Sodastream’s Differentiation and Cost Leadership Strategy

1. In order to stay fresh in the market, it is important for Louis Vuitton to operate always in the niche and premium target segments. The more will be the upper level of pyramid as their target customers, the more will be the exclusivity of the brand in the market. It is also recommended that Louis Vuitton can target the entire range of luxury products ranging from fashion line to lifestyle products (Ghosh and Varshney 2013). This will help them to expand their product portfolio and can cater to larger customer segments. On the other hand, in order to stay fresh in the market, they should have the mechanism of periodical up gradation of their existing products by introducing facelifts after every time period.
2. Counterfeiting is majorly having negative impacts on the original brands due to the reason that it dilutes the brand value enjoyed by the original products. However, on the other hand, counterfeiting can also have a few advantages for the original products such as Louis Vuitton. This is due to the reason that counterfeiting is helping them to penetrate in the market and extend their brand identity and recall in the market where they cannot be able to enter by own (Bian, Haque and Smith 2015). With the help of the counterfeited products, the brand of Louis Vuitton can be accessed by larger customers segments and thus the brand awareness for them will be more in the market. In the long term, this will help Louis Vuitton to enter in a new market where they have already having favorable brand awareness due to the counterfeited products.

Sodastream is a new brand in the market offering carbonated water in different flavors but with having differences with other soft drink manufacturers. From the information available in the official website of Sodastream, it is identified that they are using differentiation strategy and cost leadership as their competitive strategy (Ray Gehani 2013). Their core product offering is portable machinery for sparkling water for domestic use. This product can be termed as disruptive innovation and one of the kinds in the market due to the fact that there are no close competitors in the market for Sodastream.

It is reported that Sodastream is using product differentiation strategy due to the reason that their products are different from that of their competitors. Majority of the competitors for Sodastream are the soft drink manufacturers, which sells packaged carbonated water. However, on the other hand, Sodastream is offering the machinery for the household usage of sparkling water that can be made by the individuals. In their official website, it is stated that there are different packs available to the customers from whom the customers can choose from. Different flavors are also available to the customers to choose from. This is the prime example of product differentiation due to the reason that same carbonated drinks are being offered by Sodastream in different approach (Teeratansirikool et al. 2013). In terms of the close competition also, they are initiating differentiated approach such as more number of flavors and variants for different set of customers.

It is also identified that Sodastream is also leveraging on their sustainability aspects in positioning their products. This is due to the reason that it is stated in the official website of them that one bottle of Sodastream can help in reducing more than 3700 bottles and plastic cans. This is also helping them in creating an ethical image among the target customers. It is also identified that Sodastream is also using cost leadership strategy in attracting customers as products of them are being offered in competitive prices (Banker, Mashruwala and Tripathy 2014). In their official website the price of the products is listed along with offers and discounts, which is making the price of the products more competitive.

Thus it can be concluded that Sodastream is initiating mainly cost leadership and product differentiation strategy in positioning their products in the market. Initiation of both the competitive strategies is helping them in targeting the customers in different ways. In addition, initiation of different sets of competitive strategies is also helping them to create larger brand recall and awareness in the market that cannot get matched by their competitors.

Positioning Through Sustainability

The objective of marketing is wide and vast due to the reason that in the current business scenario, marketing is being considered as a myriad of different activities ranging from maintaining the effective relationship with the existing customers to garnering newer opportunities from the market (Weinstein and Pohlman 2015). Maintenance of relationship with the existing customers is considered as a prime objective of marketing due to the reason that marketing helps in continuous determination of the requirement of the existing customers in order to determine the change in the market trend and preference pattern. Hence, if the change in the requirement and expectation pattern of the existing customers can be effectively determined, then their criteria can also be properly met in the long term (Coombes and Nicholson 2013). This will ensure the higher level of satisfaction among the customers and effective relationship with them.

