How to Conduct and Prepare a Competitive Analysis

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An in-depth investigation and analysis of your competition allows you to assess your competitor’s strengths and weaknesses in your marketplace and helps you to choose and implement effective strategies that will improve your competitive advantagei

WHAT TO EXPECTAn in-depth investigation and analysis of your competition is one of the most important components of a comprehensive market analysis. A competitive analysis allows you to assess your competitor’s strengths and weaknesses in your marketplace and implement effective strategies to improve your competitive advantage. This Business Builder will take you through a step-by-step process of competitive analysis, helping you to identify your competition, determine and weigh their attributes, assess their strengths and weaknesses, and uncover their objectives and strategies in your market segment.

What Types of Organizations Should I Consider as Competitors?

Any business marketing a product similar to, or as a substitute for, your own product in the same geographic area is a direct competitor. Firms offering dissimilar or substitute products in relation to your product or service are considered indirect competitors. Indirect competition would exist between the manufacturer of butter and a manufacturer of margarine selling to the same customers.

Another example is the manufacturer of eyeglasses who competes indirectly with contact lens manufacturers. Stated in other terms, indirect competition will satisfy the customer’s need with a particular product or service, although the product or service used may be different from yours. If a firm has similar products and distribution channels, but has chosen to operate in different market segments, they are not at this time your direct competitor. However, it’s important to monitor the marketing activities of such firms because they may decide to move into your market segment, just as you may decide to move into theirs. Take a moment and identify your direct and indirect competitors:

Why is a Comprehensive Competitive Analysis an Important Part of a Marketing Plan?

To achieve and maintain a competitive advantage in reaching and selling to your target market, you must possess a thorough knowledge of your competition. An in-depth competitive analysis will provide you with the following:

• An understanding of how your existing and potential customers rate thecompetition.
• A positive identification of your competitor’s strengths and weaknesses.
• A mechanism to develop effective competitive strategies in your targetmarket.

Do I Need to Analyze All of My Competitors?

There are several markets where it is relatively easy to name every competitor. These are concentrated markets where only a handful of competitors exist. If this is the scenario for your product or service, you will need to develop an analysis for each competitor. The steel industry and automobile industry are examples of these types of markets.

If you are selling in a market with many competitors, your job of analyzing the competition becomes a little more difficult. Since it is unrealistic to collect and maintain information on dozens of competitors, you will be able to save yourself valuable time, without sacrificing the integrity of your competitive analysis, by using the old 80/20 rule. In fragmented markets with many competitors, it is most probable that 80% of the total market revenues are accounted for by 20% of the competition. It’s the 20% you would examine most closely.

For instance, in the computer industry, the personal computer market, is represented by hundreds of clone manufacturers with the majority of the market being captured by a handful of manufacturers such as Compaq, IBM, and Apple. When using this approach it is important to keep abreast of your market for new and upcoming players who through some variable, whether it be new technology or an aggressive advertising campaign, may become a dominant player.

What Means are Available to Limit and Control the Competition?

Marketers of different brands of products will often pursue a particular market segment. Market Segmentation, which is the means of breaking down larger markets into smaller ones requiring different marketing mixes, is a means for strengthening and focusing your attempt to limit and control the competition. There are however, a broad range of strategies a business can employ in a competitive environment — from price changing and new packaging to improving customer service and new product development.

Conducting and preparing your competitive analysis will follow these steps:

• Conduct Research
• Gather Competitive Information
• Analyze Competitive Information
• Determine Your Own Competitive Position

Conduct Research

Professional marketing research, such as focus groups and questionnaires, can provide you with valuable information about your competition. While a marketing research firm can save you time and legwork, it can be quite expensive and simply not a possibility for new and growing businesses. Much of the information you need in order to profile your competitors is readily available to all business owners. As your business grows and expands, you should consider supplementing your own research efforts with some formal research conducted for you by an outside firm. Before you begin seeking out the sources listed below, keep in mind that you need to obtain answers to the following questions:

