competitive advantage-Understanding the competition landscape is an important part of developing a strong brand strategy. Learn why understanding this environment is critical to establishing your own competitive advantage.
What is competitor analysis and how does it work?
Market orientation, or the act of discovering and addressing the declared or hidden needs or wants of customers, is a critical component of developing a brand strategy.
However, deciding how you want to compete is an important aspect of your plan, which necessitates a thorough study of the competition.
By focusing on your present and potential competitors, you’ll be able to pinpoint key claims that you believe set your brand apart from the competition. The better you understand the brands that compete directly and indirectly in your field or sector, the better equipped you will be to capitalise on opportunities and prevent threats to your own company. You can stay one step ahead of the game and the competition this way.
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Competitors in the same category vs. the overall market
While it is critical to focus on your most relevant competitors, businesses can put themselves at danger by focusing solely on what they assume are their category competitors.
However, not identifying a category disruptor or a business reinventing the category itself might have a significant impact on your business. In recent years, we’ve seen countless examples of this, from Facebook and Google becoming big advertising platforms to Amazon and eBay changing the retail industry. The basic principle created in The Blue Ocean Strategy was the potential to redefine a category by altering the given benefits to differentiate in new and unexpected ways. Businesses and brands must address this issue by occasionally taking a larger picture of the market landscape and looking outside their own category. Talk to customers who have left your category to see if the “category” is losing customers and other categories you might be competing with outside of your own.
Why would you conduct competition research?
The most successful firms employ competitor analysis to stay forward-thinking — it helps them update their strategy based on the insights they’ve unearthed, and magnify what works. Based on customer feedback from other competitive businesses in their market, it assists businesses in determining how they may develop by better servicing their customers. Businesses will be better off if they understand how and why they compete for share of mind and pocketbook.
When companies don’t do regular competition studies, they risk not understanding when and why customers prefer their competitors, not identifying their own competitive vulnerabilities, and missing out on new threats and possibilities.
When marketers have a deep understanding of their brand, they may believe that competitor study is unnecessary. This is a typical misunderstanding. Humans are complex creatures, which implies that making decisions isn’t always simple or sensible.
You may construct an accurate image of how to become a more significant part of your consumers’ everyday life by asking them about their views, attitudes, behaviours, and experiences with you and your competitors.
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How do you figure out who your competition are?
Direct, indirect, aspirational…they all matter, and it’s critical that you grasp their importance in terms of what you’re attempting to do and where and how you’ll compete.
To begin, you must ask your customers and put yourself in their position. Because you are the brand, not the customer, this is the case. What we think we know isn’t always correct. People don’t always think in categories the way we assume they do — they might think outside the box as well. Businesses should do the same.
Only through talking to them can you reflect their viewpoint and gain a better understanding of their actions, as well as your (the company’s) place in the larger competitive landscape.
Second, do some research on the computer. Read feature articles and trend reports on your industry to get a sense of what’s going on now and in the future. You’ll be able to stay one step ahead of your competitors and lead the market in this way.
Maintain an open mind and a broad lens with this in mind. Take the broadest possible view of the competitive landscape. You will not only gain a greater understanding of the context in which you operate, but you will also learn more. Some of the most successful businesses copy ideas that have proven to be successful in other marketplaces and apply them to their own.
Consider the competition as’share of throat,’ rather than trying to figure out a brand’s proportion of the beer market.’ Why? Because not everyone enjoys beer, but many people enjoy wine or gin, which are frequently in rivalry with beer.
What are the many aspects of a competition to look into?
Marketing research, when used in conjunction with competition analysis, is critical for understanding customer attitudes about brands and products, as well as our competitors’ attitudes and how they impact the market.
This is because you’re receiving significant insight into why individuals use them or don’t use them by asking those who do.
However, this can be divided down into subtopics.
Who are your competitors’ target customers?
What do customers appreciate and dislike about the product, service, or brand?
What makes consumers like or detest a product, service, or brand? What are their reasons for using or not using the brand?
When do they come in handy? Are there any special conditions or occasions when you should utilise it?
What would a customer be willing to spend, and why?
Are they at the forefront of the customer’s thoughts when purchasing or using a product or service?
But, most importantly, how does it compare to you?
How do you go about conducting competition research?
Breaking down a competition study into stages, using the questions above as a framework, is a good approach to go.
To begin, consider what you already know.
Begin by conducting stakeholder interviews to gain insight into the brand’s vision and experience. Consider the market from their perspective; it may differ from yours or your colleagues’. Then conduct desk research to gain a better understanding of any emerging bigger trends, as well as study recent marketing research that may offer information about your competitors. It’s critical to start each new marketing research project with a clear notion of what you’re looking for.
Second, consider what you don’t know.
But, you could wonder, how do I know what I don’t know? Begin by casting a wide net, then narrow it as you focus in on the information that is critical to your organisation.
Using competitor research to have a better understanding of the big picture
At this point, it’s time to obtain consumer information on your chosen themes, and today’s marketers have a variety of methods at their disposal to do so – surveys, social media listening, and purchasing panel data (e.g. Nielsen Panel, IRI), each with its own purpose.
Surveys may be used to analyse opinions, passive data can be used to understand behaviour, and panels can be used to measure market penetration and share. When all of these factors are combined, it is possible to have a better understanding of public sentiment and opinion on specific issues and competitors, as well as a larger view of the market.
You might want to segment this study as well, so you can examine how different audiences interact with market competitors. This will help you figure out where you excel and where you can improve in comparison to your competitors. While it’s necessary to have this information, it’s also critical to listen to and act on the insights that emerge from it.
There are resources available to assist you with this. The Qualtrics BrandXM platform, for example, can assist you in focusing on the platform’s essential points of action.
Qualitative data collection methods are equally significant. Social media listening technologies, for example, are useful for determining the share of voice and establishing crucial metric benchmarks.
These can also be used in conjunction with more standard qualitative methods like focus groups and interviews. Use these techniques to delve deeper and converse with people to learn what motivates their attitudes and behaviours. We collaborate with colleagues at Qualtrics to help you conduct qualitative research, and here’s where it gets really cool: by importing qualitative data into BrandXM, you can quantify it and extract trends and important insights in your dashboard. This will aid you in developing your plan in the future.
