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Tag: Business competitors

  • Lenskart Business Model | How Lenskart Makes Money

    Approximately 64 percent of adults around the world need corrective lenses to see clearly, according to recent studies. Envisioning a society where selecting the ideal eyewear is both a vital must and a truly enjoyable activity. This ambition has come true thanks to Lenskart, an industry pioneer.

    Both customers’ perception of eyeglasses and their shopping habits have been revolutionized by Lenskart’s groundbreaking business model, which combines cost, convenience, and style. Its business model is what makes the company different from others, as it bridges the gap between different touchpoints, i.e. it gives the customer an Omni Channel Experience where a customer can order either from the store or from an online medium.

    Lenskart is one of the eCommerce companies that operate in both online and offline distribution channels. Customers can order their products over the online portal or from Lenskart’s uniquely designed offline store. Lenskart also becomes a unicorn company in the year 2019.

    Lenskart is the fastest-growing retail chain with 500+ profitable stores across 120+ cities and 50 Lac happy customers across India. Valyoo Technologies is the parent company under which it is registered. Lenskart app is the No.1 shopping app for eyewear as it has the widest collection of specs, sunglasses, goggles, frames, anti-glare, contact lenses, reading glasses, computer glasses, try glasses at home, prescription sunglasses, and eye accessories.

    Lenskart is a novel business strategy that combines technology with fashion, and we urge you to explore this intriguing world with us in this post.

    About Lenskart
    Lenskart Business Model
    How Lenskart Makes Money?
    Lenskart USP
    Lenskart SWOT Analysis
    The Omni Channel Method
    Growth Drivers for Lenskart
    Features of Lenskart
    Competitive Analysis of Lenskart
    Challenges and Future Growth Opportunities

    About Lenskart

    The founder and CEO of Valyoo Technologies (the parent company of Lenskart) is Peyush Bansal. He pursued his Bachelor in Electrical Engineering – IT, Control & Automation from McGill University, Canada in 2006. Before he returned to India to pursue a PG in Management from IIM, Bangalore, Peyush worked as a Program Manager with Microsoft for a year.

    Peyush launched his company Valyoo Technologies with SearchMyCampus as the first business portal in 2007. It was a classified site for students that provided options for accommodation, books, part-time jobs, carpool facilities, and internship opportunities. When that became a big hit, Peyush wanted to explore the eCommerce world. While exploring opportunities, the eyewear segment caught his eye and inspired him to come up with his own.

    This led to the creation of Flyrr.com, a website that focused on the eyewear market in the US. Flyrr went on to gain good traction and this prompted him to test the waters in the Indian markets and launch Lenskart in November 2010.

    Lenskart was founded by Sumeet Kapahi, Peyush Bansal, and Amit Chaudhary with a singular goal in mind: to ensure that everyone could afford and have access to eyeglasses.

    The creators noticed that purchasing eyeglasses in India might be a hassle and a drain on budget due to the prevalence of offline businesses selling a restricted selection of frames at high prices.

    Lenskart, an online marketplace offering a diverse selection of eyewear at affordable rates, was created to tackle these challenges. Company operations are distributed all over India, although the headquarters are in Gurugram.

    Lenskart Success Story: Empowering India with Clear Vision | Startup Story | Subsidiaries | Valuation | Founders | Shareholding
    Explore the remarkable Lenskart success story of India’s leading eyewear company. Discover about Lenskart founders, journey to success, history, funding, revenue, shareholding, IPO, subsidiaries, business model, growth, and more.
    StartupTalkySarika Anand

    Lenskart Business Model

    Lenskart Business Model Canvas
    Lenskart Business Model Canvas

    Lenskart has partnered with some major names in the eyewear business. Working with manufacturers, it has sourced reasonably priced, high-quality frames and lenses. The business has also collaborated with lens makers to create its lenses, which it markets under its label.

    Lenskart has also collaborated with digital companies to make online buying easy for their clients. It has teamed up with traditional retailers to broaden its consumer base and provide in-store customization options. The company’s main source of income comes from the selling of its products and several subscription plans.

    Lenskart offers over 5000 frames and glasses and more than 45 different kinds of high-quality lenses. The company follows an inventory-led business model wherein equal sourcing is done from India and China. Lenskart has a team of designers and stylists that keep a tab on the latest trends in the eyewear department, the designs made by the team are then passed down to the manufacturers.

    To reach the masses, they have also ventured into offline stores through the franchise model. Lenskart currently has over 2500 omnichannel stores across 175 cities in India, Singapore, and Dubai. They have balanced the reach by spreading out across metro and non-metro locations and are currently serving more than 4000 people in a day and looking at scaling it up to 200,000 people in the coming years.

    4 success factors in this industry are the quality of the product, the product portfolio, the delivery time, and lastly the sales service. Lenskart has a good value proposition that provides high-quality products at an affordable price. They also have a team of 1000+ employees who operate on manufacturing, eye technicians, custom service, technology, and logistics which further expand as the growing demands.

    Lenskart Marketing Strategy: Redefining Eyewear with Style & Affordability | Marketing Mix | Marketing Campaigns |
    Discover how Lenskart’s marketing strategy is transforming eyewear into an essential, stylish, and affordable accessory for everyone.
    StartupTalkySakshi Jadhav

    How Lenskart Makes Money?

    The revenue model of Lenskart encompasses multiple revenue streams to earn revenue. The sale of eyewear products, such as frames, lenses, sunglasses, and contact lenses, constitutes the company’s principal source of revenue. The company offers a diverse selection of items, making it suitable for customers of varying ages and requirements.

    Glasses accounted for the bulk of Lenskart’s income, making nearly 95% of its total. Compared to the fiscal year of 2023, when it was INR 1,618.3 Cr, Lenskart’s total revenue, including other income, was INR 3,927.9 Cr, an increase of 142.7%. Fees for training, services, and in-home vision tests are some of the other ways the business makes money.

    The subscription-based services that Lenskart offers are another source of revenue for the company. Lenskart Gold is a subscription program that offers users exclusive perks, such as free eye tests, free home eye check-ups, and savings on eyewear items.

    Additional accessories and add-ons: Lenskart also provides additional accessories such as eyeglass cases, cleaning solutions, and lens wipes, in addition to further add-ons such as coatings that are scratch-resistant and anti-glare.

    Fees for franchises: The company generates revenue by collecting franchise fees from optical retailers that are partners with it.

    The business model of Lenskart is a business-to-consumer (B2C) approach, which is centered on sales. Direct sales of the company’s products to end users at affordable prices are made by the business. In addition to that, the organization places a strong emphasis on the most up-to-date fashions and trends, as well as durability and flawless quality. Their robotic technology comes from Germany and is imported from there. Because of this cutting-edge technology, Lenskart is the only company that is capable of producing eyewear that is accurate to within three decimal places and performs efficiently. The incorporation of these innovations into Lenskart’s business cycle enables the company to offer a product that is not only one-of-a-kind but also technologically advanced. Lenskart’s products distributorship primarily involves a franchise network, where franchisees manage physical stores and promote the brand to local customers. As a result, increasing the amount of revenue generated through the sale of these articles.

