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Compare and Contrast the Companies' Respective Approaches to Developing Competitive Advantage

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Compare and contrast the companies' respective approaches to developing competitive advantage.
Harley Davidson advantage
The Harley-Davidson brand is perhaps the most important and valuable aspect to the firms SCA. The brand is heavily used and widely recognized; all told the HD brand was ranked as the 41st most valuable brand in 2003. Further the brand has been described as “self-reinforcing” thus representing that customers, both past and present often return for additional purchases (accessories, customization, and services) or to trade-up into a new bike (voices.yahoo.com). Heavily linked to the social and psychological factors of the consumer experience the HD brand produces high levels of emotion for its customers; so much so that the brand will most likely live strong well after the company has ceased to operate.
By the utilization of product differentiation, low production numbers, above average costs and the non-tangible factors of sociological and lifestyle facets HD fulfills its current target markets desire for status, exclusivity, individuality, and emotional attachment and needs (voices.yahoo.com). It is these key aspects that allow differentiation; and thus how the firm competes and offers uniqueness to its customers.
Google advantage
Google has a number of advantages, perhaps foremost being the massive investments in its built infrastructure. Google’s mission of “organizing the world’s information” requires more than the most sophisticated software; it necessitates huge investments in massive physical plant, particularly data centers, power systems, cooling technologies, and high speed fiber optic networks. Google has built up a significant global infrastructure of data centers (increasingly located close to cheap, green tech) and connecting its storage systems, servers, and routers with a network of fiber optic switches. For the most part, the

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