Relationship between Corporate Image and Competitive Advantage in Mobile Telecommunication Industry in Nigeria

Rejoice, et al.: Corporate Image and Competitive Advantage in Mobile Telecommunication Industry in Nigeria 2 European Journal of Innovative Business Management, Volume 3, 2019 strategic management literature and serves as an excellent starting point for the framework proposed in this study. A differentiation strategy seeks to provide products or services that offer benefits that are different from those of competitors and that are widely valued by buyers. [9] The aim of using a differentiation strategy is to achieve a competitive advantage. There are different differentiation strategies for the company to choose from; it can be, product differentiation, service differentiation, personnel differentiation, channel differentiation, and image differentiation. [10] Further on, the company can choose to have a unique marketing mix or retail mix. The retail mix consists of merchandise, price, advertising and promotion, customer services, and store design. [11] Winning business strategies are mainly grounded in sustainable competitive advantage. The desire to gain a competitive advantage is the main focus of organizational performance, as such understanding, the source of sustained competitive advantage has become a major area of study in strategic management. [1,12] Companies that are successful invest heavily in creating the sustainable competitive advantage as it is the single most dependent contributor that gives an above-average level of profitability. The goal of all business is getting a competitive advantage in relation to other competitors in the market. [1] Once a competitive advantage is achieved, organizations will always strive to maintain its competitive position to ensure survival in competitive markets. Firms sustain a competitive advantage only for as long as the products/services they offered and the manner in which they presented, or they have attributes that still correspond to the major buying criteria of a substantial number of customer its base. [13] A competitive advantage laboriously achieved can be quickly lost. The company’s ability to maintain the competitive advantage obtained depends on the speed with which competitors will be able to imitate and outperform. In search of a sustainable competitive advantage, which is difficult imitate and can differentiate the firm from rivals, organizations have turned to intangible assets such as the firm’s corporate image. [6] Managing corporate image is an essential key to attain security and maintain public trust. [14] It involves actions taken with the intention to create, maintain, and probably, regain a required image in the eyes of the stakeholders. Every organization has its corporate image, irrespective of the fact that such an organization may or may not want one. If this image is properly developed and managed, the firm’s corporate image could reflect the firm’s level of commitment to quality, excellence and good relationship with its stakeholders including current and also its potential customers, present employees, and future employees, also competitors and investors, governing bodies and the general public at large. [15] The process of managing the firm’s corporate image is an on-going, synergistic management tool, rather than a one-time corporate image exercise to enable sustainable relationship advantages to be developed with key audiences. Organizations that do not engage in successful image management increase the chances of failure. [16] In the quest to be on top of the competition, mobile telecom operators in Nigeria are employing different sales promotion strategies. However, it is difficult to develop hard to copy sales promotion strategies. The initiation of a strategy by one company leads to its replication by the competitors. In 2006, MTN launched the extra cool package which was particularly introduced to capture the youth market with free midnight calls. This package was quickly replicated by the other networks; Zain (now Airtel) with Tru talk, Etisalat with Easy Cliq, and Glo with Glo infinito. Due to its ease of replication, sales promotion strategies alone cannot furnish the company with a sustained competitive advantage. The introduction of Mobile Number Portability in 2013; which enables a subscriber to switch mobile service provider while retaining his/her existing number, reduced internet and call tariffs has increased the level of competition in the industry and service providers that are less competitive have been left down the ladder or completely eroded from the industry. Much work has been done by scholars in the area of competitive advantage without much emphasis on corporate image management as a tool to achieving it in developing countries in Africa such as Nigeria, especially in the mobile telecommunications industry. Customer loyalty and customer retention are one of the most emphasized challenges confronting telecommunication companies. The occurrence of powerful competition in the Nigerian telecommunication industry has made customers persistently having to decide which service provider is preferable and economical to them. This has led to price wars among telecommunication companies in a bid to retain existing customers and attract new customers. At the inception of GSM in Nigeria, in 2001, customers made calls at N50 per minute. The entry of Globacom into the telecoms market in 2003 with per second billing gave birth to a new era in the Nigerian telecommunications industry. By 2004, MTN and V-mobile (now Airtel) had no choice than to follow suit in quick succession. Airtel club10, Etisalat Zone, Glo Flexi, Mm Zone, and other pricecrashing initiatives have since been introduced. Operators are in a continuous price war as they see them as a master strategy for gaining competitive advantage. Having identified these problems of competition, this study looks to solve the problem of how organizational competitive strategy is created and incorporated into an organization. In trying to understand the relationship between corporate image management and companies’ competitive strategy we asked the following research questions. Rejoice, et al.: Corporate Image and Competitive Advantage in Mobile Telecommunication Industry in Nigeria 3 European Journal of Innovative Business Management, Volume 3, 2019 1. What is the relationship between corporate reputation and companies’ competitive advantage? 2. What is the relationship between corporate identity and companies’ competitive advantage? MATERIALS AND METHODS