CustomInk is a private company working in customer goods retail: it produces and sells clothes with custom prints. The company succeeded in the developed and mature market and proliferated from 2000, becoming the largest company in customized clothing. The main reason it succeeded is a substantial competitive advantage created by its client-oriented approach: its brand has become familiar to many happy customers, and the risk of being displaced from the market substantially decreased.
Porter’s five forces method is valuable for exploring and showing the market’s dynamic. Those forces are competitive rivalry, the threat of substitution, the threat of new companies, and the bargaining powers of suppliers and clients (Wright, 2021). In the case of CustomInk, being in the custom goods’ design and retail market, the most active Porter forces are competitive rivalry and the threat of new companies. The reason for that is the high market saturation: many companies are present, and new companies constantly emerge, competing with each other. CustomInk has obtained a substantial competitive advantage, decreasing the threats from the competition from both mature and new companies.
The company has succeeded in this highly saturated, mature, and competitive market, becoming the largest company in the field. CustomInk initially focused on customer satisfaction, and now it has more than 1600 employees (Real Time Cases, 2018). It built an extensive network of happy clients that recognized its brand and used to buy its goods. Its approach is the uniqueness of CustomInk: it creates a competitive advantage, decreasing the risk of being substituted by other companies, which is the leading risk for companies in the customized clothing market.
CustomInk has reached success with its customer-oriented approach, which made it very competitive. Its customers were always satisfied, and they preferred CustomInk over other numerous companies in the field. According to Porter’s forces of competitive rivalry and threat from new companies, it decreases the threat of being displaced from the market, increasing its chances to succeed. Thus, CustomInk has grown all time since its establishment and continues to grow due to substantial competitive advantages reached by high-level service.
References
Real Time Cases. (2018). CustomInk: Company background packet. Real Time Cases
Wright, G. (2021). Porter’s 5 Forces: Apply this marketing framework to your SME for growth. Smart Insights.