Coke vs. Pepsi, Nike vs. Under Armour, Visa vs. Mastercard—you get the point. These are just examples of fierce, well-known corporate rivalries among brands trying to be the leader in their market. But what about those of us who are less well-known in our market? Do we have competitors? YES! No matter how big or small your company is, you must keep an eye on your competitors.

Competitive information helps you understand your market position, identify industry trends, and uncover opportunities to stand out and differentiate your brand and offerings. Analyzing your competition doesn’t have to be complicated. Here’s a simple, step-by-step guide to analyzing your competitors:

• Identify and categorize your competitors. The first thing you need to do is categorize your competitors into direct and indirect competitors. Direct competitors are top competitors in your respective industry that offer products and services similar to your organization. Indirect competitors are harder to recognize because they may overlap with some of your products or services, but not all. 
• Gather information. Collect key data on each competitor every year. There are various ways to collect data on your competitors such as analyzing their website, social media activity, blogs, videos, and customer reviews on sites like Yelp, Google, and Glassdoor. Some questions to consider:
  • What are your competitors offering? 
  • What is their value proposition?
  • Who are their customers/target audiences?
  • How are they marketing their product or service?

Once you have analyzed this data, identify any gaps you find such as services not offered or topics not covered. 

• Synthesize and analyze. In this step, you review all the data you have gathered and look at it through the lens of your organization, your brand, and your objectives. By comparing your organization to your competitors, you can identify where you have an advantage, what you need to improve, and where opportunities and threats exist. 
• Report and present your findings. Develop a report to disseminate all this information and include recommendations to make informed decisions for your brand. Don’t forget to establish KPIs (key performance indicators) based on competitor performance to measure your progress against goals.

Want to better understand your competition? LMD can help!