To succeed with a low-cost provider strategy, company managers have

Question: Which of the following is not an action that a company can take to do a better job than rivals of performing value chain activities more cost effectively?
 
A Striving to capture all available economies of scale and learning/experience curve effects
 
B Trying to operate facilities at full capacity
 
C Adopting labor-saving operating methods
 
D Improving supply chain efficiency
 
E Redesigning products to eliminate features that might have market appeal but excessively increase production costs

Question: To succeed with a low-cost provider strategy, company managers have to
 
A Pursue backward or forward integration to detour suppliers or buyers with considerable bargaining power and leverage
 
B Move the performance of most all value chain activities to low-wage countries
 
C Sell direct to users of their product or service and eliminate use of wholesale and retail intermediaries
 
D Do two things: (1) perform value chain activities more cost-effectively than rivals and (2) be proactive in revamping the firm’s overall value chain to eliminate or bypass nonessential cost-producing activities
 
E Outsource the biggest majority of value chain activities

Question: Which of the following is not one of the ways that a company can achieve a cost advantage by revamping its value chain?
 
A Cutting out distributors and dealers by selling direct to customers
 
B Replacing certain value chain activities with faster and cheaper online technology
 
C Increasing production capacity and then striving hard to operate at full capacity
 
D Relocating facilities so as to curb the need for shipping and handling activities
 
E Streamlining operations by eliminating low value-added or unnecessary work steps and activities

Question: Being the overall low-cost provider in an industry has the attractive advantage of
 
A Building strong customer loyalty and locking customers into its product (because customers have such high switching costs
 
B Giving the firm a very appealing brand image
 
C Putting a firm in a position to win the business of price-sensitive customers, set the floor on market price, and still earn a profit
 
D Putting the company in a strong position to be more profitable than companies pursuing a differentiation strategy
 
E Greatly reducing the strong bargaining power of key suppliers

Question: The production emphasis of a company pursuing a broad differentiation strategy usually involves
 
A Eliminating cost reduction and decreasing quality and essential features to boost profitability
 
B Strong efforts to be a leader in manufacturing process innovation
 
C Efforts to build in whatever differentiating features that buyers are willing to pay for and striving for product superiority
 
D Aggressive pursuit of economies of scale and experience curve effects
 
E Developing a distinctive competence in zero-defect manufacturing techniques

Question: A focused differentiation strategy aims at securing competitive advantage
 
A By providing niche members with a top-of-the-line product at a premium price
 
B By catering to buyers looking for an upscale product at an attractively low price
 
C With a product offering carefully designed to appeal to the unique preferences and needs of a narrow, well-defined group of buyers
 
D By developing product attributes that no other company in the industry has
 
E By convincing a narrow, well-defined group of buyers that the company has a true world class product

Question: Broad differentiation strategies generally work best in market circumstances where
 
A Buyer needs and preferences are too diverse to be fully satisfied by a standardized product
 
B Most buyers have similar needs and use the product in the same ways
 
C The products of rivals are weakly differentiated and most competitors are resorting to clever advertising to try to set their product offerings apart
 
D Buyers are price sensitive and buying switching costs are quite low
 
E The five competitive forces are strong

Question: Which of the following is not one of the pitfalls of pursuing a differentiation strategy?
 
A Trying to strongly differentiate the company’s product from those of rivals rather than be content with weak product differentiation
 
B Overdifferentiating so that the features and attributes incorporated exceed buyer needs and requirements
 
C Trying to charge too high a price premium for the differentiating features
 
D Differentiating on features or attributes that rivals can easily copy
 
E Overspending on efforts to differentiate the company’s product offering

Question: A company achieves best-cost provider status by
 
A Selling a product with the best cost at the best price
 
B Having the best cost (as compared to rivals) for each activity in the industry’s value chain
 
C Providing buyers with the best attributes at the best cost
 
D Incorporating attractive or upscale attributes into its product offering at a lower cost than rivals
 
E Doing a better job than rivals of adopting the best operating practices

Question: A company’s competitive strategy deals with
 
A Management’s game plan for competing successfully – the specific efforts to please customers, offensive and defensive moves to counter the maneuvers of rivals, the responses to current market conditions, and the initiatives undertaken to improve the company’s market position
 
B What its strategy will be in such functional areas as R&D, production, sales and marketing, distribution, finance and accounting, and so on
 
C Its efforts to change its position on the industry’s strategic group map
 
D Its plans for entering into strategic alliances, utilizing mergers or acquisitions to strengthen its market position, outsourcing some in-house activities to outside specialists, and integrating forward or backward
 
E Its plans for overcoming the five competitive forces