n 1980
n 1980, Michael Porter described three generic strategies that a company of any size (small, medium or big) can choose to pursue its competitive advantage. These strategies are lowering the cost of product, product differentiation, and focus on the niche market. A company either chooses to lower the price of its products to beat the competitors, or chooses product differentiation along the dimensions valued by customers to command a higher price; sometimes, it chooses the focus strategy by concentrating on a small segment of the market to satisfy the segment’s unique needs or demand, which is called niche marketing. Implementing one of the generic strategies successfully goes out to show an organisation’s strategic power.
A firm is said to be stuck in the middle when it does not fit into one of the generic strategies. Some firms fail to effectively pursue one of the generic strategies due to their myopic approach. When a firm does not offer features that are unique enough to convince customers to buy its offerings, or its prices are high compared to its competitors’, or when it does not cater to a niche market’s requirements, the firm is said to be stuck in the middle—such firms generally perform poorly because they lack a clear vision.
