Editing Porter's generic strategies (section)

{{Short description|Pursuit of competitive advantage}}
{{Strategy}}
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'''Michael Porter's generic strategies''' describe how a company can pursue [[competitive advantage]] across its chosen market scope. There are three generic strategies: lower cost, [[product differentiation]], or focus. The focus strategy has two variants, cost focus and differentiation focus, so it is possible to see the concept in terms of four distinct strategies.

A company chooses to pursue one of two types of competitive advantage, either via lower costs than its competition or by differentiating itself along dimensions valued by customers to command a higher price. A company also chooses one of two types of scope, either focus (offering its products to selected segments of the market) or industry-wide, offering its product across many market segments. The generic strategy reflects the choices made regarding both the type of competitive advantage and the scope. The concept was described by [[Michael Porter]] in 1980.<ref name="Porter1980"/>