    Lenskart Financials FY24

    Lenskart Financials FY23 FY24
    Operating Revenue INR 3788 crore INR 5428 crore
    Total Expenses INR 4025 crore INR 5550 crore
    Profit/Loss INR -63 crore INR -10 crore

    Lenskart’s financials show significant improvement from FY23 to FY24. Lenskart’s operating revenue grew by 43%, increasing from INR 3,788 crore to INR 5,428 crore. Total expenses also rose by 38%, from INR 4,025 crore IN FY23 to INR 5,549.5 crore in FY24. Although Lenskart still recorded a loss, the loss amount was reduced by 84%, from INR 63 crore in FY23 to INR 10 crore in FY24.

    Lenskart Financials FY24
    Lenskart Financials FY24

    Lenskart USP

    • Suitability: Lenskart provides its clients with a shopping experience that is both convenient and easy. In addition to in-store and online shopping, customers can use the company’s website to schedule in-home eye exams. Customers may easily get the glasses they need without leaving the comfort of their homes.
    • Customization Lenskart provides its consumers with the opportunity to create their own unique buying experience. Customers can view how various frames will appear on their faces with the company’s virtual try-on tool on the internet. Lenskart also features in-store optometrists who are qualified to assist clients in selecting the ideal eyewear.
    • Excellence: Lenskart provides customers with long-lasting items that are crafted from top-notch materials. Customers have 14 days from the date of purchase to return an unsatisfactory item, according to the company’s generous return policy.

    Lenskart SWOT Analysis

    Lenskart SWOT Analysis
    Lenskart SWOT Analysis

    Lenskart Strengths

    • With its integrated model, Lenskart manages every step of its supply chain, from raw materials to finished products. Because of this, they can manage their inventory more efficiently, ensure faster delivery, and monitor quality.
    • Lenskart uses a hybrid retail strategy combining online and offline stores to serve a diverse consumer base. Physical stores provide instant service, credibility, and the ability to touch and feel products, while online platforms offer convenience.
    • In terms of technological innovation, the firm has always been ahead of the curve when it comes to improving the client service they provide. One thing that sets them different from other eyeglass stores is their virtual 3D try-on technology.
    • Branding and marketing efforts by Lenskart have been highly visible, elevating the company to the forefront of India’s eyewear industry.
    • Trust and customer happiness have always been Lenskart’s top priorities, which is why the company offers easy returns and product guarantees.

    Lenskart Weakness

    • Although it has many advantages, the hybrid model of brick-and-mortar and Internet shops can create certain operational challenges. It can be difficult to manage logistics, and inventory, and maintain a consistent brand experience on both platforms.
    • Like many eCommerce platforms, Lenskart frequently uses sales and promotions to entice customers. This may lead to a decline in profit margins and establish a discount-focused expectation among customers.
    • Eyewear is a highly competitive industry, and this is true both online and offline. Potentially troublesome are competing brands, particularly long-standing global ones.

    Lenskart Opportunities

    • The rising purchasing power of middle-class consumers and the general public’s focus on eye health point to a promising future for the eyewear industry in countries like India.
    • With the continued growth of internet access, particularly in emerging nations, the pool of potential customers for online eyeglass purchases is growing.
    • Expanding into adjacent product categories, such as high-end eyewear, specialized sports eyewear, or smart eyewear, could open up fresh avenues for expansion and revenue generation.
    • There is a substantial opportunity in smaller cities and villages, where the penetration of branded eyewear is lower than in metropolitan areas.

    Lenskart Threats

    • Problems may arise if the governments of the countries where Lenskart does business were to alter their policies regarding online sales, imports, or exports.
    • The dynamics of the eyewear market or the viability of specific services could be altered by introducing new, possibly disruptive technologies due to the rapid pace of technological innovation.
    • Natural catastrophes, pandemics, or geopolitical conflicts are just a few examples of the kinds of disruptions that can affect the supply chain and cause problems with inventories or delays in deliveries.
    • The eyeglasses market is vulnerable to fake goods. Lenskart must consistently check the things it sells for authenticity if it wants to keep its reputation intact.

    The Omni Channel Method

    Lenskart started as an online business, but when they understood that Indian customers prefer to touch and feel the product before buying a high-involvement product, this is when they shifted to the Omni Strategy. It was important for them to leverage technology to actively engage their customers and adapt to the ever-changing consumer expectations.

    With this strategy, the company focuses on delivering the right product, at the right time and the right place. For Lenskart, customer engagement is more important as they help their customers get a shopping experience tailored to their preferences. Lenskart is trying to keep itself close to the customers and increase trust by providing a value proposition.

    Lenkart is known to give bundled offers like buying two at the cost of one or cross offers like giving the first frame for free, real-time offers, personalized recommendations, email coupons, etc. Lenskart has expanded to various cities which are based on the franchise business model in which 35% of all revenue is shared with the franchisee and an annual fee of INR 2 lakhs.

    Growth Drivers for Lenskart

    • “The first frame is free” offer – Where the customers will pay for only the lens on their first purchase. A good strategy to attract first-time buyers.
    • “Try at home” –Where the customers can choose a maximum of 5 frames and try them at home before making a final purchase. This has led to more sampling by customers.
    • Eye checkups by optometrists at home across cities have been introduced.
    • Innovative use of technology – Developed a 3D facial visualizer where customers can see how the frames will look on them.

    Features of Lenskart

    The main features of Lenskart making it a popular eyewear brand are:

    • Infinite variations and models of Eyewear
    • Find a frame that suits your style
    • Latest collection with fashionable trends
    • 3D Try On
    • Replace Old Eyeglasses
    • Book an Eye checkup at your own home
    • Shop from a range of 100% authentic brands
    • Order online and pay cash on delivery
    • Scan product barcodes with the camera
    • Live chat with the customer support team

    Peyush Bansal Success Story: The Visionary Behind Lenskart’s Success | Education | Early Life | Personal Life
    Peyush Bansal is the co-founder and CEO of Lenskart. He was also a shark in Shark Tank India. Here’s a look at his education, career, investments, age, personal life, and more.
    StartupTalkyShalini Rath

    Competitive Analysis of Lenskart

    Lenskart’s competitors include both online and offline players. Even traditional retailers who specialize in eyewear are the competitors of Lenskart. Competition is heating up in this space with players like GKB, Lawrence and Mayo, Titan Eye Plus, Bausch and Lomb, Vision Express, Specsmakers, Coolwinks, Deals4Opticals. Some manufacturers like Ray-Ban, Essilor have their own online stores.

    Lenskart faces competition from eCommerce marketplaces like Amazon, Flipkart, Paytm Mall, and Snapdeal which sell eyewear and impact its business directly. With a market size of Rs. 18000-20000 crore, organized players account for barely 9-10% of the market. The brands compete with a vast variety of low-priced products available offline and online so the challenge is to steer customers away from local opticians and keep them loyal.

    Challenges and Future Growth Opportunities

    Lenskart has experienced rapid growth, but it faces several challenges along the way. One of the primary obstacles is the intense competition from both other eyewear brands and online platforms, which makes it challenging to stand out in a crowded market. Additionally, Lenskart must ensure that its customer service remains consistent across both online and offline channels, which can be difficult to manage effectively. Scaling operations in smaller towns presents another challenge, as the purchasing power and demand for premium eyewear may be lower compared to metropolitan areas.

    Despite these challenges, Lenskart also has substantial growth opportunities ahead. As more Indians become aware of the importance of eye health and opt for stylish eyewear, there is a growing market for quality products. The increasing demand for blue light-blocking glasses, driven by the rise in screen time, and the expanding middle-class population, create significant potential for continued growth and expansion within the industry.

