What Is Your Competitive Advantage? 8 Brand Differentiation Strategies

00:06:40
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTLz1xpF1FA

Summary

TLDRThe video by Phillip Van Dusen explains how to determine and enhance competitive advantage by ensuring strong brand positioning, conducting SWOT analysis, and understanding the competition. It lists eight strategies for creating a competitive advantage: cost leadership, differentiation, quality/service strategy, innovation, operational effectiveness, technology, adaptability, and informational advantage. Examples are provided for each strategy, highlighting companies like Walmart, HubSpot, Gucci, Amazon, and Google. Philip concludes by inviting viewers to connect with his strategic branding agency for further assistance.

Takeaways

  • 🏢 Understand your brand's strengths and weaknesses for positioning.
  • 💡 Use SWOT and competitive analysis to assess competition.
  • 📉 Cost leadership involves attracting customers with low pricing.
  • 🔍 Differentiation focuses on unique product attributes.
  • 🌟 Quality strategy centers on superior product/service.
  • 🚀 Innovation can be through products or methodologies.
  • 📦 Operational effectiveness enhances logistics and specialization.
  • 📱 Technology can involve user-friendliness or design.
  • 🔄 Adaptability involves evolving with market demands.
  • 🗃️ Informational advantage is about data utilization.
  • 🤝 Strategic partnerships can strengthen competitive edge.
  • 🎨 Hal Brand Design offers branding and design services.

Timeline

  • 00:00:00 - 00:06:40

    The video discusses how to identify and establish a competitive advantage in business. It emphasizes the importance of having a solid understanding of brand positioning basics, such as the nature of your products or services, your target audience, and what makes your offerings unique and superior. The speaker mentions tools like SWOT analysis and competitive analysis to understand both your own and your competitors' strengths and weaknesses.

Mind Map

Mind Map

Faqs

  • What is the main topic of the video?

    The video discusses how to determine and maintain a competitive advantage.

  • What are the basics needed for brand positioning?

    Knowing your products or services, target audience, and what differentiates them from the competition.

  • What are some examples of companies using a cost leadership strategy?

    Walmart and Costco use a cost leadership strategy to attract customers.

  • What is a differentiation strategy?

    It involves focusing on a unique attribute of your product or service to distinguish it from competitors.

  • How did HubSpot create a competitive advantage?

    HubSpot focused on nurturing existing customers and expanding services to them rather than acquiring new customers.

  • How does quality strategy provide a competitive advantage?

    By prioritizing the quality of products or services to differentiate from competitors, like Gucci and Chanel do with premium products.

  • What is an example of an innovation strategy?

    Landor Associates and IDEO used consumer insights driven design and product development processes to innovate.

  • How did Amazon utilize an operational effectiveness strategy?

    Amazon specialized in logistics after starting with books, expanding into broader product lines using its operational expertise.

  • What is an informational advantage?

    Gaining a competitive edge through extensive data collection and utilization, as seen with Google and Facebook.

  • What services does Hal Brand Design offer?

    Strategic branding, design, and brand strategy for business and professional goals.

