Competitive Analysis
/Writing any form of Brand Marketing Plan includes one crucial step you can’t ignore: competitive analysis. I’ll explain how to find your competitors, and how to spot the gaps in their marketing strategy to strengthen your marketing strategy.
EVALUATE COMPETITION
A thorough competitive analysis helps you to better understand the competitive landscape, allowing you to clarify your strengths as well as the challenges you need to overcome to beat your competition in the marketplace.
When conducting a competitive analysis, I recommend determining your direct, indirect, AND future competitors as well as the criteria used to evaluate how each compare to your brand. This, along with quantitative and qualitative market research, will give you the foundation to complete your SWOT Analysis - analyzing your (internal) strengths and weaknesses and (external) opportunities and threats in the marketplace.
Your competitive analysis might also shed light on new opportunities, or identify mindshare already owned by a competitor that you might not be able to win. At the minimum, it will give you and your brand an objective view of where you stand in the marketplace, and where you can win with your customer acquisition activities.
RESEARCH COMPETITION
Consider the competition within the market(s) your business serves, and think on a national, international, regional, or local level, if appropriate.
Three types of competitors defined:
Direct: They offer products/services that are similar to your own.
Indirect: Their products/services are different from yours but can potentially provide relief for the market.
Future: They could easily expand their offerings to compete with yours.
Direct Competitors
For each product/market you analyze, create a list of your top five direct competitors, including their details such as, company/product descriptions, annual revenue, number of years in the market, trends and market share.
Indirect Competitors
For each product/market you analyze, add onto your Direct Competitor List with a second list of your top five indirect competitors, including their details such as, company/product descriptions, annual revenue, year founded (B2C: Number of years in the market), trends, and market share.
Future Competitors
For each product/market you analyze, add onto your Direct and Indirect Competitor List with a third list of your top five future potential competitors will include details such as, company/product descriptions, annual revenue, year founded (B2C: Number of years in the market if you're B2C), trends and market share.
FINAL COMPETITOR LIST
Your direct, indirect and future competitors will be analyzed by our team. The deliverable will be your final competitor list. The insight into your indirect and future competitors is valuable as you shape your competitive positioning strategy.
Perform a competitive analysis for each.
EVALUATE COMPETITION AND COMPLETE SWOT ANALYSIS
The complete list of your main competition brings you to the second phase of determining the criteria you will use to rate your competitors and your company. Different products/services/companies in different industries/markets require different criteria.
Select the most effective criteria for you and your market:
Product/Service Quality
Product/Service Uniqueness
Product/Service Features
Product/Service Effectiveness
Customer Service
Price
Innovation
Market Share
Distribution Channels
Brand Awareness/Name Recognition
Reputation
Corporate Citizenship
Financial Strength
Sales Ability
"Cool" Factor
Environmental Responsibility
It's important to understand the competitive landscape prior to selecting the mindshare that you want to own. The competitive landscape can shed light on new opportunities or identify mindshare already owned by a competitor that you might never win.
Again, consider all three types of competitors:
Direct - They offer solutions/products that are similar to your own.
Indirect - Their solutions/products are different from yours, but can potentially provide relief for the market.
Future - They could easily expand their offerings to compete with yours.
Some early-stage companies fail to properly plan for indirect or future competitors. Microsoft is a competitor that commonly enters markets after a startup has proven viability for a product. Because of its distribution and pricing power (i.e., the ability to bundle products and give them away for free), it can completely reshape technology markets in a short period of time.
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