In a high competitive world market and with the increasing rational buyers a company can only win by creating and delivering the best customer value than the others competitors do. To succeed, a company needs to use the concepts of value chain. 1985, Michael Porter indentified that – a value chain is a chain of value-creating activities in order to offer the customer the level of value that exceeds the cost of the activities, than competition, thereby resulting in a profit margin. Competitive advantage comes from carrying out these activities in a more cost-effective way than competitors. The concepts and benefits of Value Chain Analysis The value chain analysis can be examined as to whether they provide opportunities for differentiation or cost reduction. According to Porter, the value chain model is a useful analysis tool for defining a firm's core competencies and the activities in which it can pursue a competitive advantage by following one of the two strategies: • Cost advantage: by better understanding costs and constricting them out of the value-creating activities. Main focus of this strategy also known as cost leadership is to offer goods and services at lower cost than the competitors. To follow this strategy a company also consider these approaches- tight cost control, economics of scale in production and also cost minimisation. • Differentiation: by focusing on those activities associated with core competencies and capabilities in order to perform them better than do competitors. The key point of this strategy is to create something that customers feel as being unique. It depends on the company, which strategy they would fellow- comparing their competitors’ strategy. It does not matter whether the follow cost leadership or differentiation strategy, they must manage their own value chain.
The series of activities that are enacted by a firm that add value to a product beyond the cost of the production are referred to as the value chain. Harley Davidson offers a combination of superior performance and unique attributes within its value chain that promotes their core competencies and provides them with a competitive advantage.
Narrow focus on limited value chain activities, competitor’s pricing war and lack of differentiation parity can erode the competitive advantage associated with cost leadership strategy. Similarly, imitation of differentiating features by competition and lack of perceived value of the differentiating features can erode the competitive advantage associated with differentiation strategy.
Customer value is defined as "the perceived benefit of a product, used by customers to determine whether or not to buy the product" (Lussier, 2006). I do believe that most customer's focus on creating customer value. It is an aspect needed in order to sell anything. A customer would not buy something if she or he did not see the benefit in buying it, therefore, organizations strive to create customer value because they need the customer to see a benefit and to buy the product.
The aim of the value chain structure is to maximize the value creation while minimizing costs. Value Chain Analysis is a useful tool for working out how you can create the greatest possible value for your customers. Value chain analysis relies on the rudimentary economic principle of competitive advantage -companies are best served by operating in divisions where they have a relative prolific benefit compared to their competitors. Concomitantly, companies should ask themselves where they can deliver the paramount value to their customer. To conduct a value chain analysis, the company begins by identifying each part of its production process and recognizing where steps can be purged or enhancements can be made. These improvements can result
means by which the marketing value chain operates, we first need to orient ourselves to its
Value Chain Analysis is used to describe the activities that take place within the organization and relates them to an analysis of the competitive strength of the organization. Michael E. Porter (1991) stated that the activities of an organization could be divided into two groups: Primary Activities- Those that are directly concerned with creating and delivering a product and Support Activities- this group consist of those not directly involved in production, this group also add values to the organization because they help to increase effectiveness or efficiency (e.g. human resource management). Porter also stated that is not common for an organization to undertake all primary and support activities (Porter, 1991).
Value chains are essential elements of successful businesses, and how to gain a competitive advantage by analyzing them is the most important aspect. In Porter’s value-chain model, he points out that there are two types of business activities: primary activities, which include inbound logistics, operations, outbound logistics, marketing, sales and service; and support activities, which include procurement, technology development, human resources management, and firm infrastructure. In order to gain an edge, companies should focus on these activities to improve or create products that will satisfy their customers.
Competitive strategy is the approach that an organisation takes in order to gain advantage over its competitors. According to Porter, there are two major sources of competitive advantages: costs and differentiation. Cost-based competitive advantage involves reducing production costs so that an organisation can earn higher profit margin or offer products at lower price compared to competitors. Differentiation-based competitive advantage involves offering unique properties that are not offered by competitors’ products. Differentiation allows an organisation to charge a premium for their products because they offer additional benefits to buyers.
Value chain analyses a firm 's internal activities such as planning, production, and development, packaging and distribution so as to create value for clients. The function of the value chain is to identify the sources for cost reduction along with quality improvement. It means value chain is used to identify the strong and weak points, positive and negative points, the scope of improvement; in a nutshell, the advantages and disadvantages of the activities taking place in the system. The value chain is also called as a strategic analysis tool and it is a well-known concept in business management industry.
Value-based marketing requires organizations to provide greater value to consumers than competitors, achieved through assessing all business processes from a consumers’ viewpoint. This requires attentiveness and continuous monitoring as consumers’ needs and wants are affected by numerous dynamic factors.
The value chain analysis allows the firm to understand the parts of its operation that create value and those that do not. This is important for firms to understand because the firm earns above-average returns only when the value it creates is greater than the costs incurred to create that value. The value chain analysis has two parts which include the value chain activities and support functions. The value chain activities are “activities or tasks the firm completes in order to produce products and then sell, distribute, and service those products in ways that create value for customers” (Hitt, Ireland, & Hoskisson). The support functions are the “activities or tasks the firm completes in order to support the work being done to produce, sell, distribute, and service the products the firm is producing” (Hitt, Ireland, & Hoskisson)
Olav Jull Sorensen (2009): “Formation, Organisation and Management of the (Global) Value Chain I a Theoretical Perspective”
When a business thrives in gaining competitive advantage, it often sets eyes on a manifold of strategies that aim to em-better its image and its competitive positioning. It focuses on strategies that may help increase its rate of consumers acquisition, retention and satisfaction; strategies of industry and competitors analysis. Moreover, it sets eyes on those strategic process to build strong investments portfolios ( Liquidity) that can help establish longevity and leadership in the market. Competitive advantage inevitably leads to faster, continual exponential growth, increased sales, market share gains and overall business profitability.
By adopting the value chain into a manufacturing company, it will gain efficiency, effectiveness, reduce the product cost and improve continuously. For example, Toyota has implemented Toyota Product System (TPS) integrated information system with the business process which allowed the company to be more efficiency, effectiveness and reduce inventory cost. (Toyota
Value is used in a central thought in economic theory (Haksever et al., 2004). The key for the value is an ‘exchange’ between two units such as “benefits and sacrifices” (Möller, 2006), “consumer surplus," value for money or optimize used value, but minimize exchange value (sacrifices in terms of price) (Bowman & Ambrosini, 2010). Normann & Ramirez (1993) use the terms co-produce to define the participation of customers in value co-creation that realized value is not created at supplier level, but between customer interactions. Several authors describe value in terms monetary business value whereas others include non-monetary benefits such as market competitiveness, competencies, and social rewards (Walter, Ritter, & Gemünden, 2001) or could be the combination of both business value. Haksever et al. (2004) describe tangible or intangible value may derive from business activities, policies, and regular action of the firm as the power of the product, service, or activity to fulfill a requirement or deliver a profit to a person or legal entity. Those values may positively influence the “quality of life, knowledge, prestige, safety, physical and financial security, as well as providing nutrition, shelter, transportation, income, etc.” (Haksever et al., 2004, pg. 292). These values are meant for stakeholders of the firms such as its customers, suppliers, owners and other firm’s alliances (Bowman & Ambrosini, 2010). Therefore, the role of firm and customers are different, it is a sequence of activities performed by the firm (Vargo et al., 2008).