Best CBSE Schools always want the students to be successful in this Competitive world. It won’t be a misnomer to state that we are perhaps living in the most competitive business environment ever in the history of mankind. There is intense competition prevailing in almost every product segment. You take telecom there is intense competition. You take aviation there is intense competition. You take Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) or Fast Moving Consumer Services (FMCSs), again there is intense competition.
Know Management
With this being the case it is not surprising to note that a lot of management studies these days are centered around on how best to beat the competition. Thus the best CBSE Schools have management studies to train the students about commerce, finance, sales and marketing management to bring out Young Tycoons. Speaking about competition, did you know that there are different types of competition? For example, there are products which have got direct competitors. For example, if you are selling a comic book, there could be a competitor who may be selling another comic book. There is direct competition involved here.
Direct & Indirect Competition
Like wise there are times when there could be indirect competition. For example, if you are having a restaurant that specializes in doughnuts, there could be another competitor who may be selling pizzas. Nevertheless it is competition as both of you are vying for the attention of a similar category of customers. A lot of times businesses tend to focus on the direct competition rather than on the indirect variety, sometimes at their own peril.
Go Digital
After the Covid-19 pandemic a lot of focus, there is a lot of emphasis on going digital. Best CBSE Schools are conducting online classes to their students in a regular basis, making the classroom digital. For example, a business executive today can log onto the internet and can comfortably clinch a lucrative business deal, sitting right in the comforts of his/her home, with another person, who may be sitting in some other corner of the world. Now, if you look at this business transaction closely, then you may see that it has come as a competition to the airlines companies, because there was a chance that the same transaction could have happened with the business executive flying to the place of the other person. Instead, now there is technology available that has enabled the same meeting to take place, minus the travel.
Replacement Competition – A Business view
Then there is what is known as the ‘replacement competition.’ This is something that cannot be taken lightly in today’s business context. A replacement competitor may be selling a totally different product that yours but could be weaning away your customer. Take for example the kind of competition that is prevailing in the civil aviation sector. Now, earlier they had to take care of the direct competition in the form of other airline companies.
Then there was a revolution in the form of airlines offering ‘flexi’ fare, i.e., fares that kept changing. Suddenly, there were airline companies that were coming out with no frill services, whose fares were also competitive. The competitors for these airlines were now not the other airlines, but guess? the railways ! Yes, you are right. For the railways, they would not have imagined that one day they would have airlines competing with them for a pie of the travel business. This is just an example of how suddenly situations can change and replacement competition can emerge out of nowhere.
Travel in a public transport
Speaking about traveling, there is another example for replacement competition that comes to mind. Did you ever imagine that even public transport can have competition? But it is something that has happened in recent times with the advent of cab aggregators. You can now find a cab offering flexi fares using your mobile phones, which can pick you up from any point in a city. With the convenience and flexi fare options that they offer, they have emerged as a replacement competitor to the public transport systems globally.
‘Convergence’ Technology
Similarly, who would have imagined a few years ago that cameras could be facing a competition from another replacement competitor – yes, we are talking about the mobile phone. In fact, the mobile is the best example of a ‘convergence’ technology. Off course mobile technology plays a vital role in digital classrooms since the best CBSE Schools are conducting online classes in this pandemic. Everything, from your TV to your camera to your phone is now on your mobile device. It has therefore emerged as an indirect competitor to the TVs, the cameras, land line phones, etc.
Entertainment Industry
The entertainment industry also has got examples of replacement competition. Take for example, the case of traditional cinema theaters. As it is they are facing intense competition from the arrival of the electronic media. People can now get access to the latest movies without leaving the comforts of their home. Added to that has been the pressure created by the arrival of OTT platforms. While these are direct and indirect competitors, their replacement competitors are also many. Take a T20 cricket match that ends in about 3-4 hours time. These matches have emerged as replacement competition. Similarly, a theme park could also be termed as a replacement competition to a movie theater, because its customers can now walk into them for a different form of entertainment.
Given these circumstances, any marketer will need to study the various pain points of the customers carefully. Plus, apart from studying the direct and indirect competition involved, they will also need to take into consideration the replacement competition. This becomes crucial for having the necessary competitive edge in today’s market.