    Conclusion

    Lenskart, whose slogan is “Our mission is to give India a Vision,” is among India’s most successful unicorn corporations. In the years to come, the eyewear brand plans to offer the greatest eye care solutions and use its low-cost franchise model to reach a variety of people. For aspiring entrepreneurs looking to make an impact in the eyewear sector, Lenskart offers a business strategy that provides updated solutions. Lenskart through its defined business model gives a clear message to youngsters that customer experience, integration, the Omni channel model, and product technology should be their primary areas of concentration if they want to achieve success.

    FAQs

    What is business model of Lenskart?

    Lenskart has a B2C business model which is highly sales-oriented. They sell their product directly to customers at an affordable price. They have a wide variety of frames within a price range of Rs.345 to Rs.30,000 and also the first frame you buy is absolutely free.

    Is Lenskart a Chinese company?

    No, Lenskart is not a Chinese company. Lenskart is an Indian retail chain for spectacles having factories in China as well which manufactures about 50% of the production.

    What are Lenskart features?

    Lenskart offers a wide range of eyewear with over 5000 frames and 45+ lens types, featuring virtual try-on technology for a personalized shopping experience. The company combines online shopping with 1500+ physical stores to provide an omnichannel experience. Customers can customize their eyewear, access subscription plans for lens replacements, and enjoy hassle-free returns. Lenskart also offers home eye checkups and maintains affordable pricing with regular discounts, making quality eyewear accessible and convenient.

    What is the USP of Lenskart?

    Lenskart’s USP is its wide range of stylish, affordable eyewear, enhanced by virtual 3D try-on technology and a hybrid retail model combining online and offline stores.

    How is Lenskart so cheap?

    Since Lenskart is a B2C company, there are no intermediaries involved to eat their revenue.

    How does Lenskart make money?

    Since no intermediaries are involved between buyer and seller so whatever revenue generated comes directly to the company’s account.

    Why should we choose Lenskart?

    Lenskart has over 5000 styles of eyewear, which is 5 times more than that any retailer in India. Also, they provide a seamless user experience to their customers. Their lenses are durable and long-lasting along with their funky to casual looks.

    What is Lenskart distribution channel?

    Lenskart’s distribution channels include its e-commerce platform, 1500+ omnichannel stores, franchise model, social media marketing, and retail partnerships.

    How does Lenskart work?

    Lenskart works by offering a wide range of eyewear through its online platform and physical stores. Customers can browse products online or in-store, use features like virtual try-on technology, and order glasses or lenses. Lenskart sources frames and lenses from manufacturers, provides customization options, and ensures quick delivery. It also offers subscription plans for regular lens replacements and has customer service for support and adjustments.

    What are Lenskart brands?

    Lenskart offers eyewear under the following brands:

    1. Lenskart – The main brand offering a wide range of eyewear.
    2. John Jacobs – Premium eyewear collection.
    3. Vincent Chase – Stylish and affordable eyewear.
    4. Oaks – Budget-friendly eyewear brand.
    5. Dita – High-end luxury eyewear brand.

    These brands cater to different customer segments, from affordable to luxury eyewear.

    How many Lenskart total stores in world are there?

    Lenskart has more than 2,500 stores worldwide.

  • Spying on Your Competitors – 10 Different Ways

    With the increasing number of options that are available to people on a product, competition has been on the rise since the last century. To gain an upper hand in the tussle between demand and supply, every company tries to understand the strategies of their competitors to prepare ahead of them and get a lead in the market.

    This kind of spying has become a very common part of any company that today there are people assigned to analyse the activities of their competitors. Spying over a company is easier said than done.

    It requires a collation of a lot of small but important things. In this article a few very important methods and spy tools that anybody who wants to understand what your competitor is doing are discussed.

    Let’s look at the 10 ways on how you can Spy on your Competition.

    Keeping Up With Their Literature
    Following on Social Media
    Look Out for Keywords
    Focus On SEO
    Follow the Ads
    Check Up on the Products They Promote
    Tracking Indexed Websites
    Checking Google Ranks
    Finding Backlinks
    Going Through the Reviews

    Keeping Up With Their Literature

    Here literature means any kind of text that they release on their behalf. These can be blogs, articles on papers, newsletters, surveys etc. It is obvious that they won’t share any information with their competitors, but following the above-mentioned one will help. You will get to know their ventures and campaigns before they actually happen. It is important to follow them judiciously and more important to analyse and elucidate the inner meanings if any.

    Following on Social Media

    There is no better campaigning alternative for a brand other than popular social media platforms to connect with customers and share their plans efficiently. The activities and engagements of your competitors on social media platforms tells a lot about the future plans.

    Not only that, it also tells a great deal about their digital marketing strategy as well. It is a great way to understand a significant part of your competitors’ ways of doing business.

    Look Out for Keywords

    As mentioned earlier, one of the most popular ways of setting a brand’s name is through social media campaigns. And here the importance of choosing the right keywords cannot be stressed enough. Hence, one of the best ways to check on your competitor is by trying to understand the keywords that they use to increase the traffic into their website. You can use various tools available online like SEMrush, Ahrefs Keyword Explorer, and Google Keyword Planner etc. to see the keywords used by your competitors rather than trying to understand each keyword.

    Focus On SEO

    Finding the keywords brings us to another important thing to be done. That is, checking their SEO tools. You might wonder what it is that makes your competitor have an edge over you despite selling the same kind of products, the answer might be in their SEO techniques. You can also understand the techniques that will bring organic traffic. There are tools like Positionly (now Unamo) which will really help in getting real time comparative data on website traffic.

    Follow the Ads

    Advertisements are a great way to entice customers and increase business. Ads will play a big role if they are formed correctly and placed rightly. The websites and platforms on which these ads come up is also very important. It tells a lot about their campaigns. You can track and spy on the websites and platforms on which their ads are displayed and plan accordingly.

    There are Ad Spying tools that give an insight into your competitor’s ads. One of the tools that can be used is AdSpyder. AdSpyder gives you an insight into the SEO strategy used by your competitors on different platforms. With the help of this tool, you can understand the secrets of your competitors and make them useful for your own ads.

    Check Up on the Products They Promote

    Promotion is a very important part of any marketing campaign. The nature of products and the way of promotion will tell you a lot of their strategies. It can be a great way to adapt better things and reject things that are unnecessary.

    Tracking Indexed Websites

    Indexing in Google is one of the most important things that any brands would do to increase their reach. Rather than going after all the websites of your competitor, track the websites that are indexed in Google. It will help you organise the work in a more efficient manner. Google in itself is a good tool to do it.

    Checking Google Ranks

    Checking Google ranks is a great way to know where you and your competitor stands as far as traffic is concerned. You should understand where your competitor is ranked for every relevant keyword that will be searched. Finding a competitor’s ranking alone is not enough. You should also analyse their growth over a period of time. It will help you get an idea of their pattern of growth.

    Backlinks are very important to maintain good rankings for your website. That makes it clear how important it is to find the backlink strategy of your competitor. It will help you get a better clarity on their marketing strategy. You will also have an idea on how to effectively use your backlinks to reap the best outcomes.

    Going Through the Reviews

    All the campaigns that brands do, boils down to one thing – customer satisfaction. It is the key to increasing business. Analysing the customer reviews is a great way to spy on your competitor although it might sound direct. While the review of the customer gives an idea about their reception of the campaign, the reply of the competitor tells a lot about their strategies. If the reviews are negative, it will be an insight to correct your mistakes before it gets out.

