Nowadays, competitions on markets are getting more aggressive and the market of modern technologies in not an exception. Therefore, in order to maintain its market share, Apple Inc. embraces and executes the four competitive strategies model that was created and developed by Michael E. Porter. These strategies are also being used to enhance Apple’s advancement and maintainability of its business operations in the worldwide market (Kroenke, . Apple Inc. is a reputed and well-known computer manufacturer, smartphone, and digital device maker. From the beginning, the company has made strong roots in the market since because it managed to maintain the high quality of goods and services that were delivered to company’s customers. Nevertheless, the company has a lot of competitors on the market, including Samsung, Google and Lenovo. Apple Inc. uses Porter’s competitive strategies in the following way:
Differentiation: Apple Inc. can utilize the following strategy to enhance development in the worldwide market. For example, with the assistance of differentiation strategy, the company offers one of a kind goods or services to clients. In the meantime, Apple’s main competitors, like Samsung, Lenovo, and Google cannot offer the same (Kossowski, 2007). In 2012 and 2013 Apple’s iPad was threatened to face a serious competition from Nexus 7 at its leap forward cost of $199. Everyone wanted to see how Apple would respond to shabby 7-inch tablets. Still, Apple did not even attempt to react. Apple kept offering its own tablet items at costs more than twice as high as Google's deal tab.
Focus: the before mentioned strategy drives the company to focus on delivering a very recognized product offering along with a marketing plan in order to gain the leading position on the market.
Cost: the company additionally executes a cost leadership strategy to enhance the development and maintainability of the business. The primary mean to implement this strategy is to be the least expensive provider of products or services (Porter, 2008). In such case, the competitors will not have any chances to compete on the market.
Value chain plays an important role in company’s investigation of market opportunities and better business practices. Michael E. Porter developed an analysis method of estimation of client’s value that coordinates with the chain activities of the company to manufacture goods and provide services of the highest quality. Moreover, it is worth mentioning how these strategies determine company’s value chain structure. With this being said, we can identify 5 primary activities and 4 supporting activities:
Primary:
Inbound and outbound logistics
Manufacturing process
Marketing and sales activities
Customer Support (Kossowski, 2007)
Supporting:
Procurement
Technology
Human Resources
Company’s infrastructure (Kossowski, 2007)
Therefore, we came to a conclusion that four competitive strategies model, created and developed by Michael E. Porter, can increases company’s position on the market and its competitiveness. Moreover, these strategies help to determine the value chain structure of the company.
References
Kossowski, A. (2007). Strategic Management: Porter's Model of Generic Competitive Strategies - Theory and Analysis. Germany: GRIN Verlag.
Kroenke, D. M. (2014). Using MIS (7th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall.
Porter, M.E. (2008). Competitive Strategy: Techniques for Analyzing Industries and Competitors. USA: Simon and Schuster.
