their loyal following. Toyota is still in the process of recalling over 8 million cars and trucks for faulty gas pedals – causing a serious blow to their reputation of safety and reliability. They have lost trust and value in the consumer’s eye, which has led to a decrease in sales.

To counter this, last month Toyota presented sales incentives in the form of discount financing and special lease deals in an effort to regain their lost market share.

This launched the start of a price war between the two largest Japanese auto manufacturers. Honda, which in the past has lost the most sales to Toyota, feels it has to match Toyota’s price incentives in order to maintain its competitive edge. Honda has just presented its largest markdown ever, offering lease promotions across all of its models.

Do you feel it is the right decision for Honda to engage in a price war?

For the first time, Toyota has to lower prices in order to compete. They did not have to prior due to their loyal consumer base.

Ultimately, the price cuts will hurt Toyota because once the sale ends, the auto manufacturer will have the difficult task of convincing former loyal consumers to trust them again.

Honda is not in the spotlight presently, so why aren’t they yelling “Trust Us!” If Honda holds firm on prices now, it can set itself apart from its competitor by asserting a unique selling position of value and quality.

Honda can create competitive advantage by maintaining perceived value since they are not caught up in a controversial mess, and thus strengthening consumers’ brand loyalty. Rather than engaging in a price war, Honda’s competitive strategy should focus on staying true to their pricing by ensuring consumers of their reliability. By identifying competitive advantage, Honda will set itself apart as a highly respected company.

Please give us your opinion and submit your comments below.

While the cost for the company is high, as Google spends billions of dollars in development and upkeep, this competitive strategy builds a formidable wall for other general search engines, such as Bing (formerly MSN Search) which is merging with Yahoo!. At the same time, the cost of building the advanced infrastructure is an investment for Google to ensure that the cost of conducting a query keeps going down.

Google’s advantage over competitors is its rapid speed that keeps users coming back. The results of the search may vary, but because of the incredible speed, a user can search another key phrase with minimal sacrifice and therefore be less inclined to switch to a competitor.
 
Not only does Google provide a fast search, but the company also employs tools and services such as the Google toolbar, Google Maps, Google Earth and Google News. The toolbar presents a way for users to conduct a search without leaving their homepage. It also simplifies navigation by recounting the most searched-for web pages by each user. Services such as Google Maps and Google News provide another type of support on top of the general search engine.

Google has also expanded to mobile phones with the Android operating system, which delivers Google services and features as mobile applications. These strategies allow for Google to reach out to consumers and create a competitive advantage.

Google’s competitive advantage is it provides an incredibly fast search and tools to support the general search engine. Competing search engines such as Bing or Yahoo! would have to develop their infrastructure to match the speed and comprehensiveness that Google possesses. 

Do you feel your company possesses a competitive advantage? Smart Advantage is a training and education based company that offers business consulting, strategic planning, and marketing services to help your business create or identify its competitive strategy. Use the Smart Advantage free tools to find out what competitive advantages you possess, if they are being used to their full extent, and what’s the cost of not utilizing competitive advantages.

Brand Representative: Hi, may I help you?

Customer: Yeah, I’m looking for car insurance that isn’t going to break the bank.

Brand Representative: You’re in the right place! Only Progressive gives you the option to name your price. Here! [hands him a price gun].

Customer: Price gun?

Brand Representative: Mmmhmm.

Customer: So I tell you what i want to pay…

Brand Representative: and we build you a policy to fit your budget!

Customer: Thats cool, uhh… [tags a price with price gun] I feel so empowered!

Brand Representative: Power to the people!

Voiceover: The option to name your price. New and only from Progressive. call or click today.

Progressive’s competitive advantage message is strong enough to prompt customers not only to jump on the option to name their own price –letting Progressive build a policy around that price– but to potentially sacrifice the true safety net of available coverage in the name of a low-cost, minimal auto insurance policy as well. 

Giving consumers a sense of empowerment and control with their “name your own price” tagline, Progressive attracts consumers who willingly sacrifice the true value brought to customers through insurance coverage: adequate protection of self, in exchange for a discount.

On one side of the coin, bargain-shoppers seeking instant gratification of a price they feel is within their budget.  On the other side of the coin, the consumer is willing to drop what a smart consumer values: getting the most bang for their buck. 

While Progressive lowers prices to compete, consumers attracted to the low-cost policies often sacrifice the true value of smart insuring: protecting their vehicle to the extent where if it were totaled, adequate compensation would be received in order to replace the vehicle.

Liability coverage often takes the backseat and isn’t part of a discounted insurance policy.  Customers excitedly take lowest-cost premiums without considering how they’ll replace or repair their vehicle if impairing damage occurs. This is a sign of an incredibly compelling marketing strategy where Progressive created and touted its competitive advantage through allowing consumers to set prices. 

Additionally, if a driver lacking liability coverage rear-ends a vehicle and the accident causes injuries to the other vehicle’s driver and multiple passengers, the offending driver could rack up six digits worth of injury payments.

Minimum auto insurance policies typically cover $5,000 worth of vehicle damage, the remaining costs are out-of-pocket expenses for the offending driver, and that offending driver could very well be a price-focused consumer who wanted to name his own low price through Progressive.

