
How do you stay ahead of the curve ? How do make customer prefer your product in ocean of available same/similar products ? How do you amaze customers with true authentic trusted information from very first encounter ? How do you make sure everyone in company is communicating the same information to customers at every touchpoint ? All these are answered through a DISCIPLINED COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS APPROACH.
What is a true Competitive Analysis ? It’s the process of ingrained research about prevalent competition in all dimensions to maintain a COMPETITIVE PREFERENCE resulting in making “Our product as THE PRODUCT OF CHOICE”
The SUCCESS MANTRA: is “Knowing the Competitors Product, Processes, Vision & strategies even better than the Competitor himself to understand if they are thriving or facing challenges as well as OUR PRODUCT, PROCESS, BENEFITS IN & OUT ” and thereby serving customers & growing revenue.
GOAL: is to always deliver more for customers and exceed expectations with better quality innovative product, more lovable features , better customer Service, optimal price, trustworthy interaction at every touchpoint with customer.
KEY DIMENSIONS TO CATEGORIZE COMPETITION: are Product Features & Benefits: Market Share & Growth: Channels, Promotions & GTM: Financials, ProfitMargin & Revenue: Customer Experience, Support & Advocacy : Sales Cycle Effectiveness : ROI Realization by Customers , Unique Value Proposition, Unfair Advantage
All these helps to define successful positioning strategy & messaging to pierce the market favoring the competition & make customers prefer our brand. It is ever evolving & NOT one time activity to proactively adjust to ever changing market & evolving competition. PERFORM Surveys, Interviews, Social Listening to know more about the market & competition
It helps in understanding:
How are Customers performing in this ever changing market ?
What is their Vision & Strategy ?
What is their Innovation Focus areas ?
Are they planning to move to a new market segment ?
Are they planning to grow organically or through targeted acquisitions ?
What is their GTM strategy forNew & Existing product Line ?
Which channels they use predominantly in attracting, acquiring, nurturing and converting prospects & customer ?
How is their Marketing to Sales to Customer Service handoff ?
What are Customers saying about their product ? And many more.
BENEFITS OF A THOROUGH COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS:
Capitalize on Competitor Weakness
Learn from Competitor Messaging & Marketing strategies
Compete more effectively
Optimize the communication at every touchpoint to make it more effective
Unravel new market opportunities where there is GAP and align new/modified products
TheFocus should be always on both current competitor landscape as well as the upcoming ones to proactively align products that astonishes the Customers
WHEN TO PERFORM THE ANALYSIS?
Ideally this is like a Flow of River which need to be always kept an eye & referred.
During ideation phase and creating initial business plan
During a new product launch
During every Marketing Plan & leveraged in all Campaigns to make sure Customers prefer our products over anyone else.
When key changes happen in the market impacting TAM
TYPES:
Primary – Same product
Secondary – Similar product
Tertiary – May pivot if required
COMPETITOR PROFILE SHOULD INCLUDE:
Revenue
Sales
Sales growth
Industry Segment
Demographic Information
Marketing strategies
Range of products & pricing
Customer Experience
Customer Ratings
Sales Funnel Stages
Negotiation Strategies
Key Partners/ Customers/ Influencers
SOURCES TO FIND INFORMATION ABOUT COMPETITOR:
Competitor’s advertising & brand positioning in search, social, display ads
Competitor’s Marketing Materials to know Messaging, product positioning, key benefits
Competitor’s website can tell their Marketing & sales strategies
Direct Observations in events & trade shows to walk side by side as a customer would
Earned & Paid Media coverage and where they are excelling
Customer Likes & Dislikes
Competitor's Annual Reports to know where they are investing resources, their vision & plan
Employees , Sales folks & Customer Service teams
Trade organizations , News letters & Magazines
Databases & reference guides
Additional business resources like D & B , s business Directory & Industrial Financial resource
Our network of family, friends & connections to understand their Sales, Marketing & Customer Experience
DETERMINE COMPETITOR STRENGTHS, WEAKNESS, UNFAIR ADVANTAGE & UNIQUE VALUE PROPOSITION:
Product Features & Benefits
Products , Solutions , Services Offered
Length in Industries
Customer Likes
Customer Dislikes
Market Share & Growth
Market Share
Pricing Structure
Sales Volume
Growth Rate
Channels & Promotions
External Channels Leveraged Search, Social, TV
Discounts & Promotions
Demo & Free Trials
Negotiations Strategy , Customer References
Financials & Revenue
Total Revenue
Profitability
Gross Product Margin
Operations , Overhead & Investment areas
Customer Experience
CSAT , NPS
Value & ROI Realized
24*7 Accessibility
Pricing Incentives & Loyalty Programs
Sales & Others
Internal Sales Cycle , Deal close rate & Duration
Goals & Strategies
Acquisitions & deals
New Technology & Research
DETERMINE OUR COMPANY STRENGTHS & WEAKNESS:
Transparency is key
Hire a 3rd party consultant
Utilize a marketing agency
Use mystery shoppers who go through your entire process to understand where u excel & your weakness
Goal is to document all customer interactions
Use Customer surveys to prove them about their experience and why they choose your product over competition
With this u will have “How u stack up against the competition”
Why to Research customer needs & wants?
Get into customer’s mindset with qualitative research
Support your data with quantitative data points
Why they choose your product
Price
Value
Incentives
How to Identify Competitor’s Goals ?
What are they trying to accomplish
What approach are they planning to take
This will help to develop counter strategies , increase market share & win the race and develop tactics to stop your competitor’s strategy from working
Thereby YOU ARE DEVELOPING A PRO ACTVE STRATEGY NOT A REACTIVE ONE & showcasing as a serious contender
Key Signals to pin point Competitor Strategy ?
New Markets :: Acquire different vertical companies
Increase market share :: Acquire competitors
Advanced Technology :: Technology hiring
Brand value :: Heavy marketing/branding investment
How to set your counter strategies ?
New partners
New licensing deals
Evaluate pricing & discounts
New technology research
Increase investments in Marketing/Sales/Service Areas
Watch intently the competition & stay ahead to entice prospects at every point with visionary strategies
Some Key Points to keep in mind to get exponential success leveraging Competitive Research:
Strategic Communication BOTH INTERNALLY & EXTERNALLY : Sharing the details about the Competitive Analysis done & findings to ALL KEY INTERNAL STAKEHOLDER GROUPS : MARKETING , SALES, SERVICE , FINANCE, ALL EMPLOYEES so that everyone knows & speaks the same information within & outside the company.
It’s NOT Static & Keeping it as updated as possible
Creating a Competitive Repository with all details & ACCESSIBLE TO ALL so that it can leveraged seamlessly.
For each Marketing Inbound & Outbound Campaigns, adding a QUICK STEP to validate the COMPETITION to increase effectiveness of targeting & conversion
For both Lead & ABM Programs, automatically sending the Targeted Industry Competitors along with BANT ( Budget , Authority, Need & Time ) to ADRs/REPs/Negotiators/Proposal Owners to reduce sales cycle.
PROACTIVE COMPARISON DISPLAY: In Social Media/Search & Display Ads, proactively presenting the CONTEXTUAL COMPARISON of key competitors TO PROSPECTS as anyway they will search for that info later
INFLUENCER MARKETING: Sharing the detail findings with key industry influencers as well to gain confidence & expanding their support
Innovative Competitive Strategies Ingrained with all Product/Marketing/Sales/Support Process will take the product success to altogether NEW EXPANDED LEVELs
More in next post !!!
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