Sainsbury's CEO: Every price can be matched in half a day, every nice new product copied within a quarter. So how can marketers compete?

Justin King, the head of Sainsbury's (the large UK supermarket chain) was interviewed in The Times this week, and I found many of his thoughts and comments of great interest for marketers and brand builders - as they reinforced some of the recent postings and on-going messages in this blog.


He stressed that everyone needs to really focus on having a "real competitive point of difference". And that you need to "move to things that differentiate your product beyond price".


He points out: "Every price can be matched in half a day, every nice new products can be copied within a quarter". I think his point is that every marketer, retailer and brand owner needs to be very focused on what their real competitive point of difference will be. This is key as items like price, and even most innovations, can be replicated and negated very fast by the competition.


For those familiar with my thinking, this really resonates with my on-going message around thinking what is for your brand and business:

1. What are your order loser - or losers? The thing or things that if you get wrong will mean consumer will not try you - or not buy you again. This could be things like quality, performance, safety, or not delivering as well as your competition. It can also be things like not being in-stock or unreliable back-up service.
2. What are your order qualifiers? These are the things you need to deliver and have to have to compete, and be put on the consumer's consideration list. In the case of supermarkets, Justin King argues in his interview that this means offering comparable prices to the other supermarkets - especially on brands. Many retailers and brand owners focus on these areas and think they are the basis of competition, but they are not. They just get you on the consideration list. They will not mean you win.
3. What are your order winners? This is your true competitive advantage. It is the thing you must get right. It is the thing (or things) that you do better and more distinctly than your competition. It may not be actual benefits and features of your product. It could be how you do things, your social responsibility programs - and (in the case of brands) it could also be the aspiration and desire of the brand itself. We know in the UK that the largest supermarket (Tesco) has been losing share recently despite very aggressive price activity - but this was matched by the others - and they lost share and traffic due to poor store experience and service versus others. So sometimes, your order winner and competitive advantage may be different to what your product delivers to the consumer in rational "benefits and features" required in the category.

It is very easy to get caught up into the battle to compete against your competition by focusing on matching their prices, copying or emulating their new products as quick as you can - or by trying to get that slightly better claim or result (like we keep seeing anti-age creams addressing the 5 then the 7 and then the 10 signs of ageing) - but one needs to think if the performance aspects of your product are possibly more in the "order qualifiers" territory - and that your competitive advantage may be something more surprising and differentiated. Like say an incredible aesthetic experience, back-up service or advice, ethical and social responsibility and so on.

Do you know what the real "order winners" for your product and the category you operate in are?

You can read more on Order Losers, Qualifiers and Winners by clicking here

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