• Who are my top three competitors?
• On what basis am I able to compete?
• What is the range of products and services they offer?
• Are their products or services aimed at satisfying similar target markets?
• Are my competitors profitable?
• Are they expanding? Scaling down?
• How long have they been in business?
• What are their positive attributes in the eyes of customers?
• What are their negative attributes in the eyes of customers?
• How do current customers view us compared to the competition?
• How can I distinguish my company from my competitors?
• Do they have a competitive advantage; if so, what is it?
• What is their marketing strategy?
• What is their promotional strategy?
• What are their pricing structures?
• Do they operate in the same geographic area?
• Have there been any changes in their targeted market segments?
• What is their size? Revenues?
• What is their percentage of market share?
• What is their total sales volume?
• What is their growth rate?
• How do they rate on: 

   

   

  • customer service?
  • quality of product/service?
  • hours of operations?
  • pricing, incentives?
  • employees?
  • resources?

Gather Competitive Information

Secondary sources of information are recommended as an excellent starting point for developing a competitive and industry analysis. Secondary sources include information developed for a specific purpose but subsequently made available for public access and thus alternative uses. For example, books are secondary sources of information as are articles published in journals. Marketing reports offered for sale to the general public also are considered secondary sources. Although, they have been created for a purpose other than your current need, they are still excellent sources of information and data. With the ever increasing speed of document identification and retrieval through electronic means, secondary sources are not only an inexpensive source of information but are readily available soon after publication. Sources of information include:

• Advertising Not only does advertising copy tell you a competitor’s price and other product information, it provides an indication of your competitor’s entire promotional program and budget. When reading a competitor’s advertisement be sure to note the following: publication, frequency, special offers, product features and benefits highlighted. If your competitor suddenly places an advertisement in an industry publication that neither of you are currently selling to, it’s an indication that they’re trying to reach a new market segment. It’s also important to notice the design and tone of your competitor’s advertisements. What kind of image do they convey? How does your own image compare? Are their advertisements in color while your own are black-and-white? Even if they’re not, a clever advertising campaign can communicate that your competitor is an innovative, fresh company. 

   

   

  Sales Brochures Sales brochures provide a wealth of product information. You can learn how your competitor is positioning their product and company and what features and benefits they’re using to sell their product. Try to obtain all new sales brochures and literature your competitor publishes. Significant changes in the content will indicate that new strategies are being employed.

• Newspaper and Magazine Articles Articles in newspapers and magazines are a source of information you can use to get an idea of what your competitor is planning for the future, how their organization is run, and what new product information or innovations they have. Journalists may also uncover and reveal unflattering information about your competitor that may prove valuable to you. Be on the lookout for product reviews in magazines; they will reveal a competing product’s strengths and weaknesses. Visit a college or public library. The reference librarian will show you how to find pertinent articles online much more quickly and easily than you’ll find them by browsing.

• Reference Books and DatabasesThe publications listed in this section are available at most public and college libraries that have business resources. Ask a librarian to help you find them, as many are likely to be online and not listed in the library catalog. 

   

   

  • Government sources that you should examine include: 

     

     

    • Census Bureau sources of statistics on your business, such as the Quarterly Financial Report for Manufacturing, Mining, and Trade Corporations, County Business Patterns, the Annual Survey of Manufacturesand the Economic Censuses.
    • State agency publications such as industry directories, and statistics on local industry employment, production, and equipment capabilities. Find likely sources through the State and Local Government on the Net Web site.
    • Local competitive data from the City Clerk’s office, the County Clerk’s office and the Chamber of Commerce.

     

  • Commercial data sources include: 

     

     

    • Dun & Bradstreet Million Dollar Database directory. This database includes over 1,600,000 businesses with a net worth of $1 million or more. Data can be selected alphabetically, geographically, by line of business, and officers and directors.
    • Ward’s Business Directory of U.S. Private and Public Companies (annual), provides profiles of over 100,000 companies (small and mid-size companies as well as large corporations, most privately held) across the U.S. Profiles include assets, gross earnings, revenues, and other pertinent information.
    • Financial ratios that can be used to compare your company’s performance with competitors’ performance are published in Almanac of Business and Industrial Financial Ratios by Leo Troy, the Dun & Bradstreet Industry Norms and Key Business Ratios, and RMA Annual Statement Studies.

