MKTG 640 - Introduction

1
MKTG 640 - Introduction

• The search for a sustainable competitive
  advantage
• Dr. Dennis Pitta
• University of Baltimore

2
Parker Pen

• Who are its competitors?

3
Who are your competitors?

• Marketing Myopia?
• Focus on the immediate and direct competitors
  while overlooking the more serious threat posed
  by indirect and less obvious sources of
  competition
• Railway companies in the 1930s saw their main
  competitors as other railway companies
• Real competitors? TRUCKS!

4
Porter five forces requiring evaluation of
competition

• the threat of new entrants
• the threat of substitute products
• the intensity of rivalry between competing firms
  
• the power of suppliers
• the power of buyers.

5
The threat of new entrants

• Greatest where there are low barriers to entry.
• Can be based on geography
• Can be rooted in changes in politics
• Can come from outside the industry

6
Ikarus Bus from Hungary

• Turned their attention to the West after the
  Soviet Union fell.

7
Threat of substitute products

• Likely to emerge from alternative technologies
• Initially the new technology may have high costs
  associated with it and serve only small niche
  markets