Competitiveness

In a narrow sense, competitiveness means that we can offer a better price or better quality product than our competitors, so that it is worth it to us. However, in a broader sense, it is much more than that.

In the ordinary sense, we mean by competitiveness that a company can offer its consumers better quality at a better price than its competitors. The fulfillment of one of the two conditions is sufficient, of course, only if it becomes apparent to the consumers that either the price or the quality is really better than that of the competitors. Of course, the consumer's perception of this is partly the result of corporate marketing and communication.

Even if two hamburger vendors sell the same high-quality hamburger for the same price, if one is in a nice panoramic location, consumers will value it more than the other. Gastrobloggers take selfies with hamburgers disappearing into the landscape, and the competition is already decided. Unless it is the case that you have to drive for kilometers to get to this place, while the other place without a panorama is in the city center. Then the opposite can easily happen. In other words, competitiveness is a function of many factors, among which can be classified consumer needs, as well as models that try to map it into corporate marketing (such as 4C or 4P). 

And that's not all. The competitive advantage becomes a real advantage only if the product is produced and offered at a price that brings the appropriate profit. If I sell my hamburger so cheaply that it's not even worth it for me, or if I get the raw material from such an expensive source that the product cannot be sold profitably, then I'm not actually more competitive than my competitors who make a decent profit with their burgers. 

In addition, competitiveness is not a snapshot, it also has future extensions. Those who are more competitive than their competitors today may only realize higher profits in the future. It may happen, for example, that the company under investigation now achieves a lower profit than its competitor because it is making investments in order to reduce its future operating costs. It is clear that if, as a result of the investment, in the future the company will be able to provide the same service to its customers with 2 employees instead of 3, as it does now, then it will be the most competitive company on the market.