Best Business Level Strategies to Help You Deliver Value to Customers

In any large and important endeavour, you need a plan to ensure your project doesn't get blown to bits by the vicissitudes of time, circumstance, personal whim, or inertia. You need a framework that will keep you looking forward with your eye on the prize. Without one, you will drift.

A business level strategy is vital for you to keep your business on track. A business level strategy refers to the combined set of actions a company takes to deliver more value to their customers, thereby giving them a competitive advantage. A business level strategy will also help a business crystalize its market position in opposition to its competitors. 

Here are some business level strategies that will help you deliver more value to your customers. 

What is a business level strategy?

Business level strategies are most widely used in large organizations that have multiple different departments, arms, or businesses working under one name. They are used in order for these different facets of the company to effectively differentiate themselves on their offers while still serving the larger whole. However, you don’t need six different divisions to have a business level strategy. Small businesses use them all the time, too. 

There are three different types of business level strategy that can be implemented.

Functional

A functional strategy is aimed at improving the effectiveness of a company’s operations within it’s different departments. These can include strategies that are unique to particular departments, like marketing strategies or HR strategies. These strategies tend to be informed by the larger business and corporate strategies set by higher departments. Long-term, macro-level strategies are usually set by corporate, and the functional strategies must adhere to and attempt to achieve these goals. For instance, if a corporate strategy sets a target of trying to appeal to younger customers, the marketing strategy will develop and implement a plan to achieve this.

Business

A business level strategy will address more fundamental questions to the business like how the company competes or differentiates itself from others. Insight into where a company fits into the market can be achieved through exercises like a SWOT analysis [1] and PESTEL analysis [2] to examine internal and external forces shaping the company.

Once a good analysis of the company and its position has been completed, you can start coming up with strategy formulations like Value Formulations [3], Blue Ocean Strategies [4], and Porter’s Generic Strategies [5].

Ultimately, the business level strategy is designed to gain a competitive advantage over other companies to effectively position yourself in the market. 

Corporate

A corporate strategy determines what kind of company they should be. Creating this kind of strategy forces you to ask questions like:

• Who are the customers we’re trying to attract?
• What kind of products do we want to make?
• What brand do we want to have?

These questions are then fed into a strategy that determines business policies like acquisitions, mergers, investments, and divestments. They also focus on how many different aspects of the company interact with each other. Because of this, corporate level strategies are rarely seen in small organizations and tend to be restricted to large, multinational companies. 

Types of business level strategies

There are several different types of business level strategies, each playing on a set of specific themes. Here are a few of them.

Cost leadership

One of the most effective business level strategies is cost leadership. This type of business strategy forces the company to consider cost as the main factor that will set them apart from their competitors by lowering their prices as much as possible. 

In order to achieve this, companies need to examine all the costs involved in the production and delivery of their products and streamline their processes as much as possible in order to offer the consumer the lowest possible price. 

Differentiation

This business level strategy forces the company to consider how their product or service could differ as much as possible from the competition. This differentiation usually takes the form of quality: the company creates a product or service that is measurably better than its competitors.  Or, they might offer some benefit or value that other products don’t.

Focus

A focus strategy will require the company to focus its promotional efforts on a particular segment of the market. This is to ensure their products or services appeal to the right people at the right time. While this may limit the type of customer these companies may have, they will ultimately attract better sales leads that are more likely to convert since their product or service is tailored to a particular kind of customer. 

Focused cost leadership

This business strategy combines the focus and the cost leadership strategies into one. Companies that employ this strategy focus on a particular segment of the market but also make an effort to appeal to that segment with low prices. This strategy works well when a company enters into a market that’s already occupied and is looking for a way to differentiate themselves and choose to offer lower prices than their competitors.

Focused differentiation

This business strategy combines focus and differentiation strategies. Much like the focus cost leadership approach, the focus differentiation strategy forces the company to appeal to a particular segment and differentiate their product and service through higher quality or better value. This might mean offering a higher quality product or service, better customer service, more value and add-ons, or other factors. 

Integrated strategy

The integrated business strategy combines both cost and differentiation strategies into one. This usually results in a product or service that is medium quality but very competitive on price. Companies will often use this strategy to attract customers that are looking for a higher-quality product or service but are willing to settle for a mid-quality model for a lower price. 

Manage your business from your EPOS

In such a crowded marketplace, you need to treat your products like the high-quality commodities that they are. That means being able to effectively keep track of all your inventory and being flexible enough to pivot on your prices when necessary.

When you purchase an Epos Now Retail or Hospitality EPOS system, you can track all aspects of your inventory easily.

• Track single item performance so you can forecast with accuracy
• Receive stock alerts so you never miss a selling opportunity
• Easily add, edit and bundle items to create new revenue opportunities
• Create automatic purchase orders so you never run out of stock
• Full barcode management. Import, update and manage 1,000s of products
• Track inventory real-time, right down to ingredient level​
• Automate purchase orders and stock levels so you never run out of what you need
• Minimise cash-flow tied up in stock​
• Establish drink recipes with exact measurements and ingredients to reduce over-pouring
• Manage stock between multiple locations

Contact Epos Now to learn more about our systems.