Competitor Analysis
Category: Marketing
A thorough knowledge of the competitors (who does what and why) will help you gain time and money. Often a company only realises the importance of this the day when it loses an order to a competitor. Then it could be too late…
When working on an analysis of the competitor you should think in broad terms. The direct comparable competitor is easy to identify. The problem arises when the company’s perception of a competitor is different from that of the customers’. Many companies must be prepared to change the common perception of competitors from one day to the other.
The introduction of the compact disc changed «overnight» the future for the producers of pickups. The Danish textile industry was confident that its superiority within design and quality would last until the day when it was challenged by the Far East by heavy competition on price from Asian companies who employed and used Scandinavian designers and producers to gain market share.
The content of the concrete competitor analysis should of course correspond with its purpose. The analysis should concentrate on competitor conditions which influence the company’s future situation. Be aware that the competitor information is not always objective for which reason the reliability ought to be checked. Information can be qualified as good, bad, big, strong, etc. but these conceptions are quite wide and only make sense when we know what to compare with.
Evidently the actions and behaviour of the competitors should not decide the company’s future marketing strategy. However, a solid knowledge of the competition situation minimises the waste of resources and the ability to exploit the weaknesses of the competitors. A competitor analysis could therefore start with a reflection on
| Who are our most important and fastest growing competitors? | Which companies/businesses have or could possibly develop products/services to replace ours? | |
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