Competitive Advantage Of New Belgium Brewing Company

An important factor in any business is the branding of that business. A company such as New Belgium Brewery, which obtains a strong slogan, uses their brand to gain new customers. In any grocery store, there is more than likely a New Belgium Brewery product on their shelves. New Belgium is an employee based company that allows their employees to be themselves. Also, the founders of New Belgium teaches their employees to work for them with passion and not just for a paycheck (Goodman, 2015). New Belgium Brewery has to create a strategy to keep the same branding when it decides to take its business globally. However, for them to accomplish this, New Belgium Brewery will have to keep its employees passionate about working for them. Also, New Belgium will have to advertise their brands of beers to their targeted buyers. To reach more people all over the world, New Belgium Brewery has created websites to allow its customers to interact with their brands (Ferrell & Hartline, 2014). Also, New Belgium can think about building a brewery overseas to gain more customers in different countries.

New Belgium Brewing Company’s (NBB) mission statement is “to operate a profitable brewery which is socially, ethically and environmentally responsible, that produces high quality beer true to Belgian brewing styles.” Does New Belgium’s mission statement make an ethical stance for the business? Does it even have any bearing on the products and their beliefs? It seems to when it comes to operating a profitable business and the “green” way they are doing so and the benefits given to its employees.

New Belgium’s competitive advantage that is most important and the cornerstone of the company’s strategic focus is their social responsibility. Social responsibility is more than a charitable deed or cost savings, it is that way an organization uses innovation to maintain a competitive advantage. Social responsibility should be more than a campaign for publicity, but a strategic focus using innovation (Porter & Kramer, 2006).

The New Belgium Brewing Company was founded by Kim Jordan and Jeff Lebesch in 1991. The idea for the company was by Lebesch when he was on a bicycling trip through Belgium. Since then, the company has grown steadily. According to the New Belgium Brewing Company, in 2015 New Belgium Brewing sold 914,000 barrels of beer and they are the fourth largest craft brewery as defined by the Brewers Association (New Belgium Brewing Company). This paper will mainly discuss the New Belgium Brewing Company’s social responsibility practices. Firstly, the environmental issues they work to address will be addressed, how New Belgium Brewing has taken a strategic approach to addressing these issues, and why the company has taken such a strong stance toward sustainability. Secondly, the company focuses on social responsibility and how it provides a key competitive advantage. Finally, the New Belgium Brewing Company is a socially responsible corporation.

Belgium is home of the finest ales and have been known to brew for centuries. So when Jeff Lebesch, an electrical engineer from Fort Collins, Colorado took a bicycle trip through Belgium it made him realize there may be a market back home to sell Belgian-style ale. Jeff returned home with hopes to experiment and brew his own beer in his basement from the various ingredients he received on his trip. When his friends approved of the ales he started marketing them to the local town. He later opened New Belgium Brewing Company in 1991. His wife, Kim Jordan was the company’s marketing director. They named their first brew “Fat Tire Amber Ale” after Jeff’s

Competitive advantage exists when a firm has strategy, product or an attribute that makes the firm capable of delivering similar benefit to that of competitors at a cheaper cost. Having competitive advantage is not enough the company should be capable of sustaining that particular competitive advantage for a longer period of time.

What is a competitive advantage for the company? How can the management use it? Make SWOT analysis for the company.

This report will examine the external environment of the brewing industry using a PESTEL analysis and the internal capabilities of ABInBev using a value chain analysis in order to determine how the firm appears to compete. Following this, strategies for improving the competitive position of the company will be outlined.

Competitive advantage is explained by Mahoney and Pandian (1992) as the function of industry analysis, organizational governance and the firm’s effects in the form of resource advantages and strategies. In order for a firm to be competitive it must adapt to the volatile business environment and through strategic management decisions establish a competitive advantage that will ultimately produce superior performance relative to its competitors (Akimova 2000).

New Belgium Brewing Co. (NBB) is a craft beer leader that embraces sustainability and corporate responsibility. For New Belgium, social, ethical, and environmental responsibilities are as important to the company’s operations as profitability. For New Belgium, business is as much about improving the local community as it is about making beer.

Today’s markets hold aggressive competition between companies in order to dominate as much share as they can from the market. That is why most companies are seeking for a competitive advantage that will differentiate them from their other competitors and makes consumers buy their services or products over the others.

Competitive advantage(CA) is an advantage competitors gain by providing or offering customers or consumers greater value for their money through product and service differentiation or through lower prices. Maintaining competitive advantage is crucial to many businesses or organizations' success in order to survive in the market. Competitive advantage is characterized by superior performance which could be an attribute to outperform the competitors whether current or potential; or gaining a higher market share in a particular industry thereby ensuring market leadership; or ultimately, maximization of profit.(JOBBER 2010)

exists when the firm is able to deliver the same benefits as competitors but at a

Competitive advantage is the point of power for any organization as it is the point from which an organization can maximize it's profits if it's been planned for it well .

Competitive advantage is viewed as a explanation of a firm success and long-term survival. With knowing the firm and competitiors, competitive advantage can be established by delivering more value to the customers in a more efficient manner (Day and Wensley 1988; Porter 1985). However, to a competitive advantage, the firm should focusing on the customers needs instead of their internal operations (Czepiel 1992; Zeithaml 1988).