Events Management - Which Strategy to Adopt When You Can’t Be the Cheapest and the Best?

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Which strategy to adopt when you can’t be the cheapest and the best?

As Events Management has grown into a fiercely competitive and complex industry, building competitive advantage and differentiate from other market players is crucial for business survival, development and growth. In such a context the following question arises naturally: which are the strategies that event managers can implement to create competitive advantage?

More than three decades have passed since a young associate professor of Economics at the Harvard Business School published the book that inspired several researchers in the field of strategic management: “Competitive Advantage: Creating and Sustaining Superior Performance”. Trough his work Michael Porter, the internationally acclaimed management guru, created “Porter’s Generic Strategies” a four-dimensions framework illustrating the ways businesses can develop long-term advantages to outmanoeuvre their competition.

Over the years, regardless its limitations, several events businesses have adopted Porter’s model as a bench mark from which to develop a strong competitive strategy while assessing its effectiveness, drawbacks, risk and limitations. However, if you are an event manager looking for the most appropriate strategy, you must keep in mind that it can only lead to competitive advantage if it fits your firm’s competitive environment and is supported by value adding activities. Having said so, there are three major alternatives:

• [pic 2]Cost Leadership Strategy

As suggested by its name, businesses adopting this strategy build competitive advantage by becoming the lowest-cost manufacturers of a certain service/product within an industry.  Event businesses can achieve cost leadership by reducing the costs of inputs, gaining economies of scales or increasing the effectiveness of their distribution system. For instance, many events firms try to reduce their costs by distributing and selling tickets online thus avoiding ticketing agents’ commission rates. Although many event managers attempt to gain competitive advantage through cost leadership it is necessary to keep in mind that every industry can have one and only one true cost-leader.

• Differentiation Strategy

When adopting a differentiation strategy businesses focus on managing their value chain activities in a way that adds unique and superior attributes to a firm’s products and service, thus persuading consumers that such features justify a premium price. In order to implement a Differentiation strategy, businesses must have a clear competitive advantage, deliver premium-quality services and pursue ongoing research and innovation.

• Focus Strategies

Focus strategies are aimed at a particular segment or niche sector of the market instead of the whole market. When adopting focus strategies, particular target segments are identified according to distinguishing demographic characteristics such as as income, lifestyle, age and geography.  As many event companies are classified as SMEs, they often adopt a focus competitive strategy in order to compete with market leaders.