For the price of under $1.00 a day, most policies can be bumped up from minimum coverage to a more comprehensive, truly protective insurance policy option.  Progressive took a competitive position not only against other insurance companies, but in a manner that tests the strength of consumer loyalty over consumer smarts.

There are few instances where one major brand will lower prices to compete and its competitors will resist, instead harnessing and touting their unique competitive advantage – where customers value a brand’s offerings regardless of price.  Having this competitive advantage is priceless.

Coffee and the businesses capitalizing on the beverage have created a popular, highly-demanded industry thriving on consumers’ value perception rather than on price. Within a period of weeks between January and February 2010, McDonald’s lowered prices to compete on coffee prices in attempt to undercut Dunkin’ Donuts, while Starbucks raised its already high cost of coffee.

Starbucks’ decision disappointed even the most loyal Starbucks fans, who had valued the brand and experience enough to have continued paying the significantly higher price for a variety of coffee-based drinks rather than converting to Dunkin’ Donuts or McDonald’s coffee. 

McDonalds undercut its own competitive advantage by lowering its value in a defensive step to differentiate in price from Dunkin’ Donuts.  Mark Nunnelly, managing director at Bain Capital, says the market share of Dunkin’ Donuts is consistent and rising, and he doesn’t see the competition to be McDonald’s vs. Dunkin’ Donuts so much as he sees each of these entities taking business away from small, often locally-owned convenience stores.

Meanwhile, with its recent unannounced raise in prices, Starbucks is delivering the ultimate test of its competitive stance .   In a competitive marketplace, the best way to increase bottom line profits and maintain your competitive position  is to engage in strategic planning that involves discovering and touting your brand’s competitive advantage.

 Although Starbucks may face the hardest hit from the coffee price war McDonald’s created in the midst of a weakened economy, Starbucks’ most loyal customers have stuck around, choosing to demote their high-priced beverages for more plain and inexpensive choices rather than convert to a competing retailer.   

The minute an organization disregards unique factors that customers value most and instead takes its products and services and lowers prices to compete, it is engaging in a price war. 

Choosing to compete on price sacrifices a brand’s competitive rankings, and it is difficult — if not impossible — to recover from. After all, if you offer someone your product for a nickel today, and they return for more tomorrow, what does your brand offer, aside from price, to keep the consumer returning if you were to raise the price to a dime or a quarter?   

Dunkin’ Donuts may be holding on tight, but Starbucks has developed a strong feel in its branding and atmosphere, providing what customers value most regardless of price.  It isn’t so much about the beverage as it is about the atmosphere in which a customer is enjoying it. 

After all, in comparison to McDonald’s and Dunkin’ Donuts, Starbucks offers a social atmosphere akin to a public living room, where people convene to study, work, meet and socialize.  This competitive differentiator is how Starbucks stands out from both McDonald’s and Dunkin’ Donuts.

What your prospects value most in making a decision today is probably not the same as it was 2-3 years ago.  A mistake many companies make is to assume that today’s customers only want lower prices. Do your customers negotiate harder and longer today before making a purchase?  Most likely they do, but the reality is people still buy much more on value than on price.  What constitutes higher value, however, has changed, and your ability to communicate it must be sharpened.

The key is to align your marketing and sales message with what your prospects and customers value most when they make a buying decision.  Companies that do this close more sales, cave in on price less often, and are healthier and better positioned for long term survival.

Pull your arrows out of their quiver, and check their points.  Do they still penetrate right to the heart of the matter, or do they just bounce off your target’s thicker hide?

Ask yourself – is your message the right one?  Does it work as well as it should?  More importantly, does it differentiate you?

If the answers are no, it’s time to revise your message.

Smart Advantage works with companies to revise that message.  We uncover competitive advantages you may not be using in marketing or sales today.  We test (through market research) to determine the hierarchy of buying criteria of prospects and customers.  We align your competitive advantages to the buying priorities of your customers and prospects, and we help you communicate your message with better penetration.

Contact us today and take the first step to sharpening your message for these times.

As we’ve emphasized time and again, engaging in a price war makes it nearly impossible to raise prices or reclaim and tout your brand’s competitive advantage  against other competitors in your industry.  Once you set the bar low for your product or service’s true value, you’ll only break the bank trying to convince customers of a higher value. 

If MetroPCS maintains its competitive angle in lower prices, and other cellular companies join in the price war to level the playing field once and for all, how would MetroPCS, a company whose reputation revolves largely around offering the lowest price, compete?

With AT&T’s having just completed a full network upgrade to their 3G towers to HSPA (High-Speed Packet Access) 7.2 speeds, their service alone offers a higher standard than MetroPCS, and if price were no longer a competitive differentiator, MetroPCS would lose against AT&T.

Assuming that right this very instant all cellular provider costs were equal across the board, MetroPCS would fall behind competitively, as it won’t be upgrading its 4G network for stronger wireless broadband service until mid-to-late 2010.

With a weaker network and no price difference, consumers would leave MetroPCS for AT&T because AT&T has a stronger competitive advantage.

While MetroPCS has a low-cost company model that allows it to cut prices and compete on price, service providers such as AT&T have built a strong reputation in arenas outside of price, as well as exclusive contracts for specialty phones such as the iPhone.