    Conclusion

    It is true that competition has increased significantly in recent times. But it also means that there is more scope for improvement and learning from mistakes without actually making mistakes now than ever before. Understanding your competitors’ marketing will really help you in getting an idea about consumer requirements and expectations.

    The above-mentioned steps are an integral part of this understanding and it is not an exhaustive list. These pointers are not to spy on your competitor but to serve as an opportunity to reflect upon your strategies and initiatives.

    FAQs

    Is spying on competitors illegal?

    It is not illegal to spy on your competitors unless you break laws, like hacking into the security of your competitor’s database.

    How can I see what keywords your competitors are using?

    BuzzSumo, SEM Rush, SpyFu, and Ahrefs’ are some of the top keyword research tools you can use to spy on your competitors.

    Why is it important to do competitor analysis?

    The purpose of a competitor analysis is to understand your competitors’ strengths and weaknesses in comparison to your own and to find a gap in the market. A competitor analysis is important because: It will help you recognise how you can enhance your own business strategy.

  • How Does Category Design Help in the Success of Your Business?

    Surviving and thriving in the business world requires forward-thinking and innovation. Category design is a strategic approach that uses points of view to win customers and increase brand awareness. The traditional method of creating products followed by rigorous marketing doesn’t always guarantee results.

    If you’re looking to establish yourself in a certain niche, the category design principle is the way to go. Even in specialized niches, there’s a possibility of crowding. Category design helps create a unique company powered by unique processes and a great brand—ultimately achieving the ‘Category King’ title.

    The concept is premised on owning the market and tilting the thought process of your target clients in your favour. The mental shift in the appreciation of your brand is the end goal. In this article, we will talk about how category design helps businesses to achieve success.

    Harmonized and Laser Focus of Marketing Campaigns
    Discovering and Dominating New Category of Business
    Creating Dominant Products
    Tapping Into Existing and Working Systems
    Create Loyal and New Customers
    Impacting the Society Positively

    Harmonized and Laser Focus of Marketing Campaigns

    Marketing efforts and campaigns may contain different messages making it a trial and error method. The effectiveness of marketing efforts is a big success factor in a business. To dominate markets, a harmonized marketing campaign backed by a solid product can lead to ultimate success.

    One of the key marketing originators is your staff. A clear understanding of the Point of View (POV) can be beneficial in a variety of ways. This includes: –

    • Campaigns in Media– This will create an overall standard angle of blogs, messages in the radio and TV ads, and other assets such as influencer marketers.
    • Employee Marketing– They’ll have a harmonized way of tackling issues like customer service leading to brand authority.

    Brands that command markets use a standard way of doing things. Harmonized marketing messages can help a lot in achieving this.

    Discovering and Dominating New Category of Business

    Popular brands like Twitter, Coca-Cola, Airbnb, Uber, and Apple have one thing in common. They take time to study the market, develop a product that answers the needs and create a winning and unique marketing campaign.

    These companies don’t necessarily create new inventions. For instance, taxi services existed before, but Uber’s business model was created to meet a certain market need. This propelled them to become a global household brand.

    Creating a mind shift and new demand is what revolutionizes markets. Airbnb for instance is a unique service that offers cheaper alternative accommodation for guests around the world. Since it was launched in 2008, it has hosted 400 million guests and is present in 191 countries.

    The huge success of these unique companies is inspired by daily problems. These companies leverage existing technology, existing industries, and marketing platforms to monopolize these categories.

    Creating Dominant Products

    In a bid to make money in business, people tend to go with the flow. This leads to continued production of mediocre products, shrinking value to the customers, and, ultimately, poor response from the market.

    Listed below are ways in which great and legendary products are created and established: –

    • Study Competitors– This is an old principle but it’s very important in any business for success. Look at the model of operation to spot areas of improvement. Sealing loopholes in a competitor’s product can be a springboard to a great product.
    • Customer Pain Points– Words on the street, online reviews, and professional reviewers can help discover product ideas. Category design aims at creating products that offer genuine and niche solutions.
    • Product Presentation– Packaging products to dominate markets involves branding messages and an overall presentation that seals the existing loopholes.

    Using category design, your product can achieve the dominant player status. This is achieved through a thorough product development cycle.

    Tapping Into Existing and Working Systems

    One of the biggest reasons for creating businesses is making revenues, profits, and generating wealth. To shorten the journey to success, re-inventing an old principle doesn’t always translate into revenue. If a business can use the already existing models and systems, it’s much better.

    Let’s look at two businesses that utilized this model to succeed.

    • Netflix– Netflix and other similar programs made watching movies and other TV programs very affordable. Instead of paying a huge cinema entry fee, Netflix offers a revolutionary service where a nominal monthly subscription can provide access to unlimited movies and programs. The model of business is an agency that sign-ups movie productions and brings them to the masses.
    • Amazon– This e-commerce company made a $3.3b net income in 2019. Amazon doesn’t manufacture any of the products it sells and doesn’t own the internet or the delivery channels. This is an example of a successful company that brings ideas into an existing ecosystem.

    Leveraging existing business models helps eliminate huge capital expenditure. This lets you focus on solving customer pain points and popularizing your unique viewpoints.

    Create Loyal and New Customers

    Category design doesn’t bring big business to you, but loyal and new audiences do. People and the market get excited by new products, unique innovations, and ground-breaking ideas. This makes them reward you with continuous business and social applause.

    Loyal customers give you positive reviews and recommend you to other clients. This, in turn, creates a spiral effect that brings new customers to you. Ultimately, you can use customer support and free endorsement from them to create new and better products.

    Impacting the Society Positively

    Apart from profits, social impact at the community and the global level is one of the major objectives of a business. Category design can help create products coupled with marketing messages that can drift people’s mindsets.

    Apple, for instance, uses the tagline ‘Think differently’. Its products and brands reinforce the message. This makes such a brand have a positive impact on future business leaders and innovators. This has propelled the success of multiple brands such as iPod, iPhone, Apple Store, and iTunes.

    Conclusion

    Category design is a unique way of improving your business and putting it on the path to success. The idea is founded on creating a highly specialized niche that can help you dominate markets. Forward and revolutionary thinking are the secrets of the success of big and wealthy brands. To fully tap into this strategy in business, investing in your innovation hub should be a top priority. This will help you research, develop, and tilt viewpoints so that your company can thrive.

    FAQs

    What is Category Design?

    Category design is a strategy that helps a business develop its own classification of products and services.

    When was Category Design proposed?

    Category design was first proposed in a book called Play Bigger.

    Who was the writer of Play Bigger?

    Play bigger is written by Al Ramadan, Dave Peterson, Kevin Maney and Christopher Lochhead.

    What is a Category blueprint?

    A category Blueprint is a design of how a product or service will work in the future.

  • The Business Model And Main Competitors Of Tesco

    Tesco is one of the biggest multinational conglomerate companies in the world, that mainly focuses on grocery and general merchandise retailing. The company has its headquarters based in Welwyn Garden City, England. It is now said to be the third-largest retailer in the world if measured in terms of its gross revenue, while if the conglomerate is measured based on its total revenue it stands in the Ninth spot in the world.

