5 Ways Businesses Can Create Economic Moat – INFIMONEY (2024)

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The concept of economic moats is the cornerstone of value investing. Successful investing is not limited to finding undervalued stocks, with high growth and strong financial history. The most important aspect of value investing is evaluating whether the business will stand the test of time. It is the ability of the business to adapt to rapid changes that determines how strong and wide the economic moat of the business is.

What is Economic Moat?

To define, An economic moat is a long term durable advantage of a business that allows the company to earn better profits, improve capital efficiency, and most importantly, keep competitors away from taking their market share.

For example, companies like Coca Cola have strong economic moat as they have a patented product which cannot be produced by any other company in the world. Secondly, Coca Cola has created a strong brand image, helping them in gaining loyal customer base.

Companies with wide moat will create lot of value for themselves in the form of high profits, healthy margins, customer loyalty and brand name as well as for their shareholders in the form of consistent return on capital, and healthy dividends.

But how can a company create an economic moat? Well, different companies use different strategies, we will discuss 5 ways that a company can use and create a wide economic moat around their business.

5 Ways Businesses Can Create Economic Moat – INFIMONEY (1)How Can A Company Create Economic Moat?

Well, different companies use different strategies, we will discuss 5 ways that a company can use and create a wide economic moat around their business.

Branding:

This is the most powerful economic moat that a company can create. Brand is all about trust. When people trust a brand they become loyal customers, helping companies generate repeat sales, without much effort. Companies that do not have strong brands lack this loyal customer base and have to spend lot of time and energy to make each sale.

Secondly, when people trust a brand, they happily pay a premium price for the product or service of the company. For Example, Cosmetic products by Lakme are usually more expensive than local, or less known cosmetic brands. Customers who are loyal to Lakme brand are aware of the quality of their products and are willing to pay higher price for the same. This does not necessarily mean that the products of non branded companies are inferior in quality, but since people trust Lakme for its quality, they do not mind shelling out few hundred extra for it.

Patents:

Many companies can use patents as a means to create economic moat. This is especially true in case of pharma and consumer companies. One of the best examples of patents is Coca Cola. The Coca Cola Company has a secret formula for their beverage, which is known to two people in the world. Since Coca Cola owns the patent to this formula, no other company can copy its taste, allowing Coca Cola to enjoy monopoly over the entire market. This provides strong pricing power to Coca Cola on its product and people who love them will be happy to shell out more for their product. Coca Cola thus commands high profit margins, which cannot be taken away from them ever. The result is, Coca Cola serves 8 billion servings of its beverages everyday across the world. No wonder why it’s one of the favourite companies of Warren Buffett.

High Barrier to Entry:

Many businesses are very difficult to understand and setup as it requires lot of knowledge or capital to begin. Because of this difficulty, very few player can actually enter such business. One of the best examples of high entry barrier is the Airline business. Airlines being a highly capital intensive business to set up and operate cannot be started by anyone. This allows fewer players to enter and creates a strong economic moat for the companies (though ost airline companies are struggling to make profits due to high fixed costs).

Innovation:

Innovations is doing things differently. When companies create a completely new product or a business model that is hard to copy easily, it provides a strong economic moat. One of the best examples of business model innovation is Amazon. Starting as a bookseller Amazon now sells almost anything in the world. Being able to shop anything from any corner of the world was the greatest innovation in the recent times. No wonder Amazon is now the largest online retailer in the worlds with almost a monopoly in the market. Other players like Flipkart are simply replicating the business model setup by the Amazon.

Switching cost:

A high switching cost can also act as a strong economic moat. Switching cost is the cost a consumer has to pay to switch over from one company’s product or service to the other one. When switching cost to a customer is high, customer hesitate to change the product or service provider. One of the examples of switching cost is Online streaming service provider Netflix.

Netflix creates original and exclusive content for its online platform.

If a customer wants to switch from Netflix to other online streaming platform, he will not be able to access the unique content presented by the Netflix. This provides Netflix a strong economic moat where users have to pay what Netflix asks in order to gain access to the exclusive content.

Also Read: 5 Things Warren Buffett Looks for Before Investing

Conclusion:

Economic moats are the most important aspect for the longevity of a business. Companies that successfully create economic moat not only manage to survive for a longer period of time, but also keep their competitors at bay.

Form an investor’s point of view, companies with strong economic moat provides pricing power to the business, enabling them to charge a premium for the product or service. This not only helps companies maintain strong profit margins,in the long run businesses like these also perform consistently, creating wealth for shareholders.

5 Ways Businesses Can Create Economic Moat – INFIMONEY (2024)

FAQs

5 Ways Businesses Can Create Economic Moat – INFIMONEY? ›

This moat investing education series explores the five primary sources of moat, according to Morningstar: 1) switching costs; 2) intangible assets; 3) network effect; 4) cost advantage; 5) efficient scale.