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  • 00:00:00
    hi everybody welcome back what I want to
  • 00:00:02
    talk about in this video is how do you
  • 00:00:03
    determine your competitive advantage how
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    is it that you stay ahead of your
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    competition in order to do this you have
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    to have a lot of your brand positioning
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    basics done now those are things like
  • 00:00:15
    knowing what your product or services
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    are who it is that you deliver them to
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    how they're different and how they're
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    better you have to have some of these
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    things established you also have to know
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    your strengths and weaknesses of your
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    brand or your professional practice and
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    you can look at my videos one is called
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    a SWOT analysis SW ot analysis one is on
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    competitive analysis you might want to
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    look at those in relation to
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    establishing the strengths of weaknesses
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    of your business and in that competitive
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    analysis you want to understand what
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    your competitions strengths and
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    weaknesses are as well so let's jump
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    right into it here eight ways to create
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    a competitive advantage number one is
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    cost leadership and that is attracting
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    customers by low-cost there are a lot of
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    companies that do this Walmart is one
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    Costco's another but pricing and being
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    competitive on pricing is a race to the
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    bottom and it's very difficult to be
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    profitable when you compete on price you
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    have to do massive volume like Walmart
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    in order to be profitable when competing
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    on price but many companies do it number
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    two is establishing a competitive
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    advantage by a differentiation strategy
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    and that is finding out whether there's
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    a core attribute of your product or
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    service that is really different from
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    your competition what is the functional
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    benefit the emotional benefit of your
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    product is your communication better is
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    your process better
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    do you have more products are you
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    specialized do you have a certain amount
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    of innovation so what is the
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    differentiation from your competition
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    number three is creating a competitive
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    advantage through a quality or a service
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    strategy this is prioritizing service or
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    the quality of your product as a
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    differentiator between you and your
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    competition here's an example HubSpot
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    had a lot of customers and the cost of
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    acquiring brand new customers was very
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    high so they realized that if they
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    nurtured their current customers
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    and grew the amount of services their
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    current customers were using it was a
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    much easier way in less expensive way to
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    grow their business than it was getting
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    new customers and here's an example of a
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    product quality strategy Gucci and
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    Chanel sell really premium products and
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    it doesn't always have to be a strategy
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    of beating your competition with a more
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    premium offering it can be beating your
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    competition through a slightly less
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    premium offering for instance Topshop
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    H&M Zara offer a really great strong
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    fashion but at a much lower price now
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    this is competing on price but what it
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    is is a strategy around quality of
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    product that is differentiating yourself
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    from your competition and giving you a
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    competitive advantage number four is
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    gaining a competitive advantage through
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    an innovation strategy now this can be
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    an innovative product an actual physical
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    product or it could be a process or
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    methodology for instance Walter Landor
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    who founded Landor associates the global
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    branding and design agency was the first
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    person to really develop consumer
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    insights driven design and product
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    design his methodology was unique and it
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    was different and it got to better
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    solutions faster IDEO is a similar story
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    they developed product development
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    processes that use Design Thinking so
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    they used flexible consumer insight
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    driven design and iterative design to
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    get to better results for their clients
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    they used an innovation strategy number
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    five is using an operational
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    effectiveness strategy FedEx is a great
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    example of this they started with an
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    innovation overnight delivery but then
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    became operational experts Amazon
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    another great example he started off
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    with selling books but quickly became
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    operational and logistics specialists
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    and then they use that specialization in
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    logistics and moved into a broader
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    product line and now are moving into
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    private label into fashion into food so
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    they've utilized an operational
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    effectiveness strategy number six is
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    using a technology strategy so Apple
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    obviously did this with ease of use and
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    its application to design and creativity
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    Microsoft did it as well with business
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    utility and also on price Tesla has done
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    it in the electric vehicle category so
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    you're not sacrificing design or quality
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    like you might have with a Toyota Prius
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    or something like that Amazon echo did
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    it as well with voice recognition and
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    combined product delivery with voice
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    recognition so that was a technology
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    strategy that's giving them a
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    competitive advantage number seven is
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    using an adaptability strategy and
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    that's the ability to change your
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    business your services your products to
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    address a changing marketplace a great
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    example of this is McDonald's who
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    started off with just hamburgers french
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    fries and shakes and over the decades
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    have added fish they added chicken they
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    added breakfast they added salads now
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    they're doing coffee they have addressed
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    and changed with society's wants and
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    needs and the trends in the marketplace
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    and they've been incredibly adaptable in
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    their business so finally number eight
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    is an informational advantage so that's
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    gaining a competitive advantage through
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    information Google is a great example of
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    this they've gathered so much data on
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    user down on web traffic on advertising
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    they have an incredible advantage in the
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    marketplace because of the amount of
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    information that they have and that they
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    can use and that they can sell Facebook
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    similar a giant consumer database of
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    behavior that they use for targeting
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    marketing and advertising and they sell
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    that as a product they have an
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    informational advantage strategy so
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    that's it I hope you enjoyed this video
  • 00:06:04
    on eight ways you can gain a competitive
  • 00:06:06
    advantage and if you did like it hit
  • 00:06:08
    subscribe below so you can see my videos
  • 00:06:10
    when they come out and from their Hal
  • 00:06:11
    brand design my strategic branding and
  • 00:06:13
    design agency thank you so much for
  • 00:06:16
    watching and if I can help you with your
  • 00:06:17
    brand strategy your brand design or your
  • 00:06:19
    career reach out to me at Phillip Van
  • 00:06:21
    Dusen comm and let's talk about what I
  • 00:06:23
    can do to help you with your business or
  • 00:06:24
    your professional goals and with that
  • 00:06:27
    thanks again for watching and bye for
  • 00:06:29
    now
  • 00:06:30
    you
  • 00:06:33
    [Music]
Tags
  • competitive advantage
  • brand positioning
  • SWOT analysis
  • differentiation
  • innovation
  • quality strategy
  • operational effectiveness
  • technology strategy
  • adaptability
  • information advantage