Competitive Advantage Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Competitive Advantage - Case Study Example A closer analysis of the case study of Whole Foods shows that it has adopted a differentiation strategy. According to Harasta & Hoffman (2010), differentiation is a business strategy that seeks to build competitive advantage with its product or service by having it different from the other alternative products. This entails that other competitors may find it difficult to offer the market offering. This is the strategy that has been adopted by Whole Foods explained below. The company has differentiated itself from the other competitors by focussing on quality as excellence and innovation that allows them to charge a premium price for premium products. For instance, health conscious people have begun to realise the importance of consuming organic and natural foods and these are mostly found at Whole Foods Market stores. Whole Foods is the world’s leading retailer of natural and organic foods and has 289 stores, 273 stores in 38 states in the US and 6 stores in Canada and 5 stores in UK (Harasta & Hoffman, 2010). All these stores have sustained a competitive advantage by virtue of being unique. Other retail outlets do not specifically focus on strictly organic and natural products like Whole Foods and this is the reason why it has managed to sustain its competitiveness. Essentially, differentiation strategy requires businesses to have sustainable advantages that enable them to provide the customers with something uniquely valuable to them (Harasta & Hoffman, 2010). In case of Whole Foods, this strategy is justifiable because the products it offers are perceived to be of high value by the buyers and this is the reason why they continue to buy them even though they have premium prices. In most cases, buyers purchase products that are believed to be of great value to them. It can also be seen that differentiated products in the market are unique and they can be hardly imitated by other