What are the 5 sources of moat? ›

This moat investing education series explores the five primary sources of moat, according to Morningstar: 1) switching costs; 2) intangible assets; 3) network effect; 4) cost advantage; 5) efficient scale.

How do you create an economic moat? ›

Ways in which a company can create an economic moat include creating advantages in size, intangibles, cost, and high switching costs. The term economic moat was made popular by legendary investor Warren Buffett.

What is moat strategy? ›

Moat investing is based on a simple concept: Invest in companies with sustainable competitive advantages trading at attractive valuations. One of the first steps in implementing this approach is finding companies with a moat.

What are Morningstar's 5 sources of moat? ›

Morningstar has identified five sources that give companies economic moats: Network effect, intangible assets, cost advantage, switching costs, and efficient scale.

What are the key features of the moat? ›

A moat is a deep, broad ditch, either dry or filled with water, that is dug and surrounds a castle, fortification, building or town, historically to provide it with a preliminary line of defence. In some places moats evolved into more extensive water defences, including natural or artificial lakes, dams and sluices.

What businesses have a moat? ›

Wide Moat Stocks
SymbolCompany NameReturn On Capital
POOLPOOL CORPORATION49.6%
LSTRLANDSTAR SYSTEM, INC.48.3%
TXNTEXAS INSTRUMENTS INC44.5%
GWWWW GRAINGER INC44.2%
26 more rows

What is a good economic moat? ›

An economic moat is a distinct advantage a company has over its competitors that allows it to protect its market share and profitability. A wide economic moat is one that is difficult to mimic or duplicate (e.g., brand identity, patents) and thus creates an effective barrier against competition from other firms.

What are the 5 types of markets in economics? ›

Types of the market:
  • Monopoly: A monopolistic market is a market formation with the qualities of a pure market. ...
  • Oligopoly: ...
  • Perfect competition: ...
  • Monopolistic competition: ...
  • Monopsony: ...
  • Oligopsony: ...
  • Natural monopoly:

What are the 5 types of market in the economic structure? ›

The five major market system types are Perfect Competition, Monopoly, Oligopoly, Monopolistic Competition and Monopsony.

What are the 4 main types of economics? ›

The four main types of economic systems are a pure market economy, a pure command economy, a mixed economy, and a traditional economy.

How many economic moats are there? ›

Some companies see long-term competitive advantages over their rivals due to a number of business strategies. This long-term protection from competition is sometimes called a company's economic moat.

Why is the moat important in business? ›

The economic moat in the context of stock investment is something that provides a competitive advantage. The 'moat' indicates an edge a company has over its market competitors. A 'moat' separates it from its competitors. The pricing power of the company secures it from competition over a long period of time.

What is a sustainable moat? ›

MOAT – A sustainable competitive advantage that makes it difficult for a business' rivals to erode its market share.

What are moat examples? ›

Intangible assets, like branding, customer loyalty, and patents, could all be considered economic moats. Think of a widely recognized brand like Coca-Cola, for example. If a competing company wanted to market a similar soft drink, Coca-Cola would have a major advantage because of customer familiarity with its brand.

What is Netflix's moat? ›

Netflix's personalized experience is driven by several machine learning algorithms: personalized ranking, page generation, search, similarity, ratings, etc. Netflix's moat lies in its ability to refine this experience over the years.

Does Starbucks have a moat? ›

Starbucks Corp (SBUX US) boasts a “wide economic moat” rating from Morningstar from […]

How can a company build a moat around your business? ›

Companies can build moats by strengthening their brands, achieving economies of scale, or even lobbying for special status from the government. In return, they can receive customer loyalty, pricing power, and legal protections that make it difficult for other companies to compete with them.

What was the reason for moats? ›

The purpose of a moat was primarily to protect the castle from attack. As a defense mechanism, moats were very effective. Although they're usually depicted as wide, deep bodies of water, moats were often simply dry ditches.

Why were moats important? ›

Later in Medieval Europe, deep and broad ditches were built around castles and towns to provide defence against attacking armies. Moats made access to the walls of the castle difficult for siege weapons such as battering rams and catapults. Those moats which were the widest offered the best defence.

Does Mcdonalds have a moat? ›

MCD operates in a highly competitive industry with low barriers to entry and minimal switching costs, making it difficult for most players to establish a moat. However, MCD has established a strong moat through its pricing power and a strong network of franchisees.

Is Apple an economic moat? ›

Apple has established a strong economic moat, which refers to its ability to maintain a competitive advantage and protect its market share and profitability over an extended period of time. The company has a plethora of factors that work together to create a very strong economic moat.

