COMPETITION

The activities of companies that are trying to be more successful than others are known as competition. Competition describes the activity of trying to sell more goods and services and be more successful. Competition is the economic rivalry that occurs among businesses when producers in a given industry attempt to gain a larger share of the market.

Competitors are organizations selling products or services in the same market. Competitors may also be the products or services themselves. In other words, two or more companies which sell or manufacture the same product are competitors.

Competitors compete with each other or they are in competition. They compete for customers. To be ahead of its rivals the company must be competitive. There are things that give one company or product its competitive advantage or competitive edge over others.

Competitors in a market are sometimes called players, and the most important ones are key players. Key players are the main competitors in a particular industry. Smaller competitors are minor players. Companies without competitors are monopolies.

When competition is strong, you can say that it is intense, stiff, fierce, cut-throat, ferocious or tough. If not, it may be described as low-key.

To be competitive in the marketplace, each firm has to make SWOT analysis. It means the analysis of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.

– In formulating strategy, a company should look at its strengths and weaknesses in relation to its competitors. For example, a good sales team is a strength and poor internal communication is a weakness.

– The company should look at opportunities and threats in its environment: the strength of competitors, government regulation, the way that society is changing, etc. These are external factors. For example, a change in a country’s legislation on broadcasting might present an opportunity for a group that wants to buy a television company there. The change would probably pose a threat to existing broadcasters.

The ways a company organizes and combines its human resources, know-how, equipment and other assets are its core competencies. These are internal factors.

A company’s marketing system is surrounded by a host of competitors. The best way for a company to remain competitive is to take the viewpoint of a buyer. Let us consider the following case. Suppose a person has been working hard and needs a break. The person asks, ‘What do I want to do now?’ Among the possibilities that pop into his mind are socializing, exercising and eating. These are desire competitors. Suppose the person’s most immediate need is to eat something. Then the question becomes, ‘What do I want to eat?’ Different foods come to mind, such as potato chips, candy, soft drinks, and fruit. These can be called generic competitors in that they represent different basic ways to satisfy the same need. At this point the person decides on candy and asks, ‘What type of candy do I want?’ Different candy forms come to mind such as chocolate bars, licorice, and sugar drops. They all represent product form competitors. Finally the consumer decides on a chocolate bar and faces several brands such as Hershey, Nestle and Mars. These are the brand competitors.

Unfortunately company executives tend to focus primarily on the brand competitors and on the task of building brand preference. In fact, companies are myopic if they focus only on their brand competitors. The real challenge is to expand their primary market rather than fight for a larger share in a fixed-size market.

2. Complete the sentence:

Competition takes place when the company …

a)expands its primary market..

b)has many strengths and opportunities according to SWOT analysis.

c)tries to gain a larger share of the market.

d)organizes well its human resources, know-how, equipment and other assets.

3. Answer the question:

What do companies usually focus on?

a)On competitive advantages of their competitors.

b)On external factors in their environment.

c)On the brand competitors.

d)On SWOT analysis of rival firms.

4. Define if the statement is True, False or No information:

a)Competitors do not produce or sell the same goods and services.

b)Different ways to satisfy the same need is called generic competitors.

c)External factors are more important than internal ones.

5. Match the words with their definitions:

1.To try to get business for oneself or one’s company, against rivals in the same industry, or to try to do better than another person or company.

2.Relative position in the marketplace.

3.A plan for achieving a company’s objectives; a particular utilization of resources.

4.Rivalry between businesses in the same market; a contest with prizes used as a sales promotion.

5.A rival organization offering similar goods or services.

6.Able to offer a good price compared with rivals.

7.The value created by a company and passed on to its customers that makes it better than its competitors (e.g. a cheaper or a better product).

8.The situation in which there is only one seller of a product or service.

a) monopoly b) competitive c) competitor

d) compete e) competitive advantage f) competitiveness

g) competitive strategy h) competition

6. Answer the questions:

1.What is a company?

2.Why does a company go out of business?

3.When can a firm expand?

4.What companies are called wholesalers and retailers?

5.What is a suppler?

6.What are intermediaries and what is their role in the market?

7.What is a customer?

8.What is a competitor?

9.What must a company have to be competitive?

10.What kinds of competitors do you know?

7. Translate into Russian:

2.Competition has intensified in recent months.

3.Any business would rather get rid of its competitors.

4.European airlines yesterday warned the European Commission that airline reservation systems would hand a competitive advantage to American airlines.

5.In the words of one exporter, ‘If you want the competitive edge, you’ve got to get over there frequently and let your foreign partners know you care about them.’

6.The company has suffered a setback in its ambitions to become a key player in the pharmaceutical industry.

7.The merger of Nestle and Perrier is a significant obstacle to the effective competition in the French market.

8.Telecom is still widely associated with ‘natural’ monopolies that competitive businessmen have to be kept away from in order to prevent chaos.

9.It’s difficult to compete low-priced imports. Competition from cheaper imports is making life tough for manufacturers.

10.The competition is very strong. They were faced with fierce competition.

11.The main competitor is the most important company in the same market.

12.Product quality falls if there is no competition.

13.This company has an all-or-nothing policy with its smaller suppliers.

14.We can accept your offer, on condition that you can guarantee even-day delivery without fail.

15.This computer firm is strong enough to be in competition on equal terms at home and abroad.

16.Advanced technology and low wage costs are helping the Taiwanese firms to compete internationally.

17.In such a fiercely competitiveenvironment it’s inevitable that some companies will go out of business.

18.There is cut-throat competition between drug companies these days.

19.This information is secret, which could be of great value to your.

20.In a desperate bid to dominate the market, they had put themselves against the giants of the computer industry.

21.The stress of the rat race is a major cause of health problems.

22.Fight for these jobs is very tough – we have 200 applicants for just six posts.

23.With only two candidates left, it will be a straight fight between them for the post.

24.Advertising is a dog-eat-dog business.

25.Companies or products in the same market are competitors or rivals. Competitors compete with each other to sell more, be more successful, etc.

26.Competition refers to all the products, businesses, etc. competing in a particular situation.

27.The most important companies in a particular market are often referred to as key players.

28.The competition for jobs is fiercer than ever before.

29.To retain its competitiveness in the market, product differentiation is required and is one of the strategies to differentiate a product from its competitors.

8. Fill in the gaps in the text using the most suitable words from the box:

improved competitors economy quantities benefits costs costly value marketplace create introduced charge attributes standard to lower competitive shopping variety

Date: 2015-01-12; view: 8020