My aim from this project is that I will be able to understand a few more things about business and entering the market. Competitive advantage should become much clearer to me and a few questions that I have about why companies enter the market will, hopefully, also be answered.
Company One:
Bewley English Oak and Co.
My father, Colin Whitehead, runs this company, the first that I have investigated. He started the business in 1996 from scratch and now employs eight people and has his own office. The company advises people on their financial situation and mainly focuses on insurance and loans. The main clients are teachers as the company targets school’s and arranges appointments with them, this means that at one meeting, many clients can be created. The office is at the Chester Enterprise Centre in Hoole, but any school in the Northwest is a target.
As my interviewee is my father, arranging an interview was quite easy. My dad was very willing to co-operate with my investigation and was also very honest when it came to answering the questions. My first question was what do you see as your competitive advantage? At first my dad had no idea of what I was going on about. I had to explain to him what a competitive advantage was, and then he knew what I meant. He knew all about niches in the market, but said, “I didn’t really know if there was room for me in this type of market. But I just took a chance and it has paid off. Now I know that there are other financial advisors in the region, but there were many more around six years ago than are here now. So I think that I was quite lucky on that front, but if the other companies were here then I still would have tried to crack the market.” After telling me this he started to talk about what makes Bewley better than the rest. “ We don’t use any form of advertisement. I find that it would not work, a lot of money could be spent on the advertising and nothing could come back.” So I asked how do you attract customers then? “We don’t. The basic process of making a sale starts when myself or one of the others organises a seminar at a school. This is when we go to a school, primary or secondary, and basically tell them all that they could be saving/earning more money. Naturally this grabs their attention and many of them will arrange an appointment for the future. When this appointment happens, usually at the clients house, we will tell them what to do with their own money; where to put it; what to do with it etc… If all goes well then the client will make a saving. As well as this, the client will refer us to their own friends and family. This is our form of advertising. We get far more custom from people that have had us referred to them than people we meet at schools.”
“This is probably our single biggest advantage over the rest of the financial advisors.”
This was all that I needed for the investigation and from my father.
Company Two:
Singapore Sam’s.
The second company that I have interviewed is a fast food franchise in the food court of Cheshire Oaks. Mainly a small family, of whom the manager, Andrea Banks, is the mother and wife, runs it. As well as the three members of the family, ten other people are employed here. It has been open since 1998. I had to arrange a proper interview with Andrea but she seemed willing to co-operate with my investigation.
Question one was again, what do you see as your competitive advantage? Andrea knew what I was going on about straight away. “Good friendly service. Commitment to cleanliness, desire to improve. The food is different from the norm and so brings in customers who want to try something new. Prices are really good for the food portion also. The location of our store is fantastic. Good seating facilities. And because we share the food court with McDonald’s, Villa Pizza, Spudulike and Harry Ramsdens, we can feed off their customers.”
When asked what made you join the market? Andrea also knew the answer to this question immediately. “There was a niche in the market as there are no Chinese restaurants anywhere nearby so we have 100% of the market for it.”
This was the end of my questions but Andrea wanted to expand on what she had already stated. “In the four years of us being open, business has gradually increased, not just here at Singapore Sam’s but also in Cheshire Oaks on the whole. I feel that my business has also got better since opening. This is probably due to the dedicated workforce that I have. All of my employees give 110% all the time, this is also good for our reputation and is another competitive advantage.”
That was the end of the interview and, although it was over quickly, I still gained all the information that I needed.
Analysis:
After interviewing the two companies, I feel as though I now know a little bit more about what drives people to succeed. It is basically all about money. But to get this money, there is a lot of time, effort and money involved. Both of the companies I interviewed had been lucky in the fact that they have had no problems trying to survive. With Bewley English Oak and Co having superb knowledge and Singapore Sam’s being the only Chinese restaurant for miles and being able to feed off the millions of visitors Cheshire Oaks has each year, there have been no hic-ups for either company. Because the manager of Singapore Sam’s was able to see a niche in the market, they have gained a massive amount of the market and will have many loyal customers who, if competition was to have been opened, would probably stick with them. My father has got a really good company in a very good area with a nice size catchment area. Singapore Sam’s is in possibly the best position it could ask for. Cheshire Oaks brings in massive amounts of customers every day, and the food court is where these people eat.
I predicted that advertising would play a major part in making a competitive edge, but Singapore Sam’s didn’t seem to have any and they certainly didn’t mention it to me. And my father admitted having never advertised, so my prediction was ver wrong for these two companies, but will probably ring true for others.
As I also predicted each company only came into the market because they saw a niche in the market, and they are only staying there because they have taken complete advantage of this niche. The fact that Singapore Sam’s has no direct competition nearby means that they can only get stronger as well. Until competition is put in the nearby area, I expect this company to prosper and carry on providing the quality service that it provides. As for Bewley English Oak and Co, the dominance that it has in the market is very high. As more and more companies drop out, a larger proportion is given to them as well, meaning a bright future for the company.
