Competitive analysis helps you detect opportunities to innovate your techniques and materials, promote your business, improve your products and exceed your competition.
Thanks to competitive analysis you can find out where your company and products work, what you need to improve and what trends you need to stay ahead of. Want to know more?
In this article we tell you what a competitive analysis of a company is and what are the steps you have to follow to carry it out.
What is a competitive analysis of a company?
A competitive analysis is a strategy that involves researching major industry competitors to learn about their products, sales and marketing tactics. In this way, it is possible to implement stronger business strategies, drive competitors away and capture market share.
A competitive analysis allows you to stay abreast of industry trends and ensure that your products meet – and exceed – industry standards.
A competitive analysis should not only examine competitors’ characteristics, market share, pricing, marketing strategies, differentiators, strengths and weaknesses, technology and customer feedback, but also uncover opportunities. You can see it here with a case study of the industrial confectionery sector by conducting an exhaustive market study.
When do you need to do a competitor analysis?
One of the main reasons why companies conduct competitor analysis is when they conduct market research and realise that they are not growing as fast as they should or are not achieving the expected sales and orders that their competitors are getting.
It is even more necessary if a company has the same target audience as its competitors and offers comparable products or services, but fails to reach them.
In this sense, a competitive analysis provides the necessary roadmap to capture a larger market share and to better understand future trends that will affect a specific industry.
How to conduct a competitive analysis
1. Identify competitors
The first step in conducting a competitive analysis is to identify your competitors. There are two types of competitors:
- Direct: one that offers the same product or service and targets the same customer base as your business.
- Indirect: one that sells similar products, but targets a different customer sector, or sells different products and services, but shares your customer niche.
Identifying and researching indirect competition is important as it gives a different perspective on both the business and the customers.
2. Establish the products you want to evaluate
These will be the products or services that generate the most revenue or demonstrate the most significant growth potential.
You will also need to identify areas for improvement and implement changes.
Strategic Design can improve the quality of your products or services by adding or modifying features, lowering the price to make them more available, or improving manufacturing techniques and materials.
3. Determine what products your competitors offer
Not only will you have to carry out a business analysis, but you will also have to study your competitor’s entire product line and the quality of the techniques they use and the products they bring to the market.
Moreover, you will also have to take note of their prices and the discounts they offer to customers.
Find out what advantages your competitors offer and how to match them in order to compete.
4. Analyse the marketing of your competitors’ products.
Analysing your competitor’s website is the quickest way to find out about their marketing strategies.
To do this, research their blog, social media posts, whether they upload videos, seminars or conferences, etc.
5. Technology your competitors use.
Understanding what types of technology, machinery and techniques your competitors use is critical to improving your own industry and encouraging the development of high quality products.
6. Competitor product analysis
Product analysis is a fundamental part of a company’s competitive analysis, as it aims to drill down to discover key differences and similarities in products that share the same market niche.
But, how do we drill down and discover the key differentiators in our competitors’ product offerings? We can do the following:
- Evaluate the current price of their product.
- Compare the main features.
- Identify the differentiators.
- Identify market gaps.
By understanding where your products and those of your competitors’ overlap and diverge, you will be better positioned to make strategic decisions that can grow your brand.
At INFINITIA Industrial Consulting we conduct competitive analysis to help you improve your products, win more customers and increase your sales. Contact our Strategic Design team and tell us about your case.