Trength, a Competitive Advantage, and a Sustainable Competitive Advantage

Strength is basically what a company or a firm is good at or does better in order to be more efficient. And it might not necessarily be a competitive advantage but it becomes a basis to develop sustainable competitive advantages. Firms can assess which strengths have potential to be sustainable competitive advantage.
A competitive advantage is what enables a business organization to thrive and to offer a superior service over and above its competitors. It is the objective of strategy and it is also the combination of elements in the business model which enables a business to better meet and satisfy the needs of its customers by offering greater value. It’s the uniqueness factor of a firm over its competitors. It helps to attract large number of people (stakeholders) with its unmatchable elements. Example is Red River College offering degree and diploma. Red river college has a competitive advantage over the non- degree awarding colleges while:
A sustainable competitive advantage is what enables business to survive against its competitors over a long period of time. It is the firm’s ability to continually and consistently sustain the particular strategy that gives it a superior advantage over a period of time. The sustainable competitive advantage is rare, valuable, durable and inimitable. It takes much more effort from a company to develop sustainable competitive advantage. Other companies do find it difficult to imitate that. A typical example is that of Coca cola industry which has been a market leader for years because of its sustainable competitive advantage.
Competitive parity: This is also called defensive budgeting. It is a method of allocating a budget for promotional activities that depends on what competitors are spending for similar activities. It is a defensive strategy that can help a business protect its brand or product’s competitive position in the market place without overspending (i.e. exceeding