Within the automobile industry, it is vital that companies adequately compete for consumer sales. With the industry struggling due to the current economic conditions, as well as a push for environmental sustainability, companies have to come up with new competitive strategies. There are 6 major ways that a company can give themselves an advantage over others. They are cost, quality, service, brand, innovation, and convenience. (McCrimmon, 2008) Three automotive companies are compared in terms of their strategies to compete against one another. Ford’s main strategy is on product development and efficient leadership. They use a low-cost strategy to help give a pricing advantage to consumers as well as centralized strategic leadership.(Hopkins, 2010) General Motors focuses on innovation of great quality products, and uses decentralized control in terms of making decisions.(Hopkins, 2010) Toyota’s strategy is in quality and product differentiation. This is obtained by focusing on the development of the process of building automobiles, rather then the development of automobiles themselves.(Hopkins, 2010)
Competitive Advantage Within The Automotive Industry The North America automotive industry continuously competes for the business of consumers. With the industry struggling due to the current economic conditions, as well as a push for environmental sustainability, it is ever so important that automotive companies compete in a way that will give them an advantage over others. One would ask, how do these companies compete and what strategies do they use? Three major automotive companies; Ford, General Motors, and Toyota, will be comparatively analyzed in the ways that they attempt to gain advantage over one another, in such a volatile market. Competitive advantage is defined as the ability of an organization to produce goods or services more effectively than its
References: Hopkins, S. (2010, 07 10). Competitive Advantage between Ford and Toyota. Retrieved 12 02, 2010 from Articlesbase: http://www.articlesbase.com/education-articles/competitive-advantage-between-ford-and-toyoyta-2040128.html JRank. (2010, 12 05). Advertising Effects - The Functions of Advertising, Advertising and Psychology, How Advertising Works, Getting Attention, Processing Information, Information Evaluation Read more: Advertising Effects - The Functions of Advertising, Advertising and Psychology, How Advertising Works, Getting Attention, Processing Information, Information Evaluation . Retrieved 12 05, 2010, from JRank Encyclopedia: http://encyclopedia.jrank.org/articles/pages/6414/Advertising-Effects.html Lloyds TSB. (2009, 10 01). How to achieve a competitive advantage. Retrieved 12 02, 2010 from Lloydes TSB: http://www.lloydstsbbusiness.com/support/businessguides/competitive_advantage.asp McCrimmon, M. (2008, 07 10). What Is Competitive Advantage? The Most Popular Ways for Businesses to Differentiate Themselves. Retrieved 12 2, 2010 from Suite101.com: http://www.suite101.com/content/what-is-competitive-advantage-a59991 Wikipedia. (2010, 11 29). Ford Motor Company. Retrieved 12 05, 2010, from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Motor_Company Wikipedia. (2010, 12 05). Gemeral Motors. Retrieved 12 05, 2010, from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Motors Wikipedia. (2010, 12 4). Toyota. Retrieved 12 5, 2010, from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyota Williams, B., & Kinicki, A. (2009). Management: A Practical Introduction (4th Edition ed.). New York, New York: McGraw-Hill Irwin.