Functional and Business Level Strategies: Competitive Advantages for Heineken
Threat: How can Heineken attract consumers aged 15-35 to protect share of market as 2016?
A- What are the Intellectual Assets that your company has that lead to it's competitive advantage. Are there IA's that your company will need to develop or acquire to come up with a solution to your thread? Identify those GAPS if appropriate and what you think the company should do to fill the GAP in their IA's
B- What are the Functional Level Strategies that your company has that will support your strategies. Remember to put them into one of the four generic building blocks of competitive advantage. Superior:- Quality, Efficiency, Innovation, Customer Responsiveness
Is your company pursuing any of the efficiency-enhancing practices?
Is your company pursuing any of the quality enhancing practices?
Is your company pursuing any of the practices designed to enhance innovation?
Is your company pursuing any of the practices designed to increase responsiveness to customers?
Evaluate the competitive position of your company with regard to your answers to questions1–4.
Explain what, if anything, the company must do to improve its competitive position.
C- What are the Business Level Strategies you wish to emphasize to attain your objective of creating superior value? Remember: Cost Leadership (not the cheapest-the most efficient utilization of the companies resources and capabilities to create customer value), Differentiation (Uniqueness that creates value for the customer) & Focus (can be either or both of the above that target a specific Psychographics segment of your customers)
How differentiated are the products or services of your company? What is the basis of their differentiated appeal?
What is your company’s strategy toward market segmentation? If it segments its market, on what basis does it do so?
What distinctive competencies does your company have? (Use the information on functional-level strategy in the previous module to answer this question.) Is efficiency, quality, innovation, responsiveness to customers, or a combination of these factors, the main driving force in your company?
What generic business model is your company pursuing? How has it formulated and implemented a set of business-level strategies to pursue this business model?
What are the advantages and disadvantages associated with your company’s choice of business model and strategies?
Is your company a member of a strategic group in an industry? If so, which one?
How could you improve your company’s business model and strategies to strengthen its competitive advantage?
Securing Competitive Advantage for Heineken
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Securing Competitive Advantage for Heineken
In order to continue growing as a brand, it is important that Heineken continues to attract a significant number of consumers who are aged between 15 and 35 in order to protect its market share and continue its projected growth not only in 2016 but also well into the future. In order to achieve this goal, there are a number of core issues that must be addressed. These are examined below.
As far as competitive advantage is concerned, Heineken possesses a unique approach to ensuring industrial sustainability and profitability. One of the main ways in which it achieves this goal is through its embracement of intellectual assets. One of the biggest intellectual assets that Heineken continues to leverage for profitability is a beer patent that it shares with Carlsberg (Wecker, 2017). In addition to this patent, Heineken also continually leverages the significance of its trademark across the world and the symbol of quality that it has come to represent to many beer lovers. However, it must be noted that these intellectual assets do little to attract more consumers within the defined age bracket that Heineken is pursuing (Sevastopulo & Zhu, 2013). As such, it is important that Heineken looks to develop and acquire intellectual assets that resonate with the identified age group.
One of the main ways in which it can achieve this is through the development of games, both online and smartphone, in order to resonate better with the identified age group. Developing intellectual assets in this category is bound to resonate with the identified age groups particularly because the modern individuals represented within this age group are particularly involved and interested in the gaming world. Furthermore, this is an opportunity for Heineken to not only continue to grow its market share but also to branch into another lucrative sector that might prove to be profitable in both the short and long term (Paley, 2006). By filling this gap in the intellectual assets that Heineken has, it is possible for the company to secure a competitive advantage over other manufacturers, which is likely to help it protect its market share going forward.
As far as Heineken is concerned, it is important to note that this company relies on highly effective functional level strategies to ensure that it continues to remain at the top of the beer manufacturing industry. For instance, this organization has managed to maintain superior quality, efficiency, innovation, as well as customer responsiveness in order to realize its goals. For instance, the organization has managed to use the same grade of yeast since the early 1920s to maintain the superior quality of beer which has managed to create a huge loyal customer base that continuously ensures Heineken achieves profitability (Smit, 2014). Furthermore, the fact that Heineken has managed to buy much smaller beer brands such as Dos Equis XX across the world and particularly so in Latin America has provided it with a more efficient manner in which it can supply its beers to be straightened (Smit, 2014). This is a highly efficient functional level strategy that continues to ensure Heineken remains at the top.
At the same time, it is important to note that Heineken takes customer responsiveness very seriously and is consistently and actively engaged in ensuring that it is able to communicate with its customers and that it receives active feedback regarding not only products but also its processes (Smit, 2014). As far as innovation is concerned, it is important to acknowledge that Heineken still has a long way to go. While it has managed to mechanize and digitize its manufacturing and production processes (Smit, 2014), it is important to note that innovation that can guarantee an increase and sustainability in market share needs to transcend production processes. In this sense, it is important that Heineken continues to actively pursue lucrative opportunities that provide it with a competitive advantage while simultaneously enabling it to...