    There is no doubt when we say that Tesco is the market leader of groceries in countries like Hungary, Thailand, Ireland and the UK. In the United Kingdom, the company is known to hold over 28.4% of the overall market share. Besides that, it also has its outlets in seven countries of continents like Europe, North America and Asia. Tesco is probably one of the most recognizable retail names in the United Kingdom especially when it comes to grocery shopping.

    But what you may not know is that the company also completes with other retailers like convenience stores and general merchandise. The British conglomerate has made a name for itself through organic growth and most notably through a series of strategic acquisitions it’s acquired and its subsidiaries since it was first created. The Tesco business strategy believes in expanding into a combination of acquisitions of new stores, retail services and adapting to the needs of consumers.

    The main aim of the Tesco business model is to serve the customer not just in the UK but around the world and make them happy. This is more cost-effective for the business than acquiring new ones. According to some studies, the company’s record-breaking sales is said to be more than £1billion a week and which was better than the expected annual profits of over £3.4billion for 53 weeks to 28 February 2010, despite the impact of the global downturn.

    In the UK, Tesco currently has more than  2,200 stores that can range from the large Extra hypermarket style stores to other small-sized Express high street style outlets. Tesco online success is due to the expansion of its customer base via its online website and app through which it attracts more than a million regular customers and sells a huge variety of original product categories when it comes to groceries. Tesco digital marketing strategy is also responsible for making its customers return.

    While its general merchandise sector has now diversified and has its foothold in industries such as banking, insurance services, electrical consumer goods, telephone gadgets and quality airtime. This article will tell you just how Tesco business model made the company so successful and will also contain Tesco competitors analysis.

    The Business Model of Tesco
    The Four Components of Tesco Business Model
    What is Unique about Tescos Business Model?
    Key activities of Tesco
    The value proposition of Tesco
    The Main Competitors of Tesco
    Frequently Asked Questions

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    The Business Model of Tesco

    Tesco is one of the largest commercial and grocery store chains in the world, while the Tesco online market share is the largest when we regard the European market. Not only is Tesco marketing strategy and business model very successful in terms of selling its products but it’s also known to be extremely unique and professional in its ways of handling business and further possibilities. The Tesco business model is designed in a way wherein the company buys, moves and sells its various products and services to their customers to get insight in order to do a bit better each time.

    Tesco business model focuses on four major components. The first step to Tesco business model analysis is in bringing in more feedback and insights into what customers want and try to understand their needs. By doing that Tesco can sell and distribute their products and services to their customers. The business model of Tesco is flexible, as the company is also willing to adjust or and improve its four components to accommodate the different types of customers that shop with them, this process also makes their shopping experience better and easier.

    The Four Components of Tesco Business Model

    Product

    The Tesco model offers its customers quality products that are developed by their Product team. Tesco company products are said to be of high quality because its team has an absolute focus on fair, transparent, mutually beneficial relationships with suppliers. The Product team works with our suppliers to source the best possible range of quality products that meet and anticipate our customers’ needs.

    Channels

    Tesco online success is because the company brings the best products to customers even through its online portals. Tesco online business model works through a range of channels from small shops to large shops and also focuses on growing their online business. As part of improving our offer, the company is investing in making our channels even more efficient and convenient for our customers.

    Customers

    Tesco business relies on serving its customers and its business model has customers at its core. We listen to our customers and act on what is important to them to deliver the best shopping trip: price, service, range and availability.

    Reinvest

    The main focus is to improve Tesco for customers. With the Tesco strategic plan 2021, the company aims at becoming more efficient and reinvesting some of the savings we make to improve the shopping trip. The reason for this reinvestment is clear, the better a job we do for customers, the more we will improve sales; the more our sales improve, the more we can reinvest.

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    What is Unique about Tescos Business Model?

    Tesco has is one of the most unique business models when you analyze its rapid expansion first throughout the United Kingdom. It has expanded its footprint over the whole Eastern European area especially along the side of Ireland and Scotland. Tesco gains its large number of stores by simply buying off other small-sized stores in large quantities and also by purchasing the midsized grocery store chains.

    This way instantly resulted in Tesco gaining numerous new stores, which were then connected with one business transaction. So what makes Tesco different from competitors? These are some unique factors about Tesco business model are:

    Buying huge quantities of produce to then sell cheap

    Everyone knows that the more someone buys from a product, the cheaper the product will become. The company maintains highly competitive prices up to the point where it has started to self-produce most of its grocery products in order to become even cheaper and give way to further specialization.

    The company is self-producing

    Tesco has also been extensively successful because it’s been producing its own grocery products in its own factories for a long time now. This way it can work at way lower rates than its competitors who do not have the means to produce their own goods. The company has become so successful in terms of self-producing its goods that these days it’s also been dealing with the production of premier quality products which are sold under Tesco’s brand name.

    It has Online gateways

    Tesco has opened its website and app through which it has been selling its products online with massive success especially in countries like the UK and other countries throughout Europe. Many people are not aware that this creates a unique situation as Tesco is the only chain of its kind in Europe that could keep its online shopping system successful and profitable.

    Increasing the number of stores

    Tesco has started to diversify and increase its stores, in order to make its services products more widely available for a larger crowd of people. This way, one doesn’t need to travel to another city or town whenever they want to shop at a Tesco. It’s enough to pop in for a quick shopping in a Tesco Express or in a Tesco Metro which was established for this exact reason.  

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    Key activities of Tesco

    When you do a Tesco market segmentation analysis, you will find that these are the main segments that the company focuses the most on.

    • Procurement
    • Pricing
    • Marketing
    • Customer federalization
    • Diversification
    • Buying and selling consumer goods
    • Effective distribution system
    • Analyze consumer demand
    • Warehousing and logistics

    The value proposition of Tesco

    Tesco business strategy covers all segments of the market like:

    • One-stop shopping place
    • Good prices
    • Complementary services
    • Wide range presence and selection
    • Variety combined
    • 24/7 shopping experience
    • Safety
    • Convenient online shopping
    • Business diversification (telecom, gas station, banking and photo)

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    The Main Competitors of Tesco

    Tesco’s competitors are Sainsbury’s, ASDA, Waitrose and Morrison’s. These four companies are called the Big Four in the United Kingdom. Tesco competitors analysis shows you how over the past few years, grocery companies like Aldi and Lidl have started to grow exponentially and become strong competitors to Tesco.

    The conglomerate also competes with the local convenience stores, which are slowly gaining popularity as they cater to customers based on their different tastes. The local convenience store market is highly fragmented.  According to a research done, in the U.K. grocery market leader because it has 26.9% of market share, while Tesco main competitors is Sainsbury’s followed by ASDA, which have 15% and 14.1% of market share respectively.

    ASDA

    Asda logo
    Asda logo

    ASDA is a British supermarket chain that is one of Tesco main competitors. The company was founded as a joint venture between the Asquith family and a Yorkshire company known as Associated Dairies back in 1949. The company was earlier a major subsidiary of Walmart until 1999 but was later brought over by Zuber and Mohsin Issa and TDR capital in 2021.

    So far Asda is known to have over 635 retail locations, more than 584 of which are supermarkets. Besides being one of the top grocery company in the UK, it also operates larger format superstores, which sells clothing and furnishing in addition to groceries. ASDA’s competitive strategy aims at keeping its prices low and improving its store layouts and online sales channel so it can easily revolve according to the shopper’s habits.

