Business Strategy, Marketing Capabilities

Abstract

Creating a sustainable competitive advantage (SCA) is a major goal for most firms (Day 1994 Narver and Slater 1990). To do this, firms need to create value for their customers by determining customer needs, developing products (goods and services) designed to meet those needs, and communicating with customers about the need satisfying benefits of the product, pricing, quality, and availability (Day and Wensley 1988). This process seems relatively straightforward, yet the business press frequently documents companies that fail to develop these capabilities.