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NextGen Competitive Analysis

Writer's picture: Sanjay PatelSanjay Patel

Updated: Jan 15, 2021




  • 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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©2022 by Sanjay Patel : Digital Marketing / GTM Leader : go2market.org universalprofile.org

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