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    Sainsbury

    Sainsbury logo
    Sainsbury logo

    Sainsbury is one of the top Tesco competitors in the UK. Sainsbury was founded in London England in 1869. Like Tesco, Sainsbury also has its foothold in industries such as in the logistics, wholesale and retail distributor’s space. But compared to Tesco, Sainsbury’s is said to generate over $47.3 billion less revenue. Its efforts in its marketing have led the company to become the second-largest grocery chain in the United Kingdom, it currently has 1,415 locations across the country

    The company to charges a premium for grocery products, though price reduction has been an important element of its recent competitive strategy and this is why Sainsbury is tesco’s biggest competitors. To increase customer engagement, Sainsbury’s is experimenting with different store layouts, expanding its offering to general merchandise categories and promoting its in-store banking services. ‌‌  

    Morrisons

    Morrisons logo
    Morrisons logo

    Morrisons is another top contender for Tesco which is headquartered in Bradford, England. The company was founded in 1899 and is in the Hypermarket and Supercentres industry. The company has more than 492 supermarkets and has over 50 convenience stores. Morrisons operates 18 plus food manufacturing facilities, it also has eight distribution centres, and directly engages farmers to get fresh and good quality poultry, meat and produce.

    Morrisons is a tesco competitor because it is working towards making improvements in its stores along with its vertically integrated structure while reducing everyday prices. The company aims in creating a more balanced approach to promotional pricing is also an important element of the strategic price review. Morrisons has recently adopted a new strict capital expenditure budget, Which is why most of the new stores opening are in the smaller convenience format.

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    Aldi

    Aldi logo
    Aldi logo

    Aldi is a top Tesco competitor and a popular German grocery chain which have its headquarters based in Essen, Germany. It operates in over 10,000 stores in 20 different countries. Aldi is one of the top discount grocers in the whole of Europe. This Tescos competitors offers low priced grocery items with a disproportionately high private label offering. Similar to Tesco marketing strategy, Aldi does not accept manufacturer coupons but does offer huge discounts on groceries. Besides that, it holds Aldi holds weekly specials on general merchandise products.

    Waitrose

    Waitrose logo
    Waitrose logo

    Waitrose is one of tesco’s biggest competitors and another British grocery supermarket chain. The company was founded in 1908 and has its headquarters based in London, England. Like Tesco, Waitrose has a foothold in industries like logistics, wholesalers and retail distribution space. Waitrose operates in over 336 locations most of which are supermarkets. Some supermarket stores include restaurants that serve hot foods, while other locations specialize in general merchandise in addition to food.

    Conclusion

    Tesco is one of the biggest supermarket chains in the whole world because of its innovative business strategies. Tesco is a brand in itself as it has its own factories and its online shopping comes with benefits. Tesco has its own brand of mobile phones and telecommunications, besides that, it also has its petrol stations which add to the fact that tesco has been succefull in not just the grocery sector but other industries too. And these factors are what makes tesco different from competitors.

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    Frequently Asked Questions

    What is Tesco?

    Tesco is one of the biggest multinational conglomerate companies in the world, that mainly focuses on grocery and general merchandise retailing.

    What is Tesco’s business strategy?

    Tesco’s main business strategy is aggressive expansion into overseas grocery markets.

    What makes Tesco a successful business?

    From the analysis of the 4Cs ( which are Customer Benefit, Customer Cost, Customer Communication and Convenience) marketing strategy used by Tesco.

    Who are Tesco’s main competitors?

    Tesco main competitors are Sainsbury’s, ASDA, Waitrose and Morrison’s, which are often called the Big Four in the United Kingdom.

    Is Tesco multinational?

    Yes, Tesco is a multinational conglomerate as it is into different industries like banking, telecommunication, insurance, etc.

    Who are the Tesco competitors in India?

    The Tesco competitors in India are Big Bazaar, Dmart, Reliance Fresh, Spencers Retail, Hypercity, Star Bazaar, etc. as they provide groceries at cheaper prices.

  • How Major Social media platforms are Rivaling Clubhouse

    Clubhouse has been in the limelight since its launch last year. The app has got 12 million downloads since its launch. It has been extremely popular and is growing rapidly.

    The popularity and the growth of social media app have led the other social media apps in the market to come up with rival apps or new features for the clubhouse. Here is the list of companies that will soon launch rivals for clubhouse.

    Twitter Spaces
    Facebook Clone
    Spotify
    Slack
    Linkedin
    Discord Stage Channels
    Telegram’s Voice Chats 2.0
    FAQ

    Twitter Spaces

    Twitter has launched a new feature on their platform which is called Twitter Spaces. This feature will let users have live audio conversations with their followers. The new feature is still in the beta stage. The social media platform has been collecting feedback from the selected people chosen for the testing.

    The Twitter users on both IOS and Android can now join and talk in the audio conversations which are called spaces. You won’t be able to host your own space unless you are one of the individuals who is selected for the testing stage.

    Facebook Clone

    Facebook is reported to be working on developing a clubhouse rival which is called Facebook Clone. The CEO of the company Mark Zuckerberg had hinted about it during a conversation on clubhouse. According to the New York Times, the work began after the executives of the company had asked their employees to work on developing something similar to Clubhouse. Facebook hasn’t yet released any details about the app.

    There was a recent tweet by the engineer of Facebook Alessandro Paluzzi about the mockups which was created by the engineers of Facebook. The leaked mockups show how the app may look like.

    Facebook Audio rooms
    Facebook Audio rooms 


    The mockups look similar to the rival app Clubhouse. The company has told that the leaked images won’t be the exact reflection of its finished product. The new app is expected to provide the features such as broadcast live, creating a video room with friends, start private rooms, etc.

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    Spotify

    Spotify had earlier announced that they were buying Betty Labs which is the creator of Locker Room. Locker Room is a social audio app that is focused on sports. The company has not disclosed the amount spent on acquiring but Spotify has said that it was planning to change the name of the app.

    The app is expected to have the features such as live broadcasts in certain categories like music and cultural programmes. They are also planning to host live discussions with celebrities.

    Slack

    Slack had started to experiment with the audio feature from the last year. They tried to mimic a feature on how workplace teams hold hallway conversations through impromptu. The CEO of Slack, Stewart Butterfield said that the company was taking a page from the clubhouse. He said that through the clubhouse app.

    The new audio feature will be an addition to the existing features and services of Slack.

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    Linkedin

    LinkedIn is also reportedly working on a rival app for clubhouse. However, the company claims that their app would be different from those developed by the other companies. They said instead of concentrating on social connections, the app is expected to focus more on its services that will host conversations which are professional.

    LinkedIn says that the audio feature which is being developed will be for the people who feel that they would want more ways to communicate with their connections.

    Discord Stage Channels

    Discord is a gaming chat app. It gained popularity with the game among us where people use Discord to converse with their teammates. Recently Discord has launched a new feature that is similar to Clubhouse. This feature lets users host audio group conversations.

    Discord Stage Channel
    Discord Stage Channel

    The new service is called Stage Channels. The new feature mainly focuses on the users to host reading clubs, interviews, or karaoke. Stage Channels also have a feature that lets the room moderator to select who speaks as well remove, add or block a particular participant.

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    Telegram’s Voice Chats 2.0

    Recently even the messaging app Telegram has updated its existing live talk service. The new service is called as Voice Chats 2.0 and it has a feature that is similar to clubhouse. The new update lets you host public chats for an unlimited number of people.

