Comcast’s well devised business strategy is in line with its objectives and vision that acts as a guideline to sustain its competitive advantage and profitability. Comcast holds a monopoly position for its highly advanced product features and its dominance in the market is strongly shielded due to its resources and capabilities that are hard to copy. For Comcast, pressures over competition will not affect its technological strategies and will retain its competitive advantage over time. While maintaining its bundled packages with prices similar to other cable providers, Comcast can sustain its competitive advantage by upholding to its product leadership and upgrading its quality. As life cycles of industries evolve, its structure also changes as well as the competitive dynamics and strategies for success. Since the pace of change in the cable industry is so rapid, Comcast needs to quickly counter this competition by exploring new technology for services that cannot be offered by competitors. Comcast can obtain customer satisfaction by taking steps in acquiring major programming networks and suppliers for the sake of relevant programming. In my analysis, Comcast has applied combination strategies for their products in terms of quality, price, style and convenience to stay competitive. I also believe that Comcast has all the capabilities and resources to expand and continue to develop technological innovations to move one step ahead from its competitors.
Business-Level and Corporate-Level Strategies
Comcast Corporation (Comcast) is a company that provides cable TV, phone and Internet services. It is also engaged in providing entertainment, information and communication products and services. The company has five sections of operation to provide services to residential and business customers all over the U.S. with its headquarters in Philadelphia. Its Cable Communications provides video, high-speed Internet and voice services. Cable Networks includes national cable television networks, regional sports and news networks, international cable networks, cable television production studio and its digital media properties. Its Broadcast Television includes NBC and Telemundo broadcast networks as well as its locally owned television stations, broadcast television production stations and its digital media properties. Filmed Entertainment includes Universal Pictures operations and Theme Parks includes Universal theme parks in Orlando and Hollywood. Comcast acquired the 50% shares of Microsoft Corporation from MSNBC.com in July, 2012.
Comcast started as a regional cable provider and has become the largest cable service provider in the United States. To enhance their products and to improve their services and support to customers, Comcast has been making remarkable investments in the market. Comcast’s objective is to provide the best and the largest structural content services. Their perspective is to give more choices for the consumers without having to spend more on their equipment. Comcast continues to adapt competitive analysis on the market environment. One of its technological investments includes the launching of Xfinity. Under the Xfinity brand,
Comcast was able to provide consumers with the fastest broadband speeds and personalized video, communication for businesses or in the comforts of their own home. Xfinity package offers 100 plus HD channels, more than 60 foreign language channels and thousands of VOD choices. With faster Internet speeds of 50 to 100 mbps, customers can watch online TV shows and movies anytime and anywhere they want to. In addition to its 24/7 customer service support, Xfinity Signature support allows customers to access technical support where IT specialists can provide troubleshooting online or over the phone. Comcast’s dedication to invest in highly advanced technology is a wise move which enables the company to stay competitive in the market where other cable providers cannot offer. With Xfinity signature, the company has a greater chance to increase its subscribers.
In 2006, Comcast made a decision to package their Internet and voice services to a new market which focuses on small businesses. Its objective is to provide customized products and support teams to meet the needs of every business. The venture was a success and from there, Comcast introduced new features and built advanced customer support structures. They expanded their product and developed better solutions this time focusing on large and middle market businesses.
Comcast invested a fast and advanced fiber network and introduced Ethernet services in the market. Ethernet based solutions addresses the need for a reliable high-capacity networking to expand larger businesses that requires multi-networking. Through enhanced fiber optic network, it offers high performance networking connectivity for centralized Internet access, voice and secure intranet connections. Customers can upgrade bandwidth ranging from 1Mbps to 10Gbps and provides Flexible service options for different application performance requirements for proprietary systems and video surveillance. With a cost-effective and streamlined management, Comcast was able to provide Business Class Internet, Ethernet, TV and voice services with highly advanced fiber network backed by 24/7 technical support. With Ethernet customers are provided with high quality and high capacity cost effective packages tailored for specific business needs. Among the Multiple System Operators, Comcast has the widest range of core network assets and a compact metro fiber infrastructure. The competitiveness of Ethernet shows Comcast’s strong market share, customer satisfaction and overall success in the market. Comcast Business Services venture is a remarkable change for the company.
It focuses on market division, prospect prioritization and consumer education. Its basic approach is to turn consumer products into commercial use and sells them to small and middle-sized businesses. In January, 2012, Comcast entered into partnership with Philadelphia Technology Park. The partnership allows the organization to use Comcast network to connect with their equipment in the data center. Through Comcast network, The Philadelphia Technology Park can expand its geographical area in acquiring its customers. Creating Ethernet solutions was the most significant approach for Comcast because it was able to reach its objectives to provide a flexible, secure and reliable connectivity. The move gave them the opportunity to deliver customized products with quality and consistency and expand its network to a larger market particularly to business-rich areas.
Organizations should have a connection with their business environment to make sure that their strategy live up to their customer’s expectations which changes over time. Advances in technology can make programming content more impressive. For instance, with Xfinity, customers can watch TV and movie shows online anytime and anywhere. But is advanced technology enough? Comcast focused more on offering highly advanced technology but failed to give more attention to the demands of the consumer. To please customers, Comcast needs to know who their real customers were and what they need. In terms of providing excellent cable service, the company failed to identify the importance of relevant programming content. Comcast needs to incorporate their cable services to more programming content by adding major programming networks to address customers need for relevant content. DIRECTV which is one of Comcast’s competitors focuses its strategy to satisfy consumers demand by acquiring a wide range of relevant programming content. Its objective is to expand its market and increase its subscribers through customer satisfaction. But unlike Comcast, DIRECTV has failed to focus on developing highly advanced technology maybe due to lack of resources and capabilities. To remain competitive for the largest number of customers in the market, DIRECTV offers affordable and low-cost bundle packages. Comcast chooses to remain competitive in terms of product features rather than the price. DIRECTV focuses more on its cable service that offers HD and DVR cutting edge equipment at affordable packages. Comcast on the other hand, counters this with their Xfinity Signature. Despite the steep competition on prices, Comcast is determined to stick to its advanced technological principle and rapid growth innovations. I believe that with its value-creating strategies, Comcast will remain to be successful in the long term.
Comcast’s cable division is the largest TV provider in the U.S. with more than 22 million video subscribers. The volume of its revenue mostly comes from its cable services in 39 states including the District of Columbia. Its broadband Internet subscribers are about 18 million and about 9 million customers for Xfinity computer technology service. Through product research and development, Comcast is the leading company in terms of technology innovation giving them an edge to their competitors. With its size and geographical distribution, Comcast has the capabilities and resources to remain as a leader in the industry and will continue to enjoy its long term success in the market.
References:
Business Services tops $2.4 Billion in Revenue at Comcast Cable, COMCAST, (2013). Retrieved fromhttp://corporate.comcast.com/news-information/news-feed/business-services-tops-1-8-billion-at-comcast-cable
Filings and Forms, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, (February 11, 2010). Retrieved from http://www.sec.gov/edgar.shtml
Tailored solutions for your specific business. Comcast.Business Class, (2013). Retrieved from http://business.comcast.com/enterprise/industry-solutions/professional-services
