Essay Example on Fitbit's Generic Competitive Strategies: Securing a Leading Position

Introduction

Competitive strategy can be defined as a framework used by organizations to make decisions on how the firm will perform in a competitive market space after analyzing their potential strength and weaknesses, and opportunities and threats the company is exposed to within the entire industry as a result of competition (Jukic, 2019). Fitbit Company utilizes the following generic competitive strategies to ensure that it remains one of the leading companies in the wearable fitness tracker manufacture among other established brands such as Apples, Garmin, Jawbone, and Xiaomi.

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Firstly, the company practices the best cost strategy to ensure an increase in income. Since the global industry of fitness tracker is full of new entrants, the purchasing power of consumers has increased extensively due to the presence of expansive choices of devices with diverse features and price points. Therefore, the best cost strategy enables the Fitbit to provide a wide variety of quality products of desired features at a price point that is affordable to many customers and grow its customer base at the same time, thus beating its rivals.

Secondly, Fitbit makes use of both broad and focused differentiation competitive strategies to compete with other companies like Apples and Samsung among other brands. Fitbit products are widely distributed and offer a wide range of products not only in fitness stores and sport wears but they are also available in retail stores and e-commerce platforms (Johnsen, 2015). Through differentiating positing in countries such as the United States increases its sales as they offer quality products to their customers. Furthermore, the manufacturing of smartwatches and other multipurpose devices with fitness tracking features and other expansive capabilities will make the company have a competitive edge over other companies that produce fitness-specific devices. Thirdly, Fitbit also employs a low-cost provider competitive strategy to outdo its competitors. Fitbit trackers cost way much cheaper costing $ 129 than Apples's trackers which costs $349 (Gamble et al., 2019). The strategy places Fitbit in a good position of having a wide market share translating to greater total net profit as they provide quality products at affordable prices.

Fitbit’s Competitive Position

Fitbit employs cost leadership as one of the offensive strategies to increase its competitive position. Through this strategy, Fitbit offers the same quality of smartwatches and trackers to its customers at a lower price compared to its competitors like Apples. For instance, Fitbit trackers cost $ 129 while Apples trackers cost $349. Therefore, since product qualities are the same, customers will certainly prefer affordable devices offered by Fitbit, thus increasing its sales growth over time. Additionally, Fitbit outsources its software developers and other workforce from Asia making overall production cost low, thus enabling it to utilize available resources in a more effective way than competitors.

The company also achieves its higher competitive position and competitive advantage than its competitors through its strategic alliances with other firms such as insurance companies, healthcare partners such as Medtronic, employers, and other health systems (Gamble et al., 2019). These partners develop programs that encourage their employees to stay active and make healthy life choices. Through this strategy, Fitbit will, in turn, make more sales of their devices as more people will begin looking for the best multipurpose devices with fitness and health tracking features.

Finally, by identifying blue ocean opportunities, the company is likely to have robust future growth compared to its competitors. Fitbit has realized the opportunity in medical sensors that can be placed in other body parts beyond the wrist. With intent and push to address more health and medical conditions, and with the availability with a pool of fitness data, Fitbit has partnered with Medtronic to make devices with the capacity to diagnose and monitor sleep apnea, and devices that enable diabetes patients to take care of themselves easily (Gamble et al., 2019). Seizing such blue ocean opportunities enable the company to stay ahead of its competitors and accelerate future growth and development.

Fitbit's International Efforts

With increasing efforts to expand their scope of new devices production, and being a consumer-focused company, instead of being just one product company, Fitbit is likely to get a share of international market share and various opportunities that comes along with it. Additionally, with their products available in over 45,000 retail stores globally, and more than 86 different states via corporate wellness collaborations, online sales, and stores, the company is maximizing its international efforts to tap on the wide market share available and increase its net profitability (Gamble et al., 2019).

Fitbit's Diversification Strategy

Diversification strategies are very significant in maximizing an organization's returns through investing in different categories and industries as the organization develops its business (Jukic, 2019). Instead of being a one-product company, Fitbit has diversified in the production of a wide range of fitness and health devices. Different types of these products and their prices range is one of the competitive edges the company enjoys. Fitbit has many types of products with different prices, variations, and functionality from simple step tracker to more developed GPS, sleep, and heart rate and monitoring devices. Besides, the company also provides open API for other organizations to use for smooth connectivity (Gamble et al., 2019).

The software users utilizing Fitbit’s open API increases the company’s future sales growth as they convert to the company's hardware users. Besides, Fitbit also engages in enterprise health where it functions together with employers, insurance companies, and health systems to increase its user communities. Corporate health initiatives, insurance, and employers encourage their employees and members to stay active while making healthy choices prompting such employees to buy more health tracking devices. As a result, Fitbit will have an increase in their device sales thus increasing their revenue. Finally, advancing their production from just smartwatches and software development to healthcare devices such as those devices with the capability to diagnose and observe sleep apnea among other inventory, are likely to increase Fitbit's future revenue (Gamble et al., 2019). Through identification of different existing opportunities, conducting strategic alliances with other organizations, analyzing data to improve their devices, and establishing numerous global retails to reach a wider market, Fitbit exercises continuous improvement practices to ensure its sustainability in the global arena amid stiff competition.

References

Gamble, J., Thompson, A., & Peteraf, M. (2019). Essentials of strategic management. McGraw-Hill Irwin.

Johnsen, Å. (2015). Strategic Management Thinking and Practice in the Public Sector: A Strategic Planning for All Seasons?. Financial Accountability & Management, 31(3), 243-268. https://doi.org/10.1111/faam.12056

Jukic, D. (2019). Strategic analysis of corporate marketing in culture management. Strategic Management, 24(1), 10-18. https://doi.org/10.5937/straman1901010j