What Really Is Product Quality Leadership?

What is product quality leadership? Most marketers probably wouldn’t have a clue what that means.

But the concept is vital to the growth and prosperity of any business.

A company can have a great product, a great customer service program, a great reputation, and a great history of profitability. 

But if it doesn’t have product quality leadership it won’t be competitive in the long term.

In this article, we will discuss what it means.

What Product Quality Leadership Really Means

Any company can have a great product, a good reputation, and excellent customer service. But if its quality is worse than its competitors, it will eventually go out of business.

Product quality leadership leads to higher profitability for three reasons:

1. Cost leadership
2. Differentiation
3. Customer loyalty

Cost Leadership

Companies that have lower prices than their competitors can be very profitable even if their products aren’t higher quality than their competitors. 

That’s because they can win market share from their competitors’ customers while also selling to new customers who are attracted by their lower prices. 

Their goal is to capture as much market share as possible. So, they can increase their prices over time while still selling lots of products at even higher profit margins.

Differentiation

A company’s products may perform better than its competitors’ products or it may offer unique benefits that can’t be found elsewhere.

Customers who are sensitive to these differences will buy more of the company’s products than its competitors’ products. 

The company will also capture a larger share of its market and enjoy higher profits.

Customer Loyalty

Companies that offer higher quality products gain customer loyalty. 

Customers develop trust by buying from a company that has been around for a long time. They have learned that the company will live up to its commitments and that it has a history of product improvement. 

They also gain comfort from knowing that the company won’t sell them a defective product or a product whose features have changed without their knowledge. 

Customers can feel secure about using or recommending the company’s products to their friends because they know the products won’t let them down. 

In addition, customers who have been loyal to one company’s products for many years may be unwilling to switch to another company’s products.

How to Improve Product Quality Leadership

A company can achieve product quality leadership through a process that we will call “product quality leadership development.”

The first step is to develop a plan for improving the quality of the company’s products. This plan must include:

• Understanding and improving the quality of each of the products in the company’s line of products.
• Identifying the opportunities for improvement in each of the areas of product quality. 
• Measuring the company’s level of performance in each of these areas.
• Developing short-term action plans that focus on improvement in key areas. 
• Measuring progress against each of these action plans. 
• Adjusting the plans on an ongoing basis based on performance results. 
• Improving the quality of marketing communications to sales representatives, sales managers, salespeople, and customers about product quality issues. 

Conclusion

Product quality leadership is important because it can lead to differentiation, lower costs, and customer loyalty.

Developing a plan to achieve product quality leadership is a complex process that requires a high level of effort and a commitment from top management.

As a result, companies should try to achieve product quality leadership in order to improve their competitiveness in the marketplace.