6.1 Business-Level Strategy: How to Compete for Advantage
Business-level strategydetails the goal-directed actions managers take in their quest for competitive advantage when competing in a single product market.
2It may involve a single
product or a group of similar products that use the same distribution channel. It concerns the broad question, “How should we compete?” To formulate an appropriate business-level strategy, managers must answer the “who-what-why-and-how” questions of competition:
■ Who— which customer segments—will we serve?
■ Whatcustomer needs, wishes, and desires will we satisfy?
■ Whydo we want to satisfy them?
■ Howwill we satisfy our customers’ needs?