By Abdoulie Sohna
Marketing concept holds that the key to achieve organizational goal is being more effective than competitors in creating, delivering and communicating superior customer value to your chosen target markets (Kotler and Keller, 2009).
The competition in the media industry is intensifying as the duo Fatous are very much oriented about their market position and each one of them wants to feed the news consumers with reliable and up date information about the current happening of the Gambia. Recently we’ve seen the coming of Fatu Network with innovative features on her platform with daily review of newspapers supported with technical analysis about trending issues and perspective about the Gambia. Kerr Fatou was on the ground with their weekly household show mainly featuring key political figures and other relevant stakeholders to discuss trending perspective in their respective areas of responsibilities. Kerr Fatou was indeed pulling large audience because of the quality of folks featured on their show and the core competence of the co-host of the show in the name of Nyang Njie whose participation and contribution on this platform is very attractive and myriads of audience are keen to listen to him because of his ability to communicate and debate constructively with invited guest in diverse and dynamic lexicon.
The Fatu Network as a new entrant recently into the media industry with state of the art facilities and their core competence in effective communication coupled with their experience in journalism and other added services is therefore earning them competitive edge over Kerr Fatou.
The daily availability of Fatu Network online is also offering them competitive advantage over Kerr Fatou which is seen to be featured on every Thursday in a week. A competitive advantage is what makes an entity’s goods or services superior to all of a customer’s other choices. The term is commonly used for businesses. The strategies work for any organization, country, or individual in a competitive environment.
To create a competitive advantage, you’ve got to be clear about these three determinants.
Benefit:
Any of the Fatous who really understands the benefits and advantages of offering services at real value to benefit new consumers will stand a better chance to lead.What is the real benefit your services provide? It must be something that your customers truly need and that offers real value. You must know not only your product’s features, but also its advantages; how they benefit your customers. That means being constantly aware of new trends that affect your product, especially new technology. For example, newspapers were slow to respond to the availability of free news on the internet. They thought people were willing to pay for news delivered on a piece of paper once a day.
Identification of your target market:
It’s crucial for both Kerr Fatou and Fatu Network to know their news consumers and asking who are they targeting for their services ? What are their needs? This should lead you to know exactly your listeners and how you can inform them with reliable and factual news and information. That’s how you create real demand for your services and attract many listeners and viewers which will earn you economic growth for continue existence.
Competition:
The two Fatous should identify their competitors as it’s more than platforms offering the services to the public but it entails any online platform that’s rendering the same services by providing news and information to the public which doesn’t exempt the superior Freedom Newspaper.
Newspapers thought their competition was other newspapers until they realized it was the internet. They didn’t know how to compete with a news provider that was instant and free.
To be successful, you need to be able to articulate the benefit you provide to your target market that’s better than the competition. That’s your competitive advantage.
This analogy will proceed us to carry out a SWOT analysis for the two Fatous in the media industry.
FATU NETWORK:
Strengths
l State of art facilities and office
l Seasoned journalists
l Effective communicator
l International exposure
l Range of services such Fatu network online newspaper and radio
l Beautiful presenter and face to attract many viewers
Weaknesses
l Few staff
l No ranges of services such as news about Sports in the country and beyond.
Opportunities
l Politically stable environment conducive for generation of reliable info and news
l To form alliance with local radios for airing your online news reviews
Threats:
l Restriction into Gov’t offices as fear of leakages of govt info and secrets.
l Security issues could be a threat to the existence of the business.
KERR FATOU:
Strenths:
l Good communicator (Nyang Njie)
l Features on National TV(GRTS) is an advantage for Kerr Fatou.
Weaknesses
l Presenters not beautiful and pretty
l Weekly availability
l Unfactual news for example the case of OJ Jallow is a clear testimony to the provision of unfactual news and information
l Not independent(This platform offer more favoritism to UDP only
Opportunities
l Politically stable environment conducive for generation of reliable info and news
l To form alliance with local radios for airing your online news reviews
Threats:
l Restriction into Gov’t offices as fear of leakages of govt info and secrets.
l Security issues could be a threat to the existence of the business.
I would like to encourage the duo companies to co exist in the same industry professionally with the right competitive practices in the provision of their services. Competitors are not enemies but rivals that you can learn best practices from and benchmark or differentiate for competitive advantage.
