1. What is the difference between competitive strategy and business strategy?

2. Describe the strategy of striving to be the industry’s overall low cost provider. What does a company have to do to achieve low-cost provider status?

3. What market conditions and circumstances make a low-cost provider strategy attractive? What are the pitfalls in pursuing a low-cost provider strategy—what can go wrong?

4. What are the pros and cons of a broad differentiation strategy?

5. What are the distinctive features of a broad differentiation strategy? Under what circumstances is a broad differentiation strategy appealing?

6. What are the distinctive features of a best-cost provider strategy? Under what circumstances is a best-cost provider strategy appealing?

7. What are the distinctive features of a focused low-cost strategy? How does it differ from a low-cost leadership strategy?

8. What are the distinctive features of a focused differentiation strategy? How is it different from a broad differentiation strategy?

9. Describe the two basic cost-reducing approaches a company can take to become a low-cost provider in its industry.

10. What type of competitive advantage does a best-cost provider strategy aim at achieving? Explain what a company has to do to achieve this advantage.

11. Explain how the strategic target of a low-cost provider differs from the strategic target of a best-cost provider.

12. Explain how the marketing emphasis of a low-cost provider differs from the marketing emphasis of a differentiation strategy.