    It has a feature that is similar to clubhouse which lets the participant to click a button to raise their hand. This will provide an alert to the chat administers so that they can let you speak.

    FAQ

    What is clubhouse app used for?

    Clubhouse is a social networking app based on audio-chat. Users can listen in to conversations, interviews and discussions between interesting people on various topics.

    Who founded clubhouse?

    Paul Davison is the Co-founder and CEO of Clubhouse.

    Where is clubhouse based?

    Clubhouse is a San Francisco-based app run by the company Alpha Exploration Co.

    Conclusion

    These are some of the apps which have been working or already have launched apps similar to clubhouse. The popularity of clubhouse has let the industry to come up with similar mobile applications or added features to their existing apps.

  • Apple Vs. Microsoft: Analysis Of Their Marketing Strategy

    One of the most well-known rivalry in the technological industry is between Apple Inc and Microsoft Corporation. They are two of the largest companies in the world as both Apple and Microsoft have touched market capitalization value of $1.5 trillion in 2020. Both the companies have revolutionized the technological industry by providing us with two very different software applications and gadgets such as Mac and PC.

    They are two of the most established companies when it comes to the production of computers. Both Apple and Microsoft are competitors even in different sectors of the industry like hardware devices like smartphone and PCs, advertising, making software’s, operating systems, etc. Apple main aim is to produce gadgets like iPhone, Mac, Apple watch , etc, while Microsoft focuses on making software  applications for different devices and giving license for their software services.

    Which is why both the companies have different approaches to marketing strategies. Let’s put a light on some of the key points from the marketing strategies of both companies and check how you can implement them in your business.

    A brief about Apple Inc.
    A brief about Microsoft Corporation
    The Target Audience of Apple and Microsoft
    The Marketing Mix of Apple and Microsoft
    The Market Strategy of Apple and Microsoft
    Frequently Asked Questions – FAQs

    A brief about Apple Inc.

    Apple Inc is one of the most well known American corporation which is popular for creating unique designs and selling electronics, computer software and online services. The headquarters of people Inc is situated  in Cupertino, California. The company is credited for designing products such as Macintosh range of computers, iPad, iPhone, iPod, Mac, Apple watch, etc. The company is also know to make software such as iLife, the safari web browser, iOS and iTunes among others. Apple now operates in over 350 stores around the world and offers both software and hardware.

    The success story of Apple

    The success of Apple Inc. is solely because of the contributions made by the cofounder and entrepreneur, Steve Jobs who created good looking, easy to use products and the ability to create innovative products that consumer’s desire. The company was created during the unstable economic situation of the 1970’s. The company introduced Macintosh in 1984 after which it also got its widespread recognition because of its marketing and advertisements for its products. In 90’s after jobs resignation, apple lost a huge market share to its lower priced competitors Microsoft and Intel.

    In 2000, when jobs returned and became the CEO, Apple gained it prominence after the launch of iMac and the Think different campaigns. In August 2011, Jobs resigned as CEO due to health issues, which led to Tim Cook becoming the new CEO. And the rest is history. Apple’s annual revenue for 2020 was $274.5 billion, making Apple Inc the world’s most valuable company. As of January 2021, Apple has achieved the title of becoming the world’s largest PC vendor and also becoming the world’s fourth largest manufacturers of smartphones. Apple is now also the world’s largest music retailer with iTunes.

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    A brief about Microsoft Corporation

    Microsoft Corporation is an US based multinational technology company which is headquartered in Redmond, Washington. The company is known for manufacturing, licensing and selling software’s, consumer electronics, PCs, etc. Some of its well-recognized and popular contributions to the tech industry is Microsoft office suite, internet explorer, Xbox video game consoles and a variety of PCs. Microsoft is also one of the top five tech companies in the US that includes Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon and Microsoft. In 2020 Microsoft became the 21st company in the Fortune 500 list.

    The success story of Microsoft

    The company was founded by Bill Gates in 1975 . The company was made from contributions of the ideas of two individuals Bill Gates and Paul Allen, as they were interested in computers and programming. The company rose to prominence in 80s with developments like Altair 8800, MS-DOS and the most popular Microsoft windows. Bill gates was then replaced by Steve Ballmer as the CEO in 2000. In the 90s the company made major acquisitions of Skype for $8.5 billion in 2011 and LinkedIn for $26.2 Billion in 2016.

    Microsoft provides a vast range of products and service that are aimed at satisfying the customers on what they want in the software industry. In addition to this, the company has extended its operations in other sectors in order to enhance its competitive advantage. The company now offers a wide range of products, software’s and servers for its user’s desktops, laptops, tabs, gadgets and servers including internet search with Bing, cloud computing with Azure, mixed reality with Hololens and software development with visual studio.

    The Target Audience of Apple and Microsoft

    Apple Inc. has both software and hardware products and services, for software it has iCloud, iLife, iMessage, iMovie, iTunes, etc and for hardware it has iPhone, Macbook, iMac, Apple watch, iPad, etc. Which is why the apple has a vast array of target audience as it keeps expanding its market with every new product. Apple already has 1.5 billion users who fall under the age bracket of 22 to 55 years old. The male to female user ratio is 60.8% to 39.2% showing that it is expanding in the male market.

    Apple also targets people with medium to high income individuals who live in metropolitan cities and are loyal to the brand. The occupation group of Apple users are considered to be students and young professionals to even managers and executives. Microsoft also has both software and hardware products and services. Everyone from the middle class house at least owns one Microsoft hardware or software that is because the target audience of Microsoft are people who don’t necessarily have a high income.

    Microsoft’s target audience age group range from 16 and older and from both urban and rural areas around the world. They also target young crowds that are usually students, employees and professionals and are loyal to the brand. Microsoft also uses the approach of STP which is Market Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning in order to bring about communications in marketing as it enables the company to make propositions their priority.

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    The Marketing Mix of Apple and Microsoft

    Apple’s marketing mix shows us how the company matches with its business activities to the conditions in the worldwide market for information technology, consumer’s electronics and online services. While Microsoft’s is known to be marketing mix that shows how rapid invention and innovation can be combined with effective approaches to maintain a strong share of the market. Here are the 4Ps (Products, Place, Promotion, Price) of both the companies.

    The marketing mix of Apple
    The marketing mix of Apple

    Product mix

    Apples products mostly comprise of mostly of both hardware and software which involve information technology. Apple although has more hardware products and some of the well-known products are Mac products line, iPhone line, iPad line, iPod line Apple watches, Apple TV, while it software products are software of devices, accessories, cloud services, digital content, etc.

    Microsoft on the other hand started out as a software developer and still continues to give it its first preferences. However this company has grown to include an  variety of products and services. Some of its products are providing different software to various devices, Apps, Xbox Video game consoles and entertainment.

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    Placement mix

    Placement mix analyses the selection of appropriate places or venues that are used by the company to distribute its products. Apple Inc. placement involves apple owned locations and other parties that the company authorizes to distribute its products. Most of Apples distribution happens from Apple store locations, Company owned website and online stores for desktop and authorized sellers and lastly the telecommunication companies.

    Microsoft tries to maximize its reach in the sectors of both computer hardware and software market. The company does its distribution on their official website, authorized sellers and Microsoft stores.

    The marketing mix of Microsoft
    The marketing mix of Microsoft

    Price mix

    Apple uses two pricing strategy which are Freemium pricing strategy and premium pricing strategy.  Apple uses premium pricing strategy to set high prices for its products which is why apple products are more expensive then android products, with this it maximizes profit margins.

    In the freemium pricing case apple products are free but customers have to pay to access better features, for example the company offers free 5 GB iCloud storage but if the user wants more they can by purchasing. However Microsoft applies suitable pricing approaches like Market-oriented pricing strategy, Freemium pricing strategy similar to apple’s and Buy only what you use price strategy.

    Promotional mix

    Apple promotes its products in various ways to include different channels and parties. Apple also uses word of mouth, marketing campaigns and beautifully planned ad video that reaches out to their target audience. Microsoft aims on creating effective communication strategies and tactics which can be used to attract target audience. Both Apple and Microsoft uses tactics such as advertising, sales promotion, direct marketing, personal selling and public relations to promote their products.

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    The Market Strategy of Apple and Microsoft

    Apple is known to be the best companies when it comes to branding and tech marketing. They don’t just market their products they try to market a brand identity. One of its main market strategies is to keep the products and marketing simple because they don’t want to overwhelm their prospective customers with too many choices. Apple lets its products speak for themselves with their simplistic design and easy to understand descriptions and simple visuals.

    One of Apple’s best marketing strategies is hyping its products and making a creative campaign. The other reasons are that they understand their target audience and try to reach out to them in the language they will understand which is done by simplifying the marketing process. One of the points of Apple’s tech marketing is that they know how to speak directly to their consumer. They also create brilliant video ads and billboards that showcases human needs and speaks to the customer’s human needs.

    Microsoft on the other hand depends completely on showcasing its product effectiveness and usability. Microsoft spends a lot as it depends on B2B marketing that directly sells its products to the customers. Microsoft has also updated its marketing strategy which is now based upon customer feedback and market changes. In this day and age, Microsoft has somehow managed to develop not only its marketing but also its products in order to match the rapid rate of change in today’s market.

    Microsoft’s marketing strategy is to drive its enterprises business by creating cloud based solutions that will stick with its consumers. Microsoft uses a mix of demographic and behavior segmentation strategies to segments the market into different group with similar characteristics. Segmenting based on demographics is important for products like Operating systems and Office products which are applicable to everyone.

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    Competitive advantage of Apple and Microsoft

    Apple has several competitive advantages over its competitors one of which is that it produces superior technological products with good OS and technology like iPhone, Macbook and iWatch making it a leader in the market space. Apple has also repeatedly taken the top spot for its brand equity and also has loyal customers. Apple has increased its revenue over the past years and also has high margins.

    One of the major competitive advantages of Apple is the amount it spends on R&D, always thinking about the future of the company. Microsoft offers both software and hardware products and services, from Microsoft tablet to Xbox console games to even software. So one of the main competitive advantage that Microsoft has over its competitors is the strategy of making acquisitions. Microsoft has so far acquired companies like Hotmail, Skype and even Nokia.

    Microsoft is a main competitor to apple because its operating system is installable on any PC or laptop and there is no hardware binding on the operating system which is a problem noticeable in Apple gadgets. It also has a vast product line and has worked upon TCO which is total cost of ownership so as to make the software easily and economically available to the customers.

    Frequently Asked Questions – FAQs

    What are some of the Apple’s products?

    Apple products mostly comprise of mostly of both hardware and software  which are Mac products line, iPhone line, iPad line, iPod line Apple watches, Apple TV, while it software products are software of devices, accessories, cloud services, digital content, etc.

    What are some of Microsoft products?

    Microsoft also has software and hardware products and usually provides different software to various devices, Apps, Xbox Video game consoles and entertainment.

    What is Apple’s marketing strategy?

    Apple marking strategy involves keeping its products and ads simple, knowing their target audience and reaching out to them, getting good feedback, a well appreciated customer experience.

    What is Microsoft’s marketing strategy?

    Microsoft marketing strategy focuses on showcasing its product effectiveness and usability and implementing customer feedback to create user-friendly products at a reasonable price.

  • How to Keep an Eye on your Competitor

    Almost all businesses face some sort of competition. Business Competitors should be viewed, not as a hurdle but as challenges. Your business competition may create a plethora of problems for you, but you can try to remain one step ahead of them, keep an eye on your competitor and focus on improving your business model concerning that of the competition. Observe them, find loopholes in their strategy as well as yours and use this information to place yourself in the market efficiently.

    If you don’t know who is your competition here’s The Five Forces Model to Determine Your Industry Competition.

    Here are a few ways by which you can spy on competition ,

    Monitor their brand

    We live in an age where having a social media presence has become very profitable and can be used in many ways for the good of the company. Similarly, in our era, people share all of their experiences on social media, they give positive or negative reviews about companies. You can use this to your advantage by finding out the shortcomings of your competitors on social media. You can use these failures or shortcomings of your competitors, by highlighting their weaknesses as your strengths. Responding cleverly with well-placed marketing tactics can boost the image of your company in a major way.
    You can easily monitor the brands of your competitors by using google alerts. However, google alerts, although users may miss out on a lot of mentions of your competitors. There are many useful tools out there with the help of which you can monitor brands of competitors. These include SEMrush and Brandwatch.

    Here’s Why Business Analysts are Important for Organisational Growth?

    Keep an eye on your business competitors
    Follow your competition on social media

    Follow your competition on Social Media

    Although this seems like an obvious point, it is one of the easiest yet most efficient ways to keep track of your competition. Follow your competitors on social media, sign up for their newsletters and read their blogs. Companies constantly update these with their latest innovations, tech, and ideas; This can be a great way to learn about what they are doing and position yourself in the market accordingly.

    Also read : Analysing competitor’s strategy

    Find out the keywords that they buy

    The way companies position themselves in the market can largely be figured out by analyzing the keywords they buy. One of the best ways to keep an eye on your competitors is to find out the keywords they use, and figure out what keywords you can buy, which will be cheaper and how you can position yourself in the market effectively. Almost all companies use Google AdWords and it is compelling to find out how the marketing teams of rival companies place their ads.
    SEMrush, the tool for brand monitoring is also one of the most useful tools you can use to keep an eye on your competitor’s AdWords. You can get an overview of the top organic keywords, distribution of how these keywords rank, paid keywords and also backlinks. And the best part is that you can get all this for free. More advanced options are to be paid for.
    However, it is also important to check their SEO, and figure out what keywords bring organic traffic from search engines to the website. Using this information, you can try and optimize your SEO for similar keywords or position yourself differently in the market.

    Also read : successful brand getting competition

    Follow their marketing strategies

    One of the most effective and popular forms of advertising is creating display ads and placing those efficiently to attract users to your website. By keeping track of the ads your business competitors, you can analyze their strategies, find shortcomings and weaknesses and use these to help you create your strategy and figure out where to place your ads and modify your marketing strategy to bring more high-quality traffic. However, it is beneficial to use tools instead of manually figure out how their display ads are placed or what their marketing strategy is.

    keeping check on your business competitors.
    follow Competitors market stratergy

    Most Ad Search is the biggest search engine for finding out digital ads. You can easily find out about the ads your competition has used in the past and the ads that are still active. You can use this to analyze the type of ads that may have worked well for them and create your marketing strategies accordingly.

    These are a few ways you can spy on your competition and remain up to date in the market. But it is important to keep the focus on your own company. Your priority is your own business and although you are trying to stay ahead of your competitors, you should not lose sight of your vision for your startup.