  Online versions of these products not only make their pertinent statistics easy to find. They often permit you to download data so you can combine it with other data to produce your own statistics.

   

• Annual Reports If your competitor is a publicly-held company, many of its reports to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission are available on the SEC-Edgar Web site. Annual reports provide financial information, including sales volume, revenue increases, and their total market share. 10-K reports provide still more detail, and are supplemented by the quarterly 10-Qs. 8-Ks show significant events such as acquisitions and board membership changes when they occur between 10-K and 10-Q filings. 

   

   

  Annual reports from privately-held corporations are sometimes available through friends, relatives, and business acquaintances who own stock in a competitor’s company.

   

• Your Sales Force Your sales staff probably has more access to competitive information than anyone else in your organization. Customers often show salespeople sales literature, contracts, price quotes, and other information from competitors. Part of a salesperson’s job is to get customers to discuss problems they have with a competitor’s product. Customers will also reveal your competition’s product benefits, strengths, and customer service programs. 

   

   

  Instruct your sales force to ask for copies of any competitive literature if and when that’s possible. Your entire sales staff should keep a record of all competitive information they discover — even if it’s just a rumor or gossip. Devote a regular portion of each sales meeting to a discussion of the competition.

   

• Other Employees Your employees working in other areas of the company also become exposed to competitive information. They interact with others in their industry area and often learn what your rival is doing or hear gossip and rumors. Make sure your entire staff knows they should share any information concerning the competition immediately. 

   

   

  Former employees of a competitor can provide you with insight on: your competitor’s new products, marketing strategies, how-to improve productivity and employ other resources more effectively, and what your competitor’s general working environment is like.

   

• Trade Associations Most professional trade associations compile and publish industry statistics and report on industry news and leaders through trade association magazines and newsletters. Most trade associations also sponsor trade shows and other professional meetings. This is an opportunity to see first-hand what your competition is producing. It also provides the opportunity to discover new players who may soon become your competition. 

   

   

   

• Direct Observation If you own a flower shop, you should visit all of the flower shops in your geographic region. Act as a prospective customer; ask questions. You can learn about their selection and service and compare it to your own. 

   

   

  • Do not use an alias or disguise to gather intelligence from competitors. It may seem like a trivial deception, but it is dishonest, and could come back to haunt you.
  • If you produce a product that is distributed to retail outlets, visit the store locations and note the following: 

     

     

    • how much stock is present versus your competitor’s
    • the placement of your product on the shelves versus your competitor’s
    • if your competitor is supplying any point-of-purchase display materials

     

  • If you and your rivals have similar products and prices, then it’s especially important for you to know how you compare on customer service issues. Call an 800-number and pretend to be a customer with questions and problems.
  • If you sell products through a catalog, you not only want to be on your competition’s mailing list; you should order a product from them to determine how long it takes to arrive, the method of shipment, and how it was packaged.
  • Buy your competitor’s products. Products can be evaluated and reverse engineered to provide meaningful information about your competitor’s capabilities and weaknesses, technological innovations, manufacturing costs and methods.

   

• Your Competitors You probably see the owner of a rival organization at trade shows, association meetings, and perhaps even socially. You can garner a great deal of information through a simple, friendly conversation. People like to talk about themselves and share their success stories and concerns with business associates. 

   

   

  Assign someone to check the competitions’ Web sites regularly for pertinent changes and news. (And take a good look at your own: Do you say anything there that you’d just as soon not have your competitors see?)

   

• Your Business Network Make it a point to interview your customers, suppliers, and industry experts about your competition’s product and service. 

   

   

   

  Source: Edward Lowe

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