Josiah Wedgwood's First Industrial Revolution

The Industrial Revolution, which took place from the 18th to 19th centuries, lead the economy of England changed from agricultural to industrial production. The economic developments and industrialization brought significant improved transportation technology, special-purpose machinery, factory system, and cultural changes. During that period, there were an increase in population, the phenomenon of urbanization, and growing demand for luxury goods.
In the first industrial revolution, some industries had hard time adjusting to the new economic environment and developing their business. However, Josiah Wedgwood stood out from the crowd and became one of successful entrepreneur with his pottery business during that time. The nature of Josiah’s competitive advantage is his product innovation, new sales and marketing techniques and his ability to induce people to purchase more pottery products.
Wedgwood’s first mover advantage is differentiator. He applied new processing to shape useful earthenware, and experimented for cream colored pottery with new glazing processes that he learned from Whiddon's workshop. He further introduced many important marketing innovations such as inertia selling, brand
marketing, and customer services. For example, Wedgwood provided different target segmentation with different customer services such as free shipping and compensation for damage products in order to attract more people become his prime customers.
As Wedgwood’s pottery business expanded, he used second mover advantage which was becoming low-cost leader.
Wedgwood devoted himself to develop and improve pottery manufacturing that lowered his costs. This optimizations in pottery production also appeal to a much border market. When doing his business to international markets, Wedgwood expanded factory and planned division of labor to organize factory. He decided to develop, motivate, and train his own skilled workers and hire good managers to do the international management. Moreover, Wedgwood used good distribution strategy selling products to wholesales, purchased showroom space in London and Bath, and paid salesmen in commissions of sales to increase sales revenue and cost reduction by ensuring stock was not
wasted.
I believe that Wedgwood had a successful international expand since he had good management strategy, gained higher demand in international market, and found the way to control and plan cost expense after significant financial risk. What he did in international market perfectly answered to three important questions about going global (what are potential benefits a company can gain from global market? Do a company have necessary management skills? Will the cost outweighed the benefits increased from the expansion?).
Wedgwood china is a global product with a global brand name and same design in different markets. He first introduced Wedgewood as the brand and made every piece of products carried his name. Then, he quickly found out the value of celebrity sanction, which helped his pottery brand and reputation rapidly grew in international markets. In addition to a standard brand, Wedgwood provided uniformity in product quality, positioning and distribution in its international markets.
In conclusion, Wedgwood observed and took great advantage of economic change and the middle class growth due to the industrial revolution. He succeed in new product development, systematic planning for successful marketing techniques, and attention to changing customers’ needs and wants. In order to build and sustain customer loyalty, Wedgwood created an effective brand strategy and good relationship with the consumer. Furthermore, he organized his international markets and factories very well. Effective Branding marketing and international management are major competitive advantages that make Wedgwood become one of the renowned brands for ceramic design and pottery in the world.