Competitive advantage - Definition and Overview

In marketing and strategic management, sustainable competitive advantage is an advantage that one firm has relative to competing firms. It usually originates in a core competency. To be really effective, the advantage must be:

1. difficult to mimic
2. unique
3. sustainable
4. superior to the competition
5. applicable to multiple situations

Examples of company characteristics that could constitute a sustainable competitive advantage include:

• customer focus, customer lifetime value
• superior product quality
• extensive distribution contracts
• accumulated brand equity and positive company reputation
• low cost production techniques
• patents and copyrights
• government protected monopoly
• superior employees and management team

The list of potential sustainable competitive advantage characteristics is very long. However there are some commentators that claim that in a fast changing competitive world, none of these advantages can be sustained in the long run. They claim that the only truly sustainable competitive advantage is to build an organization that is so alert and so agile that it will always be able to find an advantage, no matter what changes occur. see also: marketing, strategic management, marketing management, core competency, positioning, marketing mix, marketing plan, Michael Porter, strategic planning, Strategy, Synergy, Porter 5 forces analysis, value chain