It can be a complicated task, but competitive intelligence is vital to your business. With a good report on competitor analysis, you can use actionable insights to fuel future growth strategy.
What Is Competitive Analysis?
Competitive analysis is the process of identifying competitors and evaluating their strengths and weaknesses. It’s an essential tool for any company that wants to stay ahead of the game in a competitive industry. A thorough competitor analysis will help you improve your products, uncover new opportunities, and gain a competitive edge.
A competitor analysis can be performed in many different ways, depending on your business’s needs and goals. A comprehensive report can include a wide range of factors, such as researching your competition’s pricing strategies and website performance. A more focused competitive study may only examine specific competitors in your niche or industry.
When conducting a competitive analysis, it’s important to have clear objectives in mind. This will help ensure that your analysis is focused and gives you actionable insights. You can start by setting a broad objective, such as improving your market position or increasing sales, then break it down into measurable and specific goals.
Researching your competitors can be time-consuming, but it’s important to understand what sets them apart from one another. This can be done by comparing features. You will need to compare your product with the products of your competition and highlight the differences between them. A simple way to do this is by creating a comparison infographic.
You can also use product rating sites, such as Capterra and G2Crowd to get a unbiased view of the products of your competitors. It’s also helpful to speak with customers who use your competitors’ products to find out what they like and dislike about them.
Once you have a good understanding of your competitors, it’s time to make some changes. Knowing what your competition is doing can help improve your marketing or pricing strategy.
Conducting SWOT Analysis
A SWOT analysis helps sift through all the information you’ve collected about your competitors and identify actionable next steps. The SWOT analysis involves evaluating the strengths, weaknesses and opportunities of your business.
Organise your group into small groups of three to ten people and provide them with a dry erase board or a sheet of newsprint. Ask each group to make a list of its own strengths, weakness, opportunities and threats. Allow them 20-30 minutes to complete the exercise.
Strengths should be based on internal practices and activities, as well as aspects of your brand that set it apart from competitors. A good way to identify these qualities is to study competitor data, such as customer feedback and sales performance.
As you compile your strengths, look for any gaps in your business model that could be filled by your competitors. You might find that your competitors are using a strong digital marketing strategy. This is a great opportunity to create a new digital marketing strategy that will give you an edge over your competition.
You should also consider the external factors that can impact your business, such as changing economic conditions or political policies. Also, you should assess any technological advances made by your competitors and determine if you are able to take advantage of them.
You will probably have a bias towards your own business. It is therefore important that you get the most input from your colleagues. This can help you find hidden strengths and weaknesses, as well as new opportunities and threats that may be overlooked.
After you have listed your strengths, weaknesses and opportunities, you can then prioritize them in order to determine which business strategies are most effective both short-term and long-term. You should perform regular SWOT analyses as your business environment changes to ensure you are prepared to adapt to any new challenges. It is also helpful to create a timeline for when you’ll need to review your competitor analysis and devise strategic plans for the future.
Conducting A Feature Comparison
A feature analysis is a form of competitor research in which you evaluate the features of competitors’ products and compare them to your own. This is an important piece of competitive analysis for businesses who need to differentiate their product from the competition.
Imagine you are a car manufacturer who wants to launch a new electric vehicle. You’re deciding whether to include a hybrid plug-in or a fully electrical model in your lineup. To make the best decision, it’s important to understand what customers are looking for in a vehicle and how your competitor’s products measure up. Competitive research is very useful because it allows you to identify any gaps in your product offering and discover new opportunities for innovation.
It takes some work to conduct a feature comparison, but you can use online resources such as product rating sites to gain an unbiased perspective on your competitors’ products and their ratings. It’s a good idea also to speak with actual customers in order to gain insight into how they rate the products and services of your competitors.
One of the most common mistakes in conducting comparative research is focusing on the results of your competitor. It’s important to understand how you compare to your competitors, but it’s also important to understand what they are doing to win the market and maintain their share.
The most successful companies have a comprehensive monitoring system that allows them to respond to changes in their industry. They take a deep look at their direct competitors, but they also analyze indirect competitors that may be gaining ground or posing threats to their business.
Create A Report
A well-researched, competitive analysis is a must-have tool for any business, whether you’re a new startup looking to break into the market, a consultant aiming to deliver results to your clients, or a company that wants to establish its foothold in the marketplace. It should inform your marketing plan, business plan, consultant reports, and every other part of your high-level business strategy.
A competitive analysis doesn’t have to be a complex process, but it does need to be thorough. Create a list of the competitors you wish to analyze. This list should include direct and indirect competition. Direct competitors are businesses that offer the same product or service as you and meet the same need. Indirect competitors are businesses that offer a different product or service but are perceived to meet the same need.
You’ll then need to collect data about your competitors, such as their products, prices, and customer satisfaction levels. You can use tools like Google’s Competitive Analysis to gather this information. It’s also important to talk with real customers about their experiences with your competitors. This will allow you to better understand your customers’ motivations and needs.
Once you have collected the data, it is time to begin putting your report together. Create a table, or chart, that compares the pricing and features of your competitor’s products to yours. This table or graph should be easy-to-read and attractive. It will be easier for your boss or client to quickly skim the report and understand its key findings.
Next, write a thesis statement to help conceptualize the main point of your report. This should be your overarching theme, which connects all the research you have done. If you are stuck, look at your data and find a single finding you think is particularly interesting or important. This will be the basis for your report.
Finally, write a section for each of the competitor markets you’ve chosen to analyze. If you’re analyzing advertising spends, for example, you can include sections on your competitors’ estimated spending, ad types distribution, and ad purchasing methods.