How do you identify a moat? ›

Two Steps to Identify an Economic Moat
  1. How does the company make money?
  2. What products/services are the cash cows for the company?
  3. What industries does the company operate in?
  4. Who are the biggest players in the industry?
  5. What is the company doing now to improve the value of its products/services?
Apr 9, 2023

What are the 5 basic markets in business management? ›

There are five types of markets: Resource markets, manufacturer markets, intermediary mar- kets, consumer markets and government markets (see Figure 1).

What are 3 examples of market in economics? ›

Markets can be physical like a retail outlet, or virtual like an e-retailer. Other examples include illegal markets, auction markets, and financial markets. Markets establish the prices of goods and services that are determined by supply and demand.

What are the 6 types of markets in business? ›

Types of Markets
MarketCharacteristics
IndustrialGoods/services that go into the production of other products.
IntermediateBuy goods/services to resell/rent them to others eg wholesalers.
ConsumerMarket for goods at their final point of consumption
MassMarket for goods appealing to the majority of customers.
2 more rows

What are the 4 types of Marketing? ›

What are the 4Ps of marketing? (Marketing mix explained) The four Ps are product, price, place, and promotion. They are an example of a “marketing mix,” or the combined tools and methodologies used by marketers to achieve their marketing objectives.

What are the 4 types of competition? ›

Economists have identified four types of competition—perfect competition, monopolistic competition, oligopoly, and monopoly.

What are the five major conditions that characterize perfectly competitive markets? ›

There are five characteristics that have to exist in order for a market to be considered perfectly competitive. The characteristics are hom*ogeneous products, no barriers to entry and exit, sellers are price takers, there is product transparency, and no seller has influence over the prices in the market.

Where are moats used? ›

Moat refers to a deep, wide trench surrounding a medieval castle, and maybe a city wall or other fortification, that is usually filled with water.

Is economic moat good or bad? ›

The wider the moat, the more durable the competitive advantage is. A wide moat business is the best possible rating where we think the business has got such a durable competitive advantage that we think they will not only last for 5 to 10 years but will be able to out-earn their cost of capital for at least 20 years.

What is lack of economic moat? ›

In the absence of an economic moat, a company is at risk of losing market share to its competitors, particularly nowadays as software continues to disrupt all industries.

Where do moats come from? ›

moat, a depression surrounding a castle, city wall, or other fortification, usually but not always filled with water. The existence of a moat was a natural result of early methods of fortification by earthworks, for the ditch produced by the removal of earth to form a rampart made a valuable part of the defense system.

What is a resource moat? ›

In business, an economic moat is the attribute that allows an organization to outperform its competitors. An economic moat may include access to natural resources, such as high-grade ores or a low-cost power source, highly skilled labor, geographic location, high entry barriers, and access to new technology.

Where does moat water come from? ›

Moats filled with water were usually supplied by a nearby source of water, such as a spring, lake, or river. Dams could be built that would control the level of water in the moat. While some fancy moats may have had stone sides, most moats had simple banks of earth left over from when they were dug.

What companies are moats? ›

8 Wide-Moat Stocks Added to the Index
  • Constellation Brands STZ.
  • Domino's Pizza DPZ.
  • Intercontinental Exchange ICE.
  • Intuit INTU.
  • Kellogg K.
  • Pfizer PFE.
  • Roper Technologies ROP.
  • U.S. Bancorp USB.
Mar 28, 2023

How effective are moats? ›

Moats provided castles with a further line of defense. Moats surrounding castles protected them from siege towers and battering rams, war machines that were only effective when wheeled to the wall. It also made digging tunnels underneath the wall far more challenging.

When were moats used most? ›

Moats were first used in the Medieval period, from 1016 to 1164. Castles were built on the top of high hills. The area at the bottom of the hill was eventually called the moat.

How do I find a company's moat? ›

Two Steps to Identify an Economic Moat
  1. How does the company make money?
  2. What products/services are the cash cows for the company?
  3. What industries does the company operate in?
  4. Who are the biggest players in the industry?
  5. What is the company doing now to improve the value of its products/services?
Apr 9, 2023

What are moats in startups? ›

Moat is another term for a sustainable competitive advantage. It is a startup's ability to maintain a competitive advantage for protecting its market share and long-term profits from its competitors.

What is the importance of moat? ›

We define a moat as a sustainable barrier that protects a business from the effects of competition – so that a company can avoid this fate. Wide economic moats are rare, but can take a range of different forms.

What is another name for a moat? ›

On this page you'll find 13 synonyms, antonyms, and words related to moat, such as: gully/gulley, trench, canal, channel, and fosse.

How common were moats? ›

So, moats were a very common feature in early Medieval castles in Northern Europe.

How do you explain moat to a child? ›

Moats are deep, wide ditches filled with water. They were usually built near sources of water that flowed into the moats, filling them with water. The moats were filled with water for a few reasons. It made enemies swimming across the moat easy targets.

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