Scribd
Upload
471 views3 pages

Competitor Analysis

Competitor analysis is a vital part of marketing planning that helps firms anticipate competitors' actions, identify their own unique selling points, and exploit competitors' weaknesses. To conduct an effective competitor analysis, a firm should identify their key competitors and collect various types of data on competitors' size, customer base, positioning strategies, objectives, and strengths/weaknesses. This data can come from recorded sources like annual reports, observable sources like analyzing marketing strategies, or opportunistic sources like talking to customers and former employees. Regular competitor analysis is crucial for staying ahead of competition and formulating growth strategies.

Uploaded by

Jef De Vera
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
471 views3 pages

Competitor Analysis

Competitor analysis is a vital part of marketing planning that helps firms anticipate competitors' actions, identify their own unique selling points, and exploit competitors' weaknesses. To conduct an effective competitor analysis, a firm should identify their key competitors and collect various types of data on competitors' size, customer base, positioning strategies, objectives, and strengths/weaknesses. This data can come from recorded sources like annual reports, observable sources like analyzing marketing strategies, or opportunistic sources like talking to customers and former employees. Regular competitor analysis is crucial for staying ahead of competition and formulating growth strategies.

Uploaded by

Jef De Vera
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 3

Competitor Analysis

Introduction
Any organization that wishes to succeed in their market, needs to analyze their
competitor's strategies. Competitor analysis is a vital part of the marketing planning
process. A strong competitor can hinder business success, even lead to business
failure. Competitor analysis helps firms to anticipate their competitor's actions and
exploit competitor's weaknesses. It also helps firms to identify their unique selling
points, so that these can be promoted in marketing campaigns. Competitor analysis is
an ongoing task, as successful competitors will continuously develop their marketing
strategies, in response to changes in the market place.

The competitor analysis diagram below lists what information to analyze and the
types of competitor data to use in your competitor analysis.

What Competitor Information Should be Collated?


1. Who are your competitors?
The firm should decide on which competitors are likely to impact on their
business and which businesses the firm will be able to compete with. This will
depend on the size of the business and whether it is a national or local business.
For example, a local shop will not be able to compete with a national
supermarket but they may need to take a "mini" branch of a supermarket chain
into account if it is located near to the shop. There are a number of models which
can be used to identify competitors including Porters Five Forces model.

2. What is the size and dominance of your competitors within the market?
An understanding of the market share each competitor has, will help you
identify their size and dominance. It will also reveal whether there is market share
available for your business.
3. What customer base do competitors have?
This will help you identify if a firm is a competitor. If a firm is aimed at a
different customer base to yours they may not be a competitor. However, if their
success is due to their customer base should your firm reconsider your customer
base? And would you like to compete directly with the competitor?

4. What are market positioning strategies of competitors?


This question is about the perceptions customers have about your
competitor's products. Are they quality products? cheap products or luxury
products? Think about how each competitor's positioning strategy is the same or
different to yours?

5. What objectives does each competitor have?


This includes future growth plans and company values. For example, are
they about to embark on an aggressive growth program? Or do they believe in
recycling and saving the planet. To gather information about competitor
objectives and plans look at their websites, company reports, press releases and
marketing material. It is important to analyze competitor objectives so that you
get an idea of their values and likely strategy.

6. What are their strengths and weaknesses of each competitor?


A SWOT analysis may help you to identify and record the answers to this
question. Each competitor will have strengths that give them a competitive
advantage. They are also likely to have weaknesses that may give you or other
competitors an advantage. Once you know a competitor's strengths you can think
about how to minimize their impact on your business. Conversely if a competitor
has a weakness your marketing plan should look at how to exploit it and benefit
your firm.

Competitor Data Types


Information from an array of sources can be collected on your competitors.
Examples of data sources include:
 Competitor's websites.
 Annual reports produced by competitors.
 Observing competitor activity.
 News about competitors on the TV or in newspapers and magazines.
 Asking people using competitor products and services for their views about the
competitor
 Mystery shopper and covert operations such as pretending to be a customer at
your competitor's store, or phoning their telephone sales line.

Competitor Data Sources


In 1997 Davidson suggested that data sources for competitor analysis information
can be divided into three groups.
1. Recorded data
This is data on competitors that has been published. This data could be
produced by the organization itself (internal) e.g. annual reports or by an outside
body (external) e.g. newspaper articles or magazine reviews of competitor
products.

2. Observable data
This is data collected through observing competitor activities. This could
include analyzing competitor marketing mix strategy, product launches and
service offerings.

3. Opportunistic data.
This type of data is collected through talking to bodies that have/have had
contact with competitors such as their suppliers, their customers, and their former
and/or current employees. Some firms take this a step further and employ
employees who have worked for competitors.

Conclusion
Competitor analysis is crucial if the firm wants to stay ahead of the competition.
Effective competitor analysis can give firms new ideas and help formulate strategies for
growth by revealing how "others" carry out marketing. It can also allow firms to exploit
the strengths and weaknesses of competitor firms.

Firms have lots of jobs to carry out so it can be easy to neglect competitors but
you cannot "beat the competition" if you do not know what they are doing. Do not make
the mistake of neglecting competitor analysis; competitors are part of your marketing
environment.

You might also like