There is almost no company whose activity is unique on the market. If your company is truly a monopoly, then you are either incredibly original or born under a lucky star. For most other companies, the availability of information is great, the product offerings are vast, and the market battle is relentless.
Today, you are not only facing local competition, but you have direct competitors from all meridians. With the help of the Internet, a large number of products are available all over the world. One of the biggest mistakes in business is being complacent, relaxing and underestimating the competition. While you sleep lulled in instant gratification and bask in your glory, the competition works and conquers. When you are part of a market match there is no period that you can sleep through. No matter how big and successful you are, you must not underestimate the competition.
Knowing the competition is one of the key elements for successful business and entering the market, as well as surviving on it. That is why it is important to know the competition and their way of working.
What a business needs to know about its competitors:
โข Who are the current and potential competitors?
โข What is their way of working?
โข What are their products like?
โข Who are their employees, what profile, how many professional staff do they have?
โข What is their financial strength?
โข What are their plans and strategies?
โข What is their goal?
โข How do they run social networks?
โข What are their competitive advantages and what are their weaknesses?
โข How are they organized?
โข Are they actively working on introducing new products and services?
โข What is their pricing policy?
โข Who are their customers?
โข How are they perceived by customers and suppliers?
โข What will be their reaction in case of activities undertaken by your company?
Stages in competitor analysis:
Where and how to gather information about competitors:
โข In the means of mass advertising. Follow your competition on radio, television, print media. Pay special attention to local media.
โข Social networks, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram. Follow them for what they do, how they advertise and what they promote as values.
โข LikedIn page. There you will find all the new information that your competition plans to launch on the market. You can also find former employees and new hires.
โข Sales team. If you have one in your company, try to collect detailed information from them. Analyze them well and separate the subjective elements.
โข On their websites. There you can get the necessary information about corporate values, the organization of the sales network, headquarters and business units… Companies very often provide a detailed description of the products, and sometimes complete catalogs with the production and sales range. If they have an online store on their website, you can also see the current prices. Often, the site also contains a list of references that includes the company’s key customers, who may also be your clients.
โข Visit fairs regularly. Come to their stand, see what they offer, how they promote their product, how they talk to customers and what their sales story is.
โข Be a mystery shopper. Visit competitors’ outlets and rate their customer service. Are they friendly and accommodating, what do they have to offer, what does their sales area look like, etc. Visit other outlets where competing products are sold, talk to the sales staff. Then you can directly see the products of your competitors and ask relevant questions about price, functionality, financing conditions, warranty period, method and delivery time…
โข You can buy a certain amount of competing products and use them as samples to analyze in the appropriate sectors in your company. Based on the research results, you will learn many new details about their design, reliability, way of functioning, handling…
โข One of the best and most useful sources of information are competitors’ clients. They can convey their impressions gained by using their products and services, as well as define the degree of satisfaction from the consumer’s point of view. Some will be willing to provide price information or specific offers they received from other bidders, in order to obtain the best possible conditions for themselves when making a new purchase.
โข You will learn a lot about the work of your competitors by following their job postings, then interviewing candidates who currently work for them or have worked for them in the past.
โข Part of the search for necessary information is entrusted to specialized marketing and other agencies. With them you can define the strategy, and the agency will be able to do the research for you.
From all the collected information, after their detailed analysis, specific activities should be implemented, which will contribute to the greater success of the company in the marketing of products and services.
If the information is not used adequately, it is a complete waste of time and money spent to secure it.
