For a company's competitive strategy to succeed in delivering good performance or the intended competitive advantage over rivals,

the company is well$-$advised to employ either a low$-$cost provider strategy or a best$-$cost provider strategy$-$differentiation strategies rarely work well because of the ease with which competitors are usually able to quickly copy most or all of the appealing product attributes a company comes up with.

it must possess the resources and capabilities to achieve bestcost status and thereby put itself in strong position to become a dominating market leader by outcompeting firms employing low$-$cost provider, broad differentiation, and focused strategies.

the strategy must be aimed squarely at achieving a cost$-$based competitive advantage$--$this is because, given sufficient time, competitors can clone most any product feature that buyers find quite appealing and thus defeat a strategy keyed to product differentiation.

the company must typically employ a value chain with more cost drivers and more value drivers than any other rival company in the industry.

it must be underpinned by resources and capabilities that enable the company to execute its strategy with a high degree of proficiency.