However, this is not only the objective of marketing but also to search for new potentiality and opportunities in the market and from the new customers. As discussed in the above section, marketing helps in determining the changes in the market trend and requirements. This will help in identifying the requirements from the new customers and products and services can be offered accordingly. This should also be noted that marketing also covers the promotional activities of the products (Aghazadeh 2015). These promotional activities are being done for attracting new customers and seeking new opportunities. Thus, it can be concluded that the value of marketing is in both maintaining the relationship with the existing customers as well as seeking for new business opportunities from new customers.

In the recent time, private label brands are gaining huge popularity in the consumer goods market mainly due to the reason of higher market penetration of the departmental stores and lower price points. Majority of the private level brands are being introduced by the departmental stores and they push own brands over other manufacturer’s (Cuneo et al. 2015). However, even though the market share for private label brands is growing, still the importance of brand is no less. This is due to the reason that private label products are gaining customers only due to the lower price points but they are also having a few limitations. One of the major importances for brand is the advantage of getting marketed and promoted in larger customer segments (Baumeister, Scherer and Wangenheim 2015). Private label products are being sold as generic products and thus they are not known to the customers beyond the range of the particular store. While on the other hand, branding is helping the consumer goods manufacturers in having larger customer recall and awareness. Hence, in order to attract customers, branding is the only way to further penetrate in the market.

Marketing Objectives: Relationship Management and Opportunity Seeking

In the consumer goods market, trust is an important factor as it determines the loyalty level of the customers. In this case also, brand plays an important role due to the reason that it serve as the trust seal of quality for the consumers. Private label brands are not having this advantage and customers will not have this seal of trust with them (John and Park 2016). Therefore, in the consumer goods market, branding is important to attain the trust of the customers and enhance the loyalty level of the customers. Brands also hold accountable and responsible for the manufacturers towards their customers. This is due to the reason that brand represents the name and goodwill of the manufactures and thus they are responsible to provide the quality products to the customers (Vidic and Vadnjal 2013). However, on the other hand, private label brands are not having any accountability to the customers. Therefore, it can be concluded that even though the popularity of the private label brands is growing, importance of brands is inevitable for both the customers and the marketers.

It is recommended that the company should initiate the first mover strategy in entering in the market. This is due to the reason that super-flat smart speaker is an innovative product that should be pushed in the market to avail the first mover advantages. This strategy will help the company in having the option of entirely untapped market. Thus, the market potentiality for the product will be more (Markides and Sosa 2013). In addition, initiation of the first mover strategy will also help in attaining the favorable brand value before other competitors enter in the market. Due to being the first mover, this company will be considered as benchmark and will carry added advantages over their competitors as customers will better recall the generic product with that of the brand name. On the other hand, if the competitors are given the chance of entering in the market in first move, then the market potentiality for this company will get reduced (Vecchiato 2015). However, it is also recommended that the product should be commercialized in phased manner in order to gain the customer feedback before entering in full pledged operations.

References

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Bian, X., Haque, S. and Smith, A., 2015. Social power, product conspicuousness, and the demand for luxury brand counterfeit products. British Journal of Social Psychology, 54(1), pp.37-54.

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Cuneo, A., Milberg, S.J., Benavente, J.M. and Palacios-Fenech, J., 2015. The growth of private label brands: a worldwide phenomenon?. Journal of International Marketing, 23(1), pp.72-90.

Banker, R., Mashruwala, R. and Tripathy, A., 2014. Does a differentiation strategy lead to more sustainable financial performance than a cost leadership strategy?. Management Decision, 52(5), pp.872-896.

Ghosh, A. and Varshney, S., 2013. Luxury goods consumption: A conceptual framework based on literature review. South Asian Journal of Management, 20(2), p.146.

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Vecchiato, R., 2015. Creating value through foresight: First mover advantages and strategic agility. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 101, pp.25-36.

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Weinstein, A. and Pohlman, R.A., 2015. Customer value: a new paradigm for marketing management. In Proceedings of the 1997 Academy of Marketing Science (AMS) Annual Conference (pp. 132-133). Springer, Cham.