Providing what customers want is the main goal of marketing. However, this alone is not sufficient to ensure success; the real challenge is to be able to meet customers’ requirements better than competitors. Following are some questions seeking answers to which will start your competitor analysis.
1. Who are Your Current and Potential Competitors?
Though the answer to this question may seem straightforward, the span of present and potential competitors is typically much broader than it seems at first sight. Companies should realize that competitors don’t necessarily have the same or similar products or services on sale as that of yours.
2. What Position have Competitors Gained in the Market?
To start with, competitors can be classified into groups based upon similarities and differences in the applied strategies. The concept of making strategic groups makes the job of competitor analysis more organized. Having a more narrowed down and focused approach will help you in implementation of strategies and eventually success.
3. What are Their Strategic Aims and Drives?
The analyses of competitors’ aims are essential because they give insight into if a competitor is complacent with their important market position and profit, and thereby what the chances are to retain their current strategy, particularly when the competitor makes a specific strategic move. Companies should study competitor aims and drives, as they will impact their own strategic decisions.
4. What are Their Current and Future Strategies?
Companies should review past and present strategies of every leading competitor. Reviewing past strategies gives an insight into failures and show how organizations brought about changes. Studying competitor strategies includes evaluation of competitor’s target market and differential benefit. It is also beneficial for organizations to assess how successful the competitors have been in accomplishing their objectives and implementing strategies.
5. Identifying Their Strengths and Weaknesses
An accurate understanding of competitors’ strengths and weaknesses is a vital prerequisite for creating a strategy to compete against them. Whether competitors can implement their strategies and achieve their goals depends on their capabilities and resources. Ideally, keeping this in mind, organizations should make use of their own strengths to take benefit of competitors’ weaknesses.
6. Studying Their Response Patterns
A main objective of competitor analysis is the ability to predict the responses of competitors to the changes in market and competition. Counter response strategies and scenario planning could mitigate risk and help with the implementation of your own plans and strategies.
From these points, you must have realized how important competitor analysis is. And now you can get Competitors Analytics for Free! HeatSync is a tool that brings all yours and your competitors’ analytics on a single easy-to-use platform for free. Visit their site to know more about this wonderful tool.