Effective Competitor Analysis: A guide

Effective Competitor Analysis_ A guide

By Susan Reilly – Head of Sales and Marketing

Competitor analysis is essential to understand the competition, spot possibilities, and gain a competitive edge in today’s business environment. Businesses can gain essential insights that guide their strategic decisions and foster growth by researching direct and indirect competitors. In this blog, we will discuss the importance of competition analysis, how it gives businesses an advantage, the many forms of competitor analysis, and how Customer Perceptions can help you achieve the results you’re looking for.

What is a Competitor Analysis?

Competitor analysis involves assessing the advantages and disadvantages of both direct and indirect competitors in your industry. It thoroughly analyses and explains the market’s trends, competitor strategies, and consumer preferences. You can get insights that influence your business strategy by analysing your competitors’ strategies, products, pricing, marketing techniques, and customer service.

How a Competitor Analysis Gives You an Advantage in Business

These are some of the benefits of a competitor analysis:

  • Finding market opportunities: This involves researching your competition to find untapped markets, unmet consumer requirements, or new trends that your company can tap into. You can use this information to modify your offerings to appeal to new clients and outperform your competition.
  • Recognise external variables: Competitor analysis enables you to pinpoint external factors, such as legislative changes, scientific developments, or market movements that impact your business. This knowledge aids your ability to predict problems and modify your business strategy as necessary.
  • Improve your business plan:  Analysing the strategies of your competitors will give you an understanding of what works and what doesn’t in your sector. Thanks to this knowledge, you can improve your approach and distinguish your brand.
  • Enhance customer service: Examining the customer service strategies used by your competitors can show you where to improve your customers’ experiences. You can forge closer ties with your loyal customers by being aware of how your competitors interact with their clients and address their problems.
  • Spot new opportunities: Gaining an insight of the clientele and value proposition of your competitors can help you spot possibilities to target and draw in your ideal clients. This information enables you to specifically cater your marketing messages and services to the needs and tastes of your target audience.

Competitive Analysis Methods

Businesses can conduct many sorts of competitor analyses to get insightful data. Here are a few options:

  • Walk-in mystery shopping: In this form of analysis, we visit the location of one of your competitors to observe how they operate. We can assess the company’s customer service, product quality, store design, and overall customer experience by pretending to be one.
  • Telephone mystery shopping: By talking to your competitor on the phone, we can evaluate the standard of their customer service, the speed of their responses, and the efficiency of their sales procedures. We can compare your performance to theirs and find areas for improvement using this approach.
  • Website analysis: Investigating your competitors’ website user interface and web experience can help you improve your own. We can evaluate their overall user experience, as well as their design, navigation, and the functionalities of the sites. This data can help you make changes to your website and improve potential consumers’ user experience.
  • Omni-channel analysis: In today’s digital environment, customer interactions occur across several channels. An omnichannel analysis looks at the customer experience across your competitors’ touchpoints, including call centres, websites, in-store interactions, emails, mobile apps, and social media. This analysis enables you to enhance your omnichannel strategy and understand how your competitors interact holistically with their clients.

Employ our Expert Services for Competitive Analysis

Customer Perceptions recognises the value of competitor analysis to effectively shape your business strategy and acquire a competitive edge. We provide thorough competitor analysis services that provide insightful information to assist you in making well-informed decisions. Contact us for more information today.

The Importance of Competitor Analysis

Many businesses understand the importance of competitor analysis but generally only focus on pricing and products. With the arrival of social media, understanding your competition’s marketing techniques and how you can improve your company’s digital marketing strategy has become as important as pricing and product research. What are some benefits of conducting a competitive analysis?        

Customer reviews highlight what your competitor’s product lacks, offering you the opportunity to add elements to your product that will meet their needs.

  • You can identify marketplace opportunities on which to test out new marketing strategies your competition is not using.
  • Learn what your competition is doing well and what you need to do to stay relevant and competitive in your industry.
  • Gain a benchmark against which you can measure your company’s growth. 

At Customer Perceptions, we offer competitor analysis services that measure your competitor’s customer journey, pricing, point of sale (POS), promotions, policies and procedures. Let’s look in more detail at competitor analysis.

They are Industry Specific   

Are your ideas about your competitors and the market up to date and accurate? An industry-specific competitor analysis creates a more comprehensive picture of the market and industry in which you compete. There are similarities between industries, but there are also differences. The hospitality, retail, and financial industries offer promotions as part of their business strategy, but their target market and products differ.

Do you want to measure, compare and benchmark your performance against your competitors? We can do a competitor analysis for clients in the travel, restaurant and dining, retail and online, hospitality and tourism, medical and care, financial, and professional services industries.

Strengths & Weaknesses From Other Businesses Are Identified   

Have you spent time with your sales, marketing, and customer service teams to gather the data you want to use to benchmark your company? The next step is to collect information about your direct competitors to learn about their strengths and weaknesses. Research the following factors:

  • Product. How do the qualities and features of the products compare to your own?
  • Pricing. Can you estimate their cost structure? What is their discount policy? 
  • Place. What is their geographic reach compared to your business?
  • Promotion. What is their presence on social media, and what marketing tactics are they using?
  • Positioning. Review their websites, catalogues etc. What is their unique selling proposition?
  • Reputation. What are people saying online, and on social media about your competitor’s products and services?
  • People. How big is the organisation? 
  • Partnerships. Who are their suppliers and how long have they been working together? 
  • Once you have all the above information, do a Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT) analysis for an effective competitor analysis.  

Market Opportunities are Revealed   

A competitor analysis will reveal market opportunities, however, look further than your direct competitor towards indirect and even substitute competitors. They might offer other insights and markets you never considered. Indirect competitors are businesses in the same category as yours but have different clientele, products, and services. An example of an indirect competitor would be a winery and brewery. Both sell alcohol, but their products and clients are not the same. A substitute competitor has different products and services than you, but they target the same customers in your geographic area. They might be doing something distinctive to attract potential customers.

The Most Important: Performance Evaluation   

Once you collect all the information and complete the SWOT analysis, it is time to do a performance evaluation. How does your business, products, or services compare to your direct, indirect or substitute competitors? What competitive advantage do you have that appeals to your target market? When you understand where your brand is positioned, make strategic decisions that help grow your brand and translate those into actionable results with timelines. 

At Customer Perceptions, we follow a partnership approach. We adapt our solutions to suit your changing business needs. When was the last time you benchmarked your business against your competition in the marketplace? The importance of competitor analysis cannot be underestimated. Contact us today. 

The Importance of Competitor Analysis

The Importance Of Competitor Analysis

Many businesses understand the importance of competitor analysis but generally only focus on pricing and products. With the arrival of social media, understanding your competition’s marketing techniques and how you can improve your company’s digital marketing strategy has become as important as pricing and product research. What are some benefits of conducting a competitive analysis?        

  • Customer reviews highlight what your competitor’s product lacks, offering you the opportunity to add elements to your product that will meet their needs.
  • You can identify marketplace opportunities on which to test out new marketing strategies your competition is not using.
  • Learn what your competition is doing well and what you need to do to stay relevant and competitive in your industry.
  • Gain a benchmark against which you can measure your company’s growth. 

At Customer Perceptions, we offer competitor analysis services that measure your competitor’s customer journey, pricing, point of sale (POS), promotions, policies and procedures. Let’s look in more detail at competitor analysis.

They are Industry Specific   

Are your ideas about your competitors and the market up to date and accurate? An industry-specific competitor analysis creates a more comprehensive picture of the market and industry in which you compete. There are similarities between industries, but there are also differences. The hospitality, retail, and financial industries offer promotions as part of their business strategy, but their target market and products differ.

Do you want to measure, compare and benchmark your performance against your competitors? We can do a competitor analysis for clients in the travel, restaurant and dining, retail and online, hospitality and tourism, medical and care, financial, and professional services industries.

Strengths & Weaknesses From Other Businesses Are Identified   

Have you spent time with your sales, marketing, and customer service teams to gather the data you want to use to benchmark your company? The next step is to collect information about your direct competitors to learn about their strengths and weaknesses. Research the following factors:

Product. How do the qualities and features of the products compare to your own?

Pricing. Can you estimate their cost structure? What is their discount policy? 

Place. What is their geographic reach compared to your business?

Promotion. What is their presence on social media, and what marketing tactics are they using?

Positioning. Review their websites, catalogues etc. What is their unique selling proposition?

Reputation. What are people saying online, and on social media about your competitor’s products and services?

People. How big is the organisation? 

Partnerships. Who are their suppliers and how long have they been working together? 

Once you have all the above information, do a Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT) analysis for an effective competitor analysis.  

Market Opportunities are Revealed   

A competitor analysis will reveal market opportunities, however, look further than your direct competitor towards indirect and even substitute competitors. They might offer other insights and markets you never considered. Indirect competitors are businesses in the same category as yours but have different clientele, products, and services. An example of an indirect competitor would be a winery and brewery. Both sell alcohol, but their products and clients are not the same. A substitute competitor has different products and services than you, but they target the same customers in your geographic area. They might be doing something distinctive to attract potential customers.

The Most Important: Performance Evaluation   

Once you collect all the information and complete the SWOT analysis, it is time to do a performance evaluation. How does your business, products, or services compare to your direct, indirect or substitute competitors? What competitive advantage do you have that appeals to your target market? When you understand where your brand is positioned, make strategic decisions that help grow your brand and translate those into actionable results with timelines. 

At Customer Perceptions, we follow a partnership approach. We adapt our solutions to suit your changing business needs. When was the last time you benchmarked your business against your competition in the marketplace? The importance of competitor analysis cannot